THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 527 



risk of their drifting away with the ice. I o-ot out 

 my snow-shoes, glass, and gun, and was ready. Before 

 starting I went up once more to Hsten and look out a 

 road across the uneven ice to the land. But there was 

 not a sound like the barking of dogs, only noisy auks, 

 harsh-toned little auks, and screaming kittiwakes. Was 

 it these, after all, that I had heard } I set off in doubt. 

 Then in front of me I saw the fresh tracks of an animal. 

 They could hardly have been made by a fox, for if they 

 were, the foxes here must be bigger than any I had ever 

 seen. But dogs } Could a dog have been no more than 

 a few hundred paces from us in the night without bark- 

 ing, or without our ha\ing heard it } It seemed scarcely 

 probable; but, whatever it was, it could never have been 

 a fox, A wolf, then .-* I went on, my mind full of 

 strange thoughts, hovering between certainty and doubt. 

 Was all our toil, were all our troubles, privations, and 

 sufferings to end here } It seemed incredible, and 

 yet — Out of the shadow-land of doubt, certainty was 

 at last beginning to dawn. Again the sound of a dog 

 yelping reached my ear, more distinctly than ever; I 

 saw more and more tracks which could be nothing but 

 those of a dog. Among them were foxes' tracks, and 

 how small they looked ! A long time passed, and noth- 

 ing was to be heard but the noise of the birds. Again 

 arose doubt as to whether it was all an illusion. Per- 

 haps it was only a dream. But then I remembered the 

 dogs' tracks; they, at any rate, were no delusion.. But 



