SEEKING HELP 



for another two days and nights without food ; we both feel that 

 we are able to do this, and by that time we must surely be on 

 better hunting-ground. 



During this discussion I say to Ajako : 



" Even if we shall hold each other by the arms for support 

 when we begin to totter with exhaustion, we will continue our 

 walk ; we will not give in as long as we can crawl." 



Ajako nods as he answers : 



"Shall we decide that neither of us will mention food 

 again?" 



After that we get up and continue. 



Due west-south-west we pass a big lake in the midst of the 

 mountains ; fortunately, we do not come across its outlet, but 

 set our course through a valley-like clough, where, as in other 

 and more fertile places, we find not a few bones and antlers of 

 reindeer. 



By noon we spy a little white dot in front of us, and both 

 stop as if nailed to the ground. A hare ! Meat for the pot, 

 food for the stomach, marrow for the bones ! 



Half an hour later we are sitting cooking it by a big flaming 

 fire. All adversity forgotten, all weariness has left our limbs. 

 As soon as we have eaten we will continue ; but first the meal. 

 Fortune has favoured us. The hare is fat, like a young reindeer 

 with thick, white, fat round kidneys and pelvis ! And the 

 blood we have poured into the soup — oh, how good it will be ! 

 But now when we have seen the meat it is as if hunger wakes 

 up and tears savagely at our vitals ; so immediately we eat the 

 entrails raw whilst we wait for the pot to boil. 



Half an hour's walk from the place where we cooked our 

 meal we reach a lake which we presume must be the well-known 

 ice-mountain lake behind Cape Russell, the place where the 

 relief sledges are to meet our comrades. The lake goes right 

 up to the glacier, and a couple of largish ice-mountains float on 

 it. We have travelled upwards of 100 kilometres ! It is a 

 great spur to our pace, and unconsciously we speed up. 



To pass the sea we have first got to cross three rather large 



245 



