CHAPTER XXXIII. 



HOME TO THE ' FKAM.' 



AT five o'clock, on the morning of June 5, we started homewards. 

 Thick ' shell-ice ' had formed on all the puddles and pools along 

 the fjord, and this in places bore the dogs, though at others it let 

 them through to some little depth. Between all these pools, too, 

 the slush was thick and bottomless, and the teams sank in deeply. 

 In a word, the going for the first part of the way was almost 

 impracticable both for men and dogs. 



We took a course for the pass or neck across Ulvingen, and 

 as we approached the island later in the afternoon saw, close under 

 land, a bear with two cubs coming slantwise out towards us. We 

 could see that the bear was manoeuvring to wind us, and I therefore 

 took my precautions and tried to hinder it from doing this. But 

 the dogs were so footsore and absent-minded that I could not get 

 enough speed out of them. No sooner had the bears scented us 

 than they took to their legs, and hid themselves behind some 

 hummocks. I went after them, but then they set off west. The 

 dogs, however, pulled so hard that I supposed they had observed 

 the animals, and I therefore let them go, but I was mistaken ; 

 they ran a little way, and then stopped altogether. They 

 behaved so indescribably badly at this time that I was well-nigh 

 distracted by them, and all I could do now was to catch them, 

 one by one, and harness them again. 



We drove up the bay, and brought our loads across the iieck 

 and down to the sound on the other side. A little way from land 

 no thaw had yet taken place. Here we made good progress, and 

 three miles or so outside the neck found a first-rate camping- 

 ground up on the crack. While Schei was collecting specimens, 



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