GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



SUMMER VALLEY 



July llth-lMh. — As soon as our clothes were once more fit 

 to use after the wading trip of the previous day, we all went into 

 the mountains with the dogs leashed; they were to go "into 

 the country " for four days to regain their strength, and during 

 that time they would be allowed to eat as much of solid meat as 

 they could get down ; they were to laze, gorge, and grow fat. 



To the uninitiated it may perhaps seem that sledge travellers 

 are inconsiderate and cruel to their animals. Maybe that now 

 and then we have to harden our hearts towards them when, 

 during heavy going, they throw up the sponge and refuse to 

 proceed ; but what else can one do under such circumstances but 

 harden one's heart and force the poor beasts ahead ? It is surely 

 to their own interest that we should get them as quickly as 

 possible across bad ground. If a tired dog is cut loose, it will 

 simply lie down on the spot to die without making any attempt 

 to follow. And even if now and then we do treat our dogs 

 harshly — under conditions when we ourselves are no better off — 

 nobody is more happy than we are when for a period we are 

 able to give the faithful animals a holiday and leave them to 

 enjoy the pleasures of the present in excessive gourmandizing. 

 So we then select a well-watered and sheltered place for them, 

 preferably by a small brook with fertile and soft ground along 

 its banks ; here all their food is brought to them and they have 

 full compensation for all the evil days we have forced them to 

 live through. 



Unfortunately such days appear only as oases in a desert, 

 where generally one must fight for existence from day to day. 

 But then no driver shirks the longest and most strenuous hunt 

 to procure game ; and if hunting fails, he will as a rule share 

 with his team the crumbs destined for his own pot. 



Our eighteen dogs, then, the remains of the seventy with 

 which we arrived up here, were to spend a few days in lazy 

 abundance, wherefore they were taken up into Summer Valley 

 to a place where Ajako had his meat depot of the six oxen. 

 First, however, the last observed herd was to be killed, and we 

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