GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



very short rations to live upon if we are not to attack our depot, 

 so far sacred as a reserve for the return journey. 



Koch lay down immediately after our arrival, and all 

 through the day he has had high fever, which has further 

 enfeebled him. He is in a bad way, though some improvement 

 is noticed towards evening after a good sound sleep. However 

 much we wish to get away from this place, which offers no 

 possibilities for existence, I dare not continue with Koch in his 

 present state. We must therefore kill more dogs and calmly 

 wait for better times. The snow sings softly but uncannily on 

 the canvas ; it falls in fine, close flakes which for every hour that 

 goes make travelling conditions worse. But the mood conse- 

 quent on these happenings, when everything seems to go con- 

 trary to our wishes, finds a natural outlet in a little verse of 

 Sophus Clausen : 



For such is life up and down, 

 And such is life out and in, 

 And he who nothing better knows 

 Must take his lot with an open mind. 



The following day we have to lie up again ; the weather clears 

 up beautifully, but although we make repeated excursions 

 inland we find no game. Neither does any seal crawl up on the 

 ice, so to-day we have to shoot three dogs — three poor, lean 

 dogs. 



With a heavy heart I have to shoot old Miteq — " the Eider- 

 duck " — the oldest one in my team ; a patient and industrious 

 animal which dragged until it tottered with exhaustion between 

 the traces. It was probably the most faithful one in the team, 

 therefore the most worn-out and the one which, with its skinny 

 carcase, must serve to satiate its comrades. 



Poor Eiderduck ! 



I would fain have given it a safe return and an old age free 

 of cares. Through Hall Basin and the destructive pressure-ice 

 of Robeson Channel, across the heavily gravelled ice-foot 

 between Cape Brevoort and Cape Bryan, and at last through 

 the bottomless snow of Sherard Osborne Fjord, it has worked 

 patiently and steadily. It reached Nares Land and ate as much 

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