302 NEW LAND. 



reached with the harpoon from the ice-foot, we had therefore 

 to take to the boat. It was a merry manceuvre ! It would not do 

 for men and boats to be made of glass. Eight men with the boat 

 between them shoot out and over the perpendicular wall of ice. 

 The instant the boat touches the water, on the point of careening, 

 four of us throw ourselves into it, and, half-full of water, it rides 

 out from the crack. But no one has a thought for anything but the 

 catch ; the harpooner is in his place, and the next moment comes 

 the cry from the bows : ' Fish fast ! ' "We had a proper ducking 

 that evening, every man of us. 



We captured two animals, and towed then! in to the ice-foot, 

 where we let them lie till high water. During the night we turned 

 out, cut them up, and fed the dogs. 



For the time being the way out to Jones Sound was closed 

 by drifting ice, but we supposed that when the tide turned the 

 channel would clear. The day after the walrus-catching we left 

 the dredgers and went to Ytre Eide, where we stayed for two days 

 to shoot birds in the little bay there. There were myriads of 

 them there, mostly eider-duck and geese. Schei captured a 

 bearded seal which was lying on the ice ; another one which he 

 shot in the water was lost. 



From Ytre Eide we drove straight across the fjord to its east 

 side, and camped there in a big valley. The weather was 

 brilliantly fine, and the snow melted with amazing rapidity. 

 Across the fjord there was not a flake left on the ice, though 

 there was plenty of water; and the dogs were all but swimming 

 in it. Wading-tinie had come round again in earnest. We 

 raised our tent on the beach close by a large stream, which ran 

 through the valley. The mountains on the other side of the 

 valley were what we wished to examine, but the stream was both 

 broad and deep, and although we managed to cross it well enough 

 in a way, the water reached to our belts. 



We remained there a day or two, and had our hands full in 

 chipping out and transporting fossils. There were multitudes to 

 choose from, and Schei seemed never to have enough ; he would 

 have liked to take the whole mountain, if he could have done so. 

 Now and again we struck work, and went off to try our luck with 



