HEUREKA ! 189 



Straight across the sound, southward towards ' Storoen,' or 

 ' Great Island' as we called the largest island in Storfjord and 

 as far north as we could see, the waterway was covered with 

 pressed-up autumn ice, horribly difficult to make one's way in, 

 apparently, but little we cared for that. We had looked into the 

 promised land. We gave a sigh of relief, one and all, and were as 

 happy as children over it. 



There was no doubt that we must have a drain in honour of 

 the occasion. Out with the bottle ! Schei and I had forgotten 

 to bring any spirits from the ship, so Fosheirn and the mate 

 had to treat us, and they did it with pleasure. Hardly any one 

 of us was in doubt, I think, but that this was the best day he had 

 experienced on the whole expedition. The strain of late had been 

 excessive. More than once we had lost courage at the thought 

 of all the unavailing and impracticable ground we had found 

 ourselves obliged to travel over. And what had we not hazarded 

 in order to attain it ! Six teams and six teams mean a good 

 deal to an expedition like ours. Had we not reached here I should 

 almost have considered our spring season wasted. 



Fosheim was again ready with a name ; it had probably been 

 simmering for some time, for he had it pat to the moment, before 

 any one else had time to make a suggestion. He called the sound 

 ' Heureka Sund,' and that is the name it has kept. 



The ice being so difficult along the east side of the sound, 

 we took a diagonal line to the west shore, and camped that evening 

 about half-way across. 



We had seen numbers of bear-tracks all the day, even hard- 

 trodden ones on the top of a small iceberg which we mounted to 

 get a view. Probably it was an outlook of the bears, although it 

 was not the only purpose they put it to, for we plainly saw that 

 they were in the habit of coasting down the sides. 



We saw likewise numerous wolf-tracks, and during the night 

 the dogs turned us out. Schei emerged from our tent; Eaanes 

 from the other. Some way off on the ice they saw two white 

 animals, which at first they took to be bears, but on closer in- 

 spection they became wolves. They kept well out of range, 

 however, and at last went off south. 



