372 NEW LAND. 



condition, we had managed to make seventeen or eighteen miles 

 every day since we turned back. 



We saw that we -should soon be very much put to it for 

 food if we did not shoot game before we had gone much farther 

 down Heureka Sound, and resolved on a different division of 

 our time. Each spell was now to consist of six hours, with a 

 twelve hours' rest between. In this way we got in on an average 

 three spells in the forty-eight hours, and could thus cover consider- 

 ably longer distances in the week than we had been able to do before. 

 This, of course, was very hard work, both for men and dogs. For 

 the latter at first it was not so bad, as they were able to have their 

 resting-tiuie undisturbed. We, on the other hand, had to camp, 

 feed the dogs, cook our food, and take all the observations ; besides 

 which Schei, at every camping-place, had to look for stones and 

 plants. All this would have mattered little enough if only the 

 weather had been better, but there was not much to be said 

 for it. 



When the fog lifted now and again we caught a glimpse of our 

 old friend Kvitberg. It is surrounded by lowlands, and looks very 

 much like an island. It towers high up above its surroundings, 

 and is imposing from its bold outlines as well as from its height. 

 The slopes on the east side where it rises from the sea are less 

 abrupt, and are entirely covered with snow, its steepest declivities 

 being towards the north-west. 



We pushed on as well as we could, and every mile we went 

 looked with more and more impatience for game. The land had 

 changed its character, and seemed now as if it ought to be a fairly 

 good game country. Small sheltered fjords cut into the land, 

 and pretty valleys ran a long way inland to the west, and from 

 these it could not be very far across to the fjords on the west 

 coast. 



Progress on the ice was difficult. We had to keep the whole 

 time to the crack, and for long distances were obliged to creep 

 along by the side of the ice-foot and carefully follow all its twists 

 and turns. 



On May 12, after we had been driving for three or four hours, 

 Schei discovered through the glasses, far inland, a herd of twelve or 



