GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



the country we had just left. There is also a possibility that he 

 may carelessly have tried to cross a river at a point where it was 

 deep, with a current strong enough to pull him down. Finally 

 there is the possibility, which I have mentioned before and 

 which perhaps is the most likely, that he has stumbled and 

 shot himself. 



During the walk to-day I had such an experience of the 

 wolf as I have never had before. Straying in across land, I 

 heard slinking footsteps behind me, and, as I suddenly wheeled 

 round, I saw, about 50 metres behind, a pair of round flaming 

 eyes which were fixed on me. At the moment when our eyes 

 met the fire of its glance was extinguished, and the animal 

 stood in a relaxed position with cowardly limp limbs, void of all 

 interest in me. I was unarmed, holding only a stick in my 

 hand, and it was almost as if the animal was aware of my per- 

 fect harmlessness but dared not show it. It amused me for 

 awhile to probe its mind, with the result that as soon as I ad- 

 vanced, turning my back on it, it doubled its pace and followed 

 me ; but in the moment I turned, the fire died out of its eyes 

 and it tried to demonstrate interests entirely unconnected with 

 me. On the other hand, if I walked backwards it never fol- 

 lowed me, being content to stop in its expectant but indifferent 

 position. This, then, was the ambush personified, and it was 

 with a shudder that I thought of poor Hendrik's fate. 



July 26th. — We had continued our journey last night after 

 a few hours of rest on the spot where we lost the seal, and 

 now we had again divided into two parties, as there was ever 

 the possibility that game might be discovered on land. So 

 Wulff, Koch, and myself were walking here, gazing across the 

 country void of game until our eyes ached, when suddenly our 

 attention was drawn towards the sledges, which were driving 

 some way out on the fjord and had now made a halt. We 

 immediately directed our glasses on them and discovered that 

 the great moment which for many days we had been hoping for 

 had arrived. A seal was visible on the ice a few kilometres 

 from the sledges, and Inukitsoq had already begun to creep 

 towards it. An hour elapsed, during which time we hardly 

 198 



