GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



engaged in lashing our sledge afresh. As is well known, all 

 transoms are tied to the runners with leather straps, and when 

 these are immersed in water too long, they soften and give so 

 that the lashings loosen and the whole sledge falls to pieces — as 

 a rule, of course, where the water is deepest ! To lash a sledge 

 takes an hour's time and is laborious and tedious work, especi- 

 ally so when the hands are numb. 



Whilst we were bent over the unloaded sledge, and strug- 

 gled to tighten the wet straps, which were difficult to handle, 

 new life was suddenly put into the crowd ahead. They had 

 been lying tired and dead on the sledges, but now they began 

 to jump about like mad, and both Harrigan and Ajako ran far 

 out to the side, jumped high into the air, flung their arms about 

 and slapped their thighs, all of which are Eskimo signs of some 

 unusual happening. 



Bosun and I looked at each other for a moment incredu- 

 lously, without saying a word ; for this could mean one thing 

 only. But as we stood there staring, not quite daring to believe 

 that for which we had hoped more than anything else, Bosun 

 sensibly delivered himself of the relieving sentence : 



• ' One does not cheat hungry and wet comrades who are 

 toiling ahead through the water !" 



In the same moment we both gave vent to a bellowing shout : 



"Musk-oxen!" 



The sledge was finished in a twinkling, and as rapidly as the 

 bad going permitted we were up on the ice after our comrades. 



All faces beamed ; what we had guessed was really true. 

 We ourselves took the glasses to see. Off a small glacier tongue 

 in McMillan Valley, on a ridge towards our old spring camp, 

 a herd of grazing musk-oxen was plainly visible. 



We embraced each other and behaved like lunatics. No 

 dignity here ! For what we saw meant not merely food in 

 plenty for ourselves and the dogs, but also implied rest and 

 drying of our clothes for some days in the beautiful valley, which 

 must now be in its full summer garments. 



With great difficulty we covered the last piece of the way ; 

 under favourable conditions it would have been done in an hour, 

 168 



