DE LONG FJORD TO CAPE SALOR 



favoured us ; tor after some hours of toilsome travelling through 

 snow and water, we skirted a little low headland where we were 

 literally stranded, because none of us could manage any more. 

 We climbed the mountains so as to view the neighbourhood, 

 and there we discovered to our surprise that some seals were 

 lying outside our accidental camp. It was the first time such 

 fortune had smiled on us, for the seals we had caught up to now 

 were solitary animals. We immediately tried hunting, and in 

 the course of a few hours we had shot three big, fat seals. Now 

 was our opportunity to feed without stint, and the dogs soon 

 lay with distended stomachs struggling for breath out of sheer 

 satiety. In addition the generous land, which is called Blue 

 Point, presented us with three hares and some ptarmigan. 



We consistently continued our fattening cure. It would 

 be of no avail to continue hunting, as we could not transport 

 any more through the difficult snow ; but we looked upon our 

 future fate with confidence. In happy gratitude we erected a 

 memorial to the old Eskimo myth bv calling this strip of land 

 "The Flesh-pot." 



In the baking sun nobody could be bothered to pitch the 

 tent. We spread our sleeping-skins across some oblong hollows 

 which, filled with cassiope, provided the softest of beds for 

 weary bodies. We only managed to smoke our pipes before we 

 dropped to sleep. A flock of ptarmigan settled down cackling 

 near the sledges, but no one had any thought of killing. 



WE MEET OUR COMRADES 



June 28th. — Ever since we left de Long Fjord our thoughts 

 had constantly been occupied with the fate of our comrades ; their 

 train of tottering starved men and dogs had been a cheerless 

 sight. If they did not soon meet with good hunting they would 

 probably lose all their dogs, and this would be an additional 

 difficulty for the return journey. 



It was close to this camp that we had last met them, and, 

 as the decision was that they should make for the whirlpool and 

 attempt to catch seals there, we expected to find a message from 

 them somewhere in the vicinity. But we vainly examined all con- 



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