258 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



Island, and on different points in the sound. It was also 

 intended to send a sledge-expedition to Beechy Island, 

 partly to correct their chronometers, and partly to look 

 at the depots left there half a century before. Schei 

 and Sverdrup were to go north and map the tracts west 

 of Greely Fiord. 



On 1st April 1902 three parties went off. The patent 

 dog-food was nearly finished, and they had to carry stock- 

 fish instead, which weighed much heavier. Trusting to 

 being able to obtain bears, Sverdrup did not take blubber 

 nor meat. No bears were obtained when expected, and 

 the dogs soon became very weak. It was not until the 

 16th April that a bear was seen and shot. 



Instead of travelling over the heavy ice towards 

 Smorgrautberget, Sverdrup kept to the east shore, and 

 then steered, straight across Greely Fiord to Blaafjeld, 

 in the south of Grant Land. They kept to the east 

 side of a pressure-ridge which stretched straight across 

 the fiord, and seemed to be the boundary between the 

 fast ice of the previous year on Greely Fiord and the 

 drift-ice outside. 



When near land, the ice became heavy, and it was 

 with great difficulty that advance could be made. West 

 of Blaafjeld they passed into a fiord where a large 

 number of hares were seen. It was the pairing season, 

 and they were scampering about in all directions. 

 Sverdrup supposed they had lost their heads from love, 

 and he slyly remarks that this is a thing which may 

 happen to others besides hares. The fiord was named 

 " Harefiord.'" 



On 30th April they set off from the headland on the 

 west side of the fiord. In the evening they camped near 

 the most westerly foreland they had seen the previous 

 year from Smorgrautberget. Next day they reached 

 another fiord and entered it for a short distance, but 



