182 NEW LAND. 



later in the afternoon, when we reached the lower valley, they 

 seemed to be conjured forth from the slopes as if by magic. There 

 were such legions of them, and they scurried about so in all 

 directions, along the valley and backwards and forwards across it, 

 that the dogs became absolutely unmanageable. It was impossible 

 to keep them in check ; they gave chase time after time ; and the 

 hares themselves were so dazed that they had not the wit to keep 

 out of the way. They did not appear to be afraid ; they hopped 

 about only a few yards in front of the teams. At last, after the 

 dogs had bolted after them time and again, we finally landed in 

 the steep bank of a river. It was impossible for the dogs to drag 

 the sledges up on to the grass at the top, but as each team was 

 determined to pass the other, the end of it was that the whole 

 caravan stuck fast, sledge by sledge, under the top of the bank, 

 the dogs themselves just managing to reach the grass. There they 

 sat down on their haunches, and let the sledges dangle down the 

 bank. 



As if to incite the dogs to the utmost, the hares came and 

 settled down a few yards from them, and then stood on two legs 

 and stared at us. The dogs yelped and snapped and made a 

 shocking clamour, and the hares ? They never moved from the 

 spot ! What were we to do with them ? We had shot quite as 

 many as we wanted to eat, and had no wish to destroy them 

 uselessly, but they had to be got rid of somehow. 



We made up our minds to raid the valley, and clear these 

 tiresome vagrants from under our feet, for it was impossible to 

 drive with the country swarming with them in this way. After a 

 good deal of trouble we succeeded in driving away the greater 

 number, and were able at last to go on. 



After a while we came down to a large wild valley, which ran 

 about north-west and south-east. It was so absolutely flat that for 

 a time we took it to be a fjord, but when we saw numbers of large 

 stones projecting above the snow, our doubts were quite dispelled. 

 We drove out through this big valley, past numbers of hare-tracks 

 and herd after herd of polar cattle grazing on the grass among the 

 precipices, and took a line for the east shore. 



There must be a superabundance of water here at flood-time. 



