244 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



38 miles was covered during the first day. At the head 

 of the fiord Sverdrup decided to continue the journey 

 with Bay the zoologist, while the other two were to 

 make a survey from the head of the fiord back to the 

 Fram. 



Sverdrup's route now lay along the bed of a river, but 

 in the afternoon of the first day rapids were met, and a 

 halt had to be made so that the country ahead could be 

 examined. By making a detour round the rapids, across 

 some sand-hills, better travelling was found, and the 

 ground up to the watershed was covered quickly. 



Polar oxen were met in considerable numbers. When 

 attacked, they form a square with the calves and heifers 

 in the middle, and the bulls and cows standing in line of 

 defence at equal distances. Sometimes the fiercest of the 

 bulls form a kind of outpost about 25 yards distant from 

 the square, and make individual attacks. When once the 

 square has been formed, the animals remain at their 

 posts until the attack is repulsed or the entire square 

 fallen. They have developed their strategic reasoning- 

 powers to a wonderful extent. 



West of the watershed the country became bare of 

 snow, and progress was arrested by an impassable canon. 

 After various endeavours to find a passage for the sledges, 

 Sverdrup decided to carry provisions for three days, and 

 to take the dogs loose. In two days they reached a 

 large fiord, which was named " Bay Fiord " after Sverdrup's 

 companion. The return journey was made without 

 special incident. 



On 23rd May, Isachsen, the cartographer of the ex- 

 pedition, with Braskerud, set out to cross the glaciated 

 part of Ellesmere Land. The west coast was reached on 

 4th June. They found considerable difficulty on many 

 occasions in extricating themselves and the dogs from 

 the crevasses in the glaciers, but the journey was com- 



