HOME TO THE < FRAM.' 401 



for them. But then a large river brought us to a sudden standstill ; 

 all our attempts to cross it were unsuccessful, and this was reason- 

 able enough. It was a good hundred yards wide, the bottom was 

 covered with ice of the most slippery kind, and the stream was so 

 swift that it looked like a single continuous waterfall. We had no 

 objection to getting a little wet, but to start off here with sledges 

 and dogs would have been certain destruction. Once more we had 

 to try the Lapp's advice and ' go round ' the river. To go up to its 

 source would perhaps have been rather a long excursion, but it was 

 only three or four miles to the sea, and there must be an end even 

 to this monster river. 



But things were not as we had imagined. Nearly everywhere 

 the land was bare, and on the ice-foot lay water several feet deep. 

 We drove backwards and forwards several times, and went a long 

 way round before we were able to ford it, and even then the dogs 

 had several times to swim. We followed the crack southwards 

 along the sea-ice, but such a thick fog came on that we could 

 hardly see each other. We drove without knowing where we were 

 going, and ended by landing on a sandbank, where we decided to 

 camp, hardly as much as a mile from the place where we had first 

 been stopped by the river. 



Schei had now been driving ahead at times, as his dogs were 

 less footsore than mine. ' Lillemor,' 'Kex,' and 'Veslegulen' 

 pulled nearly as well as ever in spite of their tender paws, 

 but ' Svartflekken' and ' Gammelgulen ' had quite given in. I 

 had tried making sailcloth socks for the dogs, but they were 

 not a great success, as the spring ice cut holes in them at 

 once. 



If only we could reach Store Bjornekap, the dogs should have 

 a good rest; and there too we should have to procure food for 

 ourselves, as the meat was nearly all gone again. 



With much toil and trouble, and after many detours, we 

 managed to wind our way along the ice-foot, past the mouths of 

 all the big rivers, where as a rule the ice-foot was eaten away. 

 When we saw geese, which happened several times, Schei generally 

 did the shooting. We had better luck this year ; the geese were 

 not so hard to shoot as they had been the year before. 

 VOL. n. 2 D 



