MARCH IS TO JUA'E 22, i8gs 617 



since March. Subsequently we often saw seals of the same kind 

 in the open channels, but they were very shy, so that it was not 

 until well on in the summer that we succeeded in killing one, 

 and this was so small that we ate the whole of it at one meal. 



On May 14th Pettersen told us that he had seen a white 

 bird, as he thought an ice-gull, flying westward. On the 22d 

 Mogstad saw a snow -bunting, which circled round the vessel, 

 and after this the harbingers of spring became daily more 

 numerous. 



Our hunting- bags, however, were very scant}-. It was not 

 until June loth that we secured the first game, when the doctor 

 succeeded in shooting a fulmar and a kittiwake ^Lariis tridac- 

 tylus). True, he prefaced these exploits by sundry misses, but 

 in the end he managed to hit the birds, and " all's well that ends 

 well." As regards the fulmar, it was an exciting chase, as it had 

 only been winged, and took refuge in the open channel. Petter- 

 sen was the first to go after it, followed by Amundsen, the 

 doctor, Scott-Hansen, and the whole pack of dogs, and at last 

 they managed to secure it. 



After this it was a matter of daily occurrence to see birds 

 quite near, and in order to be better able to secure them, and 

 seals to boot, we moored our sealing-boat in the open channel. 

 This was equipped with a sail, and with ballast composed of 

 some of the castings from the windmill, which we had been 

 obliged to take down ; and the very first evening after the boat 

 had been put on the w^ater, Scott-Hansen, Henriksen, and Bent- 

 zen went for a sail in the channel. The dogs seized this occa- 

 sion to take some capital exercise. The}- took it into their 

 heads to follow the boat along the edge of the channel back- 

 ward and forward as the boat tacked ; it was stiff work for them 

 to keep always abreast of it, as they had to make many detours 

 round small channels and bays in the ice, and when at last they 

 had got near it, panting, and with their tongues protruding far 

 from their mouths, the boat would go about, and they had to 

 cover the same ground over again. 



On June 20th the doctor and I shot one black guillemot each. 

 We also saw some little auks, but the dogs, entering too eagerly 



