GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



their dogs to the last rag, later on to eat them. It appeared to 

 me not only unsesthetic and unappetizing, but also akin to 

 cannibalism. It seems entirely different now when we our- 

 selves have to save our lives with dog-flesh ! The unsesthetic and 

 unappetizing aspect no longer exists. 



The snowstorm whistles round the canvas and, with our 

 scanty provisions, we feel infinitely far away from humanity. 

 We are hungry, and have been hungry for the last month. So 

 we are merely longing for the meat to be cooked so that our 

 hunger may be assuaged. The flesh looks light and delicious 

 though very thin and sinewy ; but as the steam arises from the 

 pot and fills the tent we imagine that we are going to eat mutton 

 — the smell is similar. And the prospect of every man being 

 satiated, instead of merely " sticking it " on a sixth of a ration 

 of pemmican gruel, highly invigorates and pacifies us. What 

 the Devil ! The dog is merely a domestic animal, and all the 

 world over one eats one's domestic animals ! 



We are all fighting for life here in this desert ; we toil 

 regardlessly in order to reach the better hunting-grounds, and 

 as we and not the dogs possess the right of the stronger, it is we 

 who eat the dogs. In a position like ours there is no room for 

 sentimentality. Soon or late they would have to die by our 

 hand. On this expedition where they have served us so faith- 

 fully in life, let them then also serve us and their comrades after 

 death. 



Maybe someone will turn up his nose at this argument. 

 But through half a year we have now got accustomed to accept- 

 ing our food with gratitude, in whatever form we might receive 

 it ; wherefore, perhaps to a greater extent than man generally, 

 we have had an opportunity of revising our estimation of what 

 a formidable factor an empty stomach is : it does not acknow- 

 ledge many considerations. 



The meat is cooked now, and maybe the meal is a plebeian 

 one, but no appetite in the world is more royal than ours ! 



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