206 NEW LAND. 



clear the ground, generally ends by going too high, and besides, in 

 strong sunlight, as there was then, the atmosphere always quivers, 

 and the size of the object is exaggerated. 



I stood still to await results. Would the hares remain sitting, 

 or would they run away ? 



At last ! There was a report. What happened was exactly 

 what I expected. The hares reared, looked round, astonished, and 

 stood a while on their hind legs. Schei lay as still as a drowned 

 mouse. The hares soon settled down again, and began to browse 

 anew. 



A little while, and exactly the same performance ! The 

 animals up here are so used to the cracking and crashing of the 

 ice that they think nothing of a report. Then one of the hares 

 began to hop towards Schei, and every time he blazed at it, it 

 came a little nearer, nibbling a blade of grass here, or a leaf 

 there, precisely as if nobody was present. 



What shooter geologist or otherwise would not be beside 

 himself at this sort of thing ? Schei lay and shot and swore 

 till the sparks flew off him up on the ridge, while I was convulsed 

 with laughing. When the hares were twenty or thirty paces 

 off, Schei discovered the reason why he was shooting all over the 

 place in this way, and raised himself so far that he no longer shot 

 along the ground. Then he picked off the hare, and sighted for 

 the other, which he killed at the first shot. 



We had now two brace of hares, as he had killed one brace 

 already. We skinned them, and turned our faces homewards. 



