400 FARTHEST NORTH 



quarter of the skin, with the blubber on it, and threw it 

 on the top, and then set off for the shore. We had 

 scarcely abandoned our booty before the gulls bore down 

 in scores upon the half-skinned carcass. Happy creat- 

 ures! Wind and waves and drifting were nothing to 

 theni ; they screamed and made a hubl^ub and thought 

 what a feast they were having. As long as we could see 

 the carcasses as they drifted out to sea, we saw the birds 

 continually gathering in larger and larger flocks about 

 them like clouds of snow. In the meantime we were 

 doing our utmost to gain the ice, but it had developed 

 cracks and channels in every direction. VVe managed to 

 get some distance in the kayaks; but while I was cross- 

 ing a wide channel on some loose fioes I alio^hted on 

 such poor ice that it sank under my weight, and I had to 

 jump back quickly to escape a bath. We tried in sev- 

 eral places, but everywhere it sank beneath us and our 

 sledges, and there was nothing for it but to take to the 

 water, keeping along the lee-side of the ice. But we had 

 not rowed far before w^e perceived that it was of no use 

 to have our kayaks lashed together in such a wind ; we 

 had to row singly, and sacrifice the walrus hide and 

 blubber, which it then became impossible to take with us. 

 At present it was lying across the stern of both kayaks. 

 While we were busy effecting these changes we were 

 surrounded, before we were aware of it, by ice, and had 

 to i^ull the kayaks up hastily to save them from being 

 crushed. We now tried to get out at several places, but 



