BY SLEDGE AND KAYAK 245 



was carefully eaten up, and the only thing left after the 

 dogs' meal was, as a rule, a tuft of hair here and there 

 on the ice, some claws, and, perhaps, a well-gnawed cra- 

 nium, the hard skull being too much for them, 



" They are beginning to be pretty well starved now. 

 Yesterday ' Lillerseven ' ate up the toe-strap (the reindeer- 

 skin which is placed under the foot to prevent the snow 

 from balling), and a little of the wood of Johansen's snow- 

 shoes, which the dog had pulled down on to the ice. The 

 late 'Kvik' ate up her sail-cloth harness, and I am not so 

 sure these others do not indulge in a fragment of canvas 

 now and then. 



" I have just reckoned out our longitude according to 

 an observation taken with the theodolite yesterday, and 

 make it to be 61' 16.5' E. ; our latitude was 82^ 17.8' N. 

 I cannot understand why we do not see land. The only 

 possible explanation must be that we are farther east than 

 we think, and that the land stretches southward in that 

 direction; but we cannot have much farther to go now. 

 Just at this moment a bird flew over us, which Johansen, 

 who is standing just outside the tent, took to be a kind 

 of sandpiper. 



"Thursday, June 6th. Still on the same spot. I am 

 longing to get off, see what things look like, and have a 

 final solution of this riddle, which is constantly before me. 

 It will be a real pleasure to be under way again with whole 

 tackle, and I cannot help thinking that we shall soon be 

 able to use our kayaks in open water. Life would be 



