LAND AT LAST 433 



in vain for a long time, until at last we found it buried 

 in a heap of snow a little way off. From that time we 

 were very careful to place a stone over it at night, but 

 one morning found that the foxes had turned over the 

 stone, and had gone off with the thermometer again. 

 The only thing we found this time was the case, which 

 they had thrown away a little way off. The thermom- 

 eter itself we were never to see ao^ain ; the snow had 

 unfortunately drifted in the night, so that the tracks 

 had disappeared. Goodness only knows what fox-hole 

 it now adorns ; but from that day we learned a les- 

 son, and henceforward fastened our last thermometer 

 securely. 



Meanwhile time passed. The sun sank lower and 

 lower, until on October 15th we saw it for the last 

 time above the ridge to the south ; the days grew rapidly 

 darker, and then began our third polar night. 



We shot two more bears in the autumn, one on the 

 8th and one on the 21st of October; but from that time 

 we saw no more until the following spring. When I 

 awoke on the morning of October 8th I heard the crunch- 

 ing of heavy steps in the snow outside, and then began a 

 rummaging about among our meat and blubber up on 

 the roof. I could hear it was a bear, and crept out with 

 my gun; but when I came out of the passage I could see 

 nothing in the moonlight. The animal had noticed me, 

 and had already disappeared. We did not altogether 



regret this, as we had no great desire to set to at the 

 II.— 28 



