ACROSS MELTING ICE TO SUMMER VALLEY 



divided into three parties, and before the musk-oxen had dis- 

 covered us, we stood before them on three sides as if shot up 

 from the ground. 



The musk-oxen lay ruminating ; they now arose without 

 haste and took up their usual fighting position, the famous 

 square with a front to all sides. Thus they remained standing 

 without making the slightest attempt at flight, whilst we on our 

 side had the greatest difficulty in holding back the two wolf- 

 dogs, which wanted to spring on to them. 



There were five bulls, and they all accepted the position 

 with dignified calmness ; their great shiny eyes stared at us 

 without fear, and they contented themselves with an occa- 

 sional almost contemptuous twist of the corners of their 

 mouths. 



To us they seemed phantastical in their enormous size, be- 

 cause for such a long time we had been used to the sight of hares 

 and lemmings only. They were in the midst of shedding their 

 coats, and the loose wool, which appears to come off in big 

 cakes, lay across the manes and backs as bunches of mourning 

 crepe. Occasionally they breathed deeply through their enor- 

 mous nostrils, and blew wheezingly out into the air. Then they 

 would, as if in impatience, beat a hoof against the soil so that 

 small stones flew about our ears. Otherwise they remained 

 quiet, making no attempt to attack. 



As the rare and occasional hunts had given us no good op- 

 portunity for photography, all the three of us — Koch, Wulff 

 and myself — took our position and snapped. More patient 

 clients no photographer could have wished for, notwithstanding 

 the fact that we did our work very thoroughly. We took them 

 from all sides and angles, from a distance of from 2 to 10 metres, 

 profile, full-face, whole-figure, half-length, and only when we 

 had finished did we pass sentence of death. 



First we made an attempt to drive them further down to- 

 wards the tent, so that it would be easier for us to carry the meat 

 down to the sea-ice. We went, still with the dogs on leash, 

 close up and began to throw stones at them. At first they 

 seemed surprised and indignant over this treatment, which 



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