TOWARDS THE SOUTH ! TOWARDS THE SOUTH ! 229 



seal steaks were excellent at supper ; it was many a day since we 

 had had seal's-flesh in the frying-pan, and it is then that it tastes 

 best. 



Schei had found much in the mountains round about that it 

 would be of interest to investigate further, and we decided to give 

 up the following day to this work. 



But such weather as we woke up to on Whit Monday ! It was 

 as much as we could do to stamp our way through the driving- 

 snow, and we could hardly open an eye, but, all the same, we 

 struggled up to the heights on the west side of the fjord. There 

 we dug among the rocks in some narrow valleys where there was 

 a little shelter from the wind ; but it was not the sort of weather to 

 do much in, and I do not think it was with any very fat spoils 

 that we came creeping slowly back to camp, about four in the 

 afternoon. 



Since the shooting of the seal, the dogs had lived like fighting- 

 cocks on meat and blubber. Their muzzles had been taken off so 

 that they could eat when they liked, and they had spent their time 

 in a pre-eminently enjoyable manner. Notwithstanding that they 

 had food in abundance, they had of course to gnaw themselves 

 loose or else they would not have been happy. But they were now 

 above biting through a single trace, and nothing satisfied them but 

 to gnaw through the connecting lanyard. They had discovered 

 that, this once parted, the whole pack was loose ; or rather, I would 

 say, that the devil himself was loose. One could never be certain 

 what they would do next. As a rule, they lay down at once, secure 

 in their freedom ; but if they winded game there was every likeli- 

 hood of an immediate stampede and subsequent absence for several 

 days, and we had no time to waste on this sort of thing. 



Towards early morning the wind dropped somewhat, and we 

 got ready to make a start. While we were cooking breakfast, we 

 heard two glaucous gulls screaming outside the tent. They are 

 supposed to be a sign of spring, but the weather felt anything but 

 spring-like. Their appearance, however, was not so very remark- 

 able, for the glaucous gull is a hardy bird, and flies far afield. A 

 thing more remarkable was that, while we were sitting inside the 

 tent on Whit Monday evening, we heard the cackling of a flock of 



