SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD 



last few days. When from the utmost headland on Warming 

 Land we turned in towards Daniel Bruun Glacier, the search 

 had lasted for seventv-two hours at one stretch. 



THE LAST DAYS OF TRAVELLING ON HOTTEN ICE 



Our lives were now at stake ; that was the brutal truth. So 

 we set out on an ice which was so rotten that under all other 

 circumstances we should have considered it entirely unfit for 

 travelling, but forward we must go and that as speedily as pos- 

 sible. Three of us had to walk in front of the dogs, which 

 could hardly be forced through the water, often so deep that 

 they had to swim. 



Twelve hours after our start a seal was shot in the lane of 

 tidal water along Warming Land. For a few seconds it was 

 as if we were torn out of the oppressive mood which had settled 

 on us, as the hope of a fat meal revived our courage. An ice- 

 floe was used for a ferry to the point where the seal had sunk, 

 and before long we discovered it, as the water was fairly clear 

 and not very deep. In great haste our harpoon of joined tent- 

 poles was made ready, but just as we were commencing to fish 

 up the seal, some large floes came floating, arranging them- 

 selves as a death -guard above the sunken seal. It was there- 

 fore of no avail to sacrifice our night's sleep in a desperate 

 attempt to get it. The rain poured over us, and that small 

 section of the upper part of our bodies which the water had not 

 been able to reach was unmercifully soaked from above. 



It is well known that even if in reality we humans have 

 given up every hope, nevertheless we keep as long as possible 

 an opening for the very last little possibility. Thus we have 

 been hoping that Hendrik for some unaccountable reason or 

 other might have crossed Hartz Sound ; and if this was the 

 case, we would now meet him on Warming Land. To-day 

 this hope also failed ; and now when we must consider Hendrik's 

 death to be a fact we begin to discuss the fate which overtook 

 him. It is possible that whilst asleep wolves fell on him ; on 

 our journey to-day we have seen three, one of which came from 



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