THE JOURXEY SOUTHWARD 503 



After having supplied ourselves with as much meat 

 and blubber as we thought we needed for the moment, as 

 well as a quantity of blood, we pitched our tent close by 

 and boiled a good mess of blood porridge, which consisted 

 of a wonderful mixture of blood, powdered fish, Indian 

 meal, and blubber. We still had a good wind, and sailed 

 away merrily v/ith our sledges all night. When we got to 

 the promontory to the south of us we came to open water, 

 which here ran right up to the edge of the glacier-covered 

 land ; and all we had to do was to launch our kayaks and 

 set off along by the glacier cliff, in open sea for the first 

 time this year. It was strange to be using paddles again 

 and to see the water swarming with birds — auks and little 

 auks and kittiwakes all round. The land was covered 

 with glaciers, the basaltic rock only projecting in one or 

 two ]3]aces. There were moraines, too, in several places 

 on the glaciers. We were not a little surprised, after 

 going some way, when we discovered a flock of eider- 

 ducks on the water. A little later we saw two o:eese 

 sitting on the shore, and felt as if we had come into quite 

 civilized regions again. After a couple of hours' paddling 

 our progress south was stopped by shore-ice, while the 

 open water extended due west towards some land we had 

 previously seen in that direction, but which was now 

 covered by mist. We were very much in doubt as to 

 which way to choose, whether to go on in the open water 

 westward — which must take us towards Spitzbergen — 

 or to leave it and again take to our sledges over the 



