LAND AT LAST 399 



to Q-o after sledQ^es and knives. As there was a pos 



& 



P( 



sibility, too, of the ice breaking off and being set adrift, 

 I also thought it wise to take the kayaks on the sledges 

 at the same time, for it had begun to blow a little from 

 the fjord. But for this fortunate precaution it is not 

 easy to say what would have become of us. While we 

 were engaged in skinning, the wind rose rapidly, a^id 

 soon became a storm. To landward of us was the 

 narrow channel or lane beside which the walruses had 

 been lying. I feared that the ice might open here, and 

 we drift away. While we worked I therefore kept an 

 eye on it to see if it grew broader. It remained un- 

 chano^ed, and we went on skinnino- as fast as we could. 

 When the first walrus was half skinned, I happened 

 to look landward across the ice, and discovered that it 

 had broken off a good way from us, and that the part on 

 which we stood had already been drifting for some 

 time ; there was black water between us and the shore- 

 ice, and the wind was blowing so that the spray flew 

 from the foaming waves. There was no time to be lost; 

 it was more than doubtful whether we should be able 

 to paddle any great distance against that wind and 

 sea, but as yet the ice did not appear to have drifted a 

 greater distance from the land than we could cross, if we 

 made haste. We could not bring ourselves to give up 

 entirely the huge animals we had brought down, and we 

 hurriedly cut off as much flesh as we could get at and 

 flung it into the kayaks. We then cut off about a 



