430 FAR THE S 2' NORTH 



stood there ; but these must have been too heavy for 

 them. I was angry when I made this discovery, and, 

 what made it more aggravating, it happened on my 

 birthday. And matters did not improve when, while 

 hunting about in the twiHght on the beach above the 

 place where the things had been lying, to see if I could 

 at any rate discover tracks to show which way those 

 demons had taken them, I met a fox that stopped at 

 a distance of 20 feet from me, sat down, and uttered 

 some exasperating howls, so piercing and weird that I 

 had to stop my ears. It was evidently on its way to my 

 things again, and was now provoked at being disturbed. 

 I got hold of some large stones and flung them at it. 

 It ran off a little way, but then seated itself upon the 

 edee of the olacier and howled on, while I went home 

 to the hut in a rage, lay down, and speculated as to what 

 we should do to be revenged on the obnoxious animals. 

 We could not spare cartridges to shoot them with, but 

 we might make a trap of stones. This we determined 

 to do, but nothing ever came of it ; there were always so 

 many other things to occupy us at first, while we still 

 had the opportunity, before the snow covered the talus, 

 and while it was light enough to find suitable stones. 

 Meanwhile the foxes continued to annoy us. One day 

 they had taken our thermometer,* which we always kept 

 outside the hut, and gone off with it. We searched for it 



* It was a registering thermometer, which was also used as a shng- 

 thermometer. 



