A TRAGEDY OF THE FAR NORTH 



we waited a month or so the weather would have been 

 better, the light brighter; but we needed every day we 

 could get, every hour, and so we broke all records by set- 

 ting out before the first glimpse of the sun was to be had 

 at the 8oth parallel. 



Fort McKinley was our first goal. There we were to 

 take on more sledges and dogs, and increase our load of 

 provisions. How had our men there passed the winter 

 of their exile? Was all well with them? These were im- 

 portant questions, for upon the dogs and stores at the 

 outpost we depended for an increase of our sledging 

 strength in the race against time and distance to the north. 

 Bjoervig and Bentzen had been promised that we would 

 raise their siege in February, and eager were we all to 

 keep our word. The storms delayed us, and at one or two 

 camps the wind blew so hard that pitching our tent was 

 out of the question, and we had to be content with pegging 

 down its corners and crawling under — any place to escape 

 the fury of the icy blasts. When better weather came we 

 made hard marches, and in the afternoon of the 27th we 

 had the satisfaction of seeing the ridge behind the Fort 

 loom up in the white distance. 



Soon the dogs at the Fort set up a shout of welcome to 

 their approaching brethren, and the latter, just to show 

 what they could do when they had a personal object in 

 view, started off at a rapid run, dragging sleighs, men and 

 all after them, although hitherto they had crawled at a 

 snail's pace and had made progress at all only when helped 

 by their drivers. At the foot of the hill the men stopped 

 and held the excited teams that I might walk on before and 

 be the first to greet the two exiles. But aside from an 

 overturned boat, half buried in the snow, a collection of 

 empty biscuit and provision tins and a group of dogs 

 chained to the top of a bank of ice, I could see nothing 

 whatever resembling a human habitation. " The hut is 

 just before you, sir, right behind the dogs," said Emil 

 Ellefsen, who had been here before. 



There is not an atom of superstition in my mental com- 

 position. I never had a presentiment or anything of that 

 sort. But it is the plain truth that as I picked my way up 

 the rough snow-bank and through an array of long-haired 



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