2 34 ^I"^' ARCTIC JOURNAL 



and come hurrying up to me until they could lie down around 

 my feet, glad that the day's work was done. 



As soon as the sledge came to a standstill I read the odom- 

 eter, aneroid, and thermometer ; then Astrup and myself un- 

 did the lashings, and as soon as the lines were loose Astrup 

 took the saw-knife and began excavating for our kitchen, 

 while I took the short steel-pointed stake to which we fast- 

 ened our dogs and drove it firmly into the snow in front, 

 and some fifty feet to leeward, of the kitchen site. I then 

 untangled the dogs' traces, detached the animals from the 

 sledge, and made them fast to the stake. I next got out a 

 tin of pemmican, a can-opener, and a heavy hunting-knife, 

 and, kneeling behind the sledge, prepared the dogs' rations, 

 which consisted of a pound of pemmican each. I then fed 

 the hungry creatures, standing over them meanwhile with the 

 whip, to see that the weaker ones were not deprived of their 

 share. 



By this time Astrup had completed an excavation in the 

 snow, about eight feet long by three feet wide and a foot and 

 a half deep, and with the snow blocks obtained from this ex- 

 cavation had formed a wall a foot or a foot and a half high 

 across one end and half-way down each side. Across this 

 wall was put one, and sometimes both, of the ski, and over 

 this was spread a light cotton sail, weighted down with blocks 

 of snow. This was known as our kitchen, and at the inner- 

 most end was placed the kitchen-box, containing our milk, 

 tea, pea-soup, Liebig's Extract, drinking-cups, can-opener. 



