A POLAR IDYL. 181 



so it appeared to me, for they made the greatest commotion about 

 it. They pushed and fought and bit each other till they screamed 

 aloud, all the time slowly revolving, something like a millstone. 

 This was the square of the Arctic hares ! 



After I had watched them for a while at ten or twelve paces, 

 I turned off round them in order not to frighten them quite 

 out of their wits ; and after I had gone a little way I saw on 

 looking back that they had begun to disperse about the hill, and 

 were browsing again. 



I now put on my ' ski ' and set off as hard as I could for camp. 

 Round about me, both before and after I passed the narrow canon, 

 the slopes were swarming with hares, which were out foraging. 

 When I reached camp, at about half-past seven in the evening, I 

 found the dogs hard at work gnawing some frozen meat which they 

 had been given. They had made a clean sweep of everything 

 else in the morning. 



We drove on next day at our usual time; again passed the 

 herd at about the same place where I had seen it before, and 

 were soon down through the narrow canon, although now and 

 again we had to put ourselves, all four, to the sledges to bring 

 them across the stony ground. 



A little farther on we drove past a polar herd on the other side 

 of the valley. Some of the animals were standing on a precipice ; 

 others were climbing up and down the steep stony slopes, looking 

 like flies on a wall. When we were right under them they formed 

 up on the precipice and stood glaring down at us. 



It might be thought that in a country like this, teeming with 

 both ground game and big game, there would also be a great 

 number of beasts of prey, but this was by no means the case ; and 

 neither in Vendomfjord nor on Troldfjordeidet did we ever see 

 the track of a wolf. Indeed, everything indicated that the latest 

 ' wolf period' existed in times far back. If ever a new immigration 

 takes place, they will very soon reduce the edible game up here. 

 All these hare-tracks were one of the most extraordinary things 

 I had ever seen ; never could I have imagined that their pads 

 would be capable of making such enormous runs ! 



The farther we went the more numerous were the hares, and 



