HUNTING FOR WINTER FOOD. 331 



but no small game would venture out in such weather. However, I 

 think that most likely the wolves had frightened it away, for, when 

 the wolves have been about, the game vanishes for several days, 

 even if it has been swarming beforehand. A hare, a few ptarmigan, 

 a harbour seal, and a few eiders were the whole of our bag. 



When the fog lifted the next morning we saw for certain that 

 there was a considerable amount of open water across Norskebugten 

 towards Graham Island ; and we thought we could ^ee a good deal 

 of water northward, towards Heureka Sound. Along the land 

 was a mass of drifting ice, but it was fairly slack, and it would 

 not have been difficult to cross to the island. But so late in the 

 autumn as it now was, we should, if all this ice closed, be in 

 danger of being beset with the boat. The young ice formed so 

 quickly that, in a couple of hours' time, it was impossible to row 

 through it. We resigned ourselves, therefore, and decided in 

 favour of the sound. 



In order to avoid the drift-ice, we were obliged to hug the shore. 

 Despite the tearing current, the ' shell-ice ' was so thick that we 

 had great trouble in pushing the boat through it. Happily, the 

 stream was with us, so that we made fair headway south, and, 

 when a breeze sprang up from the north, we sailed at good speed 

 through the sound, and lauded towards evening in Eenbugten. 

 There we went shooting, and came across the tracks of nine rein- 

 deer. We followed them up the valley, saw that the animals had 

 gone south across the mountains, and were soon compelled to give 

 up the pursuit. The whole of our bag was a solitary hare. 



The high north wind continued next day, and sent us one 

 violent squall after another, in a temperature of 9 Fahr. ( 13 

 Cent.). Drift and scud hid all the hummocks and pleasant things 

 which were floating with the tide, so that we were hardly aware 

 of them before we were running our noses into them. A little 

 way north of Spoekodden we were stopped altogether, and 

 had to possess our souls in patience and wait awhile, till we 

 could lay in to land to fetch the sledges and fossils we had left 

 there. The wind increased briskly, and when we passed the 

 point ' Donning-Hansen ' * it had freshened so much that we 



* The steward's name for the old romance ' Donninghausen.' 



