GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



encourage him I mentioned how comparatively near we were to 

 people, and how slight were the difficulties yet before us com- 

 pared with those we had already overcome. 



" ' Yes,' said Wulff, ' to think of giving up after having 

 gone through so much and surmounted so many difficulties as 

 we already have ! No, rather make yet another attempt ! 

 But,' he added, 'for all that, this is walking to one's own 

 funeral.' 



" I at once told the Eskimos that Wulff had altered his 

 decision, so we set our course away from the lake again. 



" The snow had ceased to fall, there was some wind from 

 the north, and still some fog lay across the land. The Eskimos 

 parted company to hunt each in his direction ; two hours later 

 Bosun returned with fresh excrements of reindeer, which he 

 ate. We were standing by the edge of a big clough, and down 

 into this Bosun and Inukitsoq went, seeking reindeer. As 

 Wulff had again remained some way behind, I went up on a 

 mountain crag to look out for game. He had sat down, but as 

 soon as he sighted me he called up to me : ' All right, you go 

 down into the clough ; I am coming soon.' 



"This we did. At the bottom of the clough the hunters 

 had lost the tracks of the reindeer, so we all sat down, chewing 

 willow-roots whilst we waited. 



"As Wulff came down to us the first thing he said was : 

 ' Well, dear comrades, here I will rest ; I think there will be 

 shelter by the great stone on the other side of the river.' 



" He spoke quite calmly, and no emotion was noticeable. 

 As I made another attempt to coax him to continue, he replied 

 definitely and shortly : ' No, I cannot continue ; there is an 

 end to it now ! Just do me the service to write a few letters 

 for me, and let the Eskimos boil some water so that I can get 

 a little warmth in my body whilst I dictate the letters.' Then 

 he rose and walked up to the big stone which he had selected ; 

 and here he had laid down when I reached the spot. 



" In vain I considered what I could do to help Wulff, and 

 in vain did I discuss the situation with the Eskimos, who were 

 gripped uncannily by his last decision. But we were absolutely 

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