260 NEW LAND/ 



was by no means amiss. In it were myriads of eider-duck, long- 

 tailed duck, and gulls of divers kinds ; though the eiders formed 

 the majority. There was such a splashing and flapping, mewing 

 and screaming, that one could hardly hear the sound of one's 

 own voice. It was not without ground that we christened it 

 ' Bird Fjord.' 



Outside the fjord the snow was better going, and we made 

 rapid progress. The seal lay strewn in long rows along the ice, 

 particularly at the edges of the lanes, and the dogs pulled as if 

 they were crazy, for in the slack south-west breeze they could 

 wind first one seal and then another, all the way we went. The 

 bears had been here too, wandering about between the seals. 



That day happened a thing which had never occurred before : 

 the dogs all but caught a seal alive. It was lying peacefully by 

 the side of a lead, but down in a hollow, so that we did not see it 

 until we were close on to it. The seal lifted its head and glared 

 at us; the dogs made for it forthwith, and before the seal had 

 time to collect itself, were close to it. As bad luck would have it, 

 however, the animal was lying on the opposite side of the lead, so 

 that a little time passed before the dogs had jumped across, and 

 this it was which saved the seal. Had it been lying on the same 

 side, I am very sure it would soon have been done to death. It 

 was quite a small harbour seal, and the dogs would undoubtedly 

 have prevented it from taking to the water. 



They looked rather taken aback when they saw it dive under, 

 and then hung over the edge and stared down after it as if they 

 expected it to come up again. They were hardly to be moved 

 from the spot ; but when we set off again, and they scented a new 

 seal, their sorrow was healed. 



The seals seemed to be in a very casual frame of mind that 

 day ; they seldom took to the water before the last moment. It 

 was not till we had stopped the dogs, and they began their yelping, 

 that the animals grew frightened. We managed to shoot a harbour 

 seal from the sledge during the course of the day, without stalking 

 it, but this was confessedly a fluke. When we went up to fetch 

 the animal we had shot, we found another seal, quite a little fellow, 

 lying dead down by the same hole. 



