GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



two poor dogs have to be killed to provide food for their mates ; 

 they give a poor meal with scanty nourishment, but nevertheless 

 they constitute "some belly-fill," to keep life in those which 

 have to push on. 



WEATHER-BOUND IN A SNOWSTORM 



I have not been in the mood for scribbling in my diary, and 

 during the last two days I have kept exclusively to meteoro- 

 logical observations, which four times during night and day 

 pleasantly checks our time. 



The weather and the bad state of the ground persecute us 

 systematically. There is snow in abundance, through which 

 we must toil our way ; on the last journey we found snow up 

 to 1 metre deep and had to put skis under the runners of the 

 sledges. The loose snow which freezes into balls under the 

 paws of the dogs treats them much worse than does hunger ; 

 in their attempts to cleanse their painful paws, which may be 

 so full of hard ice lumps that the toes become quite distended, 

 they bite, like the little lemming I recently described, big 

 bleeding wounds in their paws which leave a trail of blood in 

 the snow. This affliction is the chief reason for the diffieulty 

 we have in driving them ahead, and it quite unnerves them. 



And now travelling conditions are to be still worse ! The 

 snowstorm begins on the 5th, and on the 6th it rages with in- 

 creased violence ; and the snow gathers in big, deep drifts 

 where the sledges will stick when we have to continue our 

 journey. 



There is nothing for it — we must, like the little saxifrage 

 which sometimes winters in full bloom, sleep everything away 

 and let the storm pass over us as if we did not exist ; later on 

 we shall have time enough to face its consequences. 



On the 7th of June the storm seems still on the increase ; 

 the snow' whips against the canvas of our tent, the squall 

 threatens to tear it to rags. Our ten still living dogs are lying 

 outside in the snow, and they seem to have a difficulty in recon- 

 ciling themselves to all this adversity. We dare not kill any 

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