198 NEW LAND. 



kind, but especially about wolf-shooting. He had already been 

 near some on two occasions, and had once fired at one, though 

 without bringing off his shot. He now tried repeatedly to set me 

 on to the wolves; at first without success, as I thought it was 

 only throwing away time. In the end, however, I consented to 

 have a shot at them. 



Schei then drove on both the teams, while I went behind a 

 small iceberg, and began to stalk the beasts ; but to get within 

 reasonable range of them was impossible. I saw I should have 

 to risk a shot at them, even though I was likely to shoot wide. 

 I accordingly took a very full sight, and aimed so high that I 

 only saw the top of the wolf's back, and when the animal turned 

 broadside on for a moment I let drive. At almost the same 

 time I heard a howl like a dog's ; up jumped ' Greylegs ' into 

 the air, and came spinning round and round down the hill- 

 side, like a top, until he reached the flat ground. There 

 he fell over, not to rise again. I came up in time to hear 

 him draw his last breath. I then knotted my 'ski '-strap 

 round the fellow's neck, and marched off with him down to 

 the ice. He was a huge beast, in his prime, and it was as 

 much as I could do to drag him along in the loose snow. 

 And such a mouth and teeth ! They were almost like those 

 of a young bear of tolerable size. Schei had kept an eye 

 on things, and when the animal fell came driving up. 

 We hastily skinned the carcase, and flung the flesh to the 

 dogs, but not one of them would touch it. Even ' Mosaiken ' 

 wrinkled his nose, shook his head, and said, 'Xo, thank 

 you ; ' and he was by no means dainty on the contrary, he 

 ate like a pony. He rivalled 'the Tiger,' nay, even greatly 

 surpassed him as a thief, for whereas ' Tiger ' was a bungler who 

 was always found out, 'Mosaiken' was a scheming Laban, cunning 

 as an accomplished pickpocket. His speciality was filching 

 stock-fish and meat from the sledge in front of him without 

 disturbing the load, as dogs generally do, much less letting 

 anything fall. 



While all this was going on, the other wolf retired a couple of 

 hundred yards, but sat down again a little farther off; there we 



