HEUREKA ! 205 



a largish fjord cut far into the land south-east of a point which 

 Fosheim named ' Isfjeldodden,' or ' Iceberg Point.' 



While I was taking our bearings and rounds of angles Schei 

 hammered and dug among the rocks. After my work was finished 

 on the point, we went down to the ice-foot, and started to go up 

 the level country a little south of the camp. Our first thought 

 was ruins of Eskimo habitation ; and down by the shore we really 

 found five tent-rings and some remains of fox-traps. 



We parted company at a little river, and Schei went inwards 

 to the east of it, while I followed the west side. In due course I 

 came to a lake and walked about round it for a while to look for 

 vegetation ; but there was hardly a plant to be seen, notwith- 

 standing that the wind had so swept the country that there was 

 scarcely a suowflake left on it. 



Some way inland I struck a more easterly direction, ascended 

 some high ground, and finally came down into a valley where 

 there was a good deal of vegetation and numbers of hare-tracks. 

 I had not been walking long before I saw two hares coming 

 towards me across the level ground. They were at their old tricks 

 again, and were running on two legs. If the hares up here go on 

 like this, who is to foresee the result ? Perhaps somebody coming 

 here a thousand years hence will find them with rudimentary fore- 

 legs and only their hind-legs for use. 



They were coming at such a pace now that I knew it must be 

 that wretched Schei who was frightening them. I soon saw him 

 corning in the direction whence the hares had appeared. The 

 latter, meanwhile, had begun to browse on some flat ground. I 

 went up to Schei, and we agreed that he must go within close 

 range to be sure of hitting them, as he had only a carbine, and, 

 with such a weapon, one must be pretty steady-handed not to 

 shoot wide. 



The plain made a bend here, like a long wave a regular 

 Atlantic roller. Slowly, and with exceeding caution, Schei 

 crawled forward prone to the earth. Then he steadied himself 

 with both arms on the ground, and aimed. I would have laid a 

 hundred to one on a miss here, for to shoot along the ground like 

 this is exceedingly deceptive. The projectile, which must just 



