THE CAMP BY THE OWL'S NEST 



more, or we shall he left without effective teams. Hunting 

 in this storm is unthinkable. 



TENT DUTY WITH SENTIMENTS FROM DENMARK 



At last! At last the sun had mercy on us and appeared 

 with a clear blue sky, quite early in the morning. About two 

 o'clock we dug ourselves out from the tent and made our pre- 

 parations for the hunt, and for a reconnoitring expedition which 

 Koch and Ajako were to undertake. We were lying deep in 

 big snowdrifts, so that only the ridge of our tent was visible ; 

 it was like mid-winter and nothing around us bore witness to 

 the fact that we were already far into June, the loveliest and 

 mildest of all the summer months. 



Nothing could be seen of our sledges. Only the points of 

 the uprights stuck out, and of the dogs merely the contours of 

 their bodies could be suspected in the snow. Their quietness 

 was uncanny and showed, unfortunately, that not one of them 

 had spirit enough left in it to gnaw at the traces, or to go out 

 robbing between the sledges and the tent. They had given up 

 entirely and were now trying merely to keep warm, rolled up 

 in a ring with heads buried between legs and tail. 



At four o'clock Koch and Ajako set out. I had to remain 

 keeping watch over dogs and tent ; the latter would be torn to 

 strips if under these conditions the dogs were left without con- 

 trol for a day. Fain would I have exchanged yet another night 

 and day of inactivity for my comrades' lot ; but someone must 

 do the miserable job. 



For a long time I stood in the drifting snow looking after 

 my departing friends. Koch was to chart the inner reaches of 

 the fjord, whilst Ajako hunted in an attempt to save the sad 

 remainder of our dogs. 



At an even march they go in along the fjord, where stormy 

 clouds are yet drifting round the thunder-split peaks. One of 

 them is on skis, and slowly they glide through the loose new 

 drifts. Ajako, the undaunted hunter whose straight back and 

 lithe movements plainly reveal that he has not yet given up 

 I 129 



