692 APPENDIX 



and alacrity of " Bella." The dogs at first attacked him once 

 or twice, but after a short resistance he jumped into the water, 

 and crossed over two broad lanes, Vvdiich it took the dogs a long 

 time to get round. He was just about to plunge into a third 

 channel when " Bella," who in the meantime had come round, 

 intercepted him not 20 feet from the edge. At a distance of 

 200 or 300 yards Mogstad fired, and was lucky enough to hit 

 him in the head, bringing him down, and he now made only 

 some feeble attempts to keep the dogs off. I then sent him a 

 shot behind the shoulder ; but, as he was not quite dead, Mog- 

 stad gave him the final one. 



On July 20th the mate shot a large bear, which came swim- 

 ming across a channel ; and we killed our last bear on the even- 

 ing of August 6th, but in such an awkward position that we 

 had to leave the meat, and it was as much as we could do to 

 get the hide on board. 



In the matter of birds, we were also pretty fortunate. For 

 instance, Scott-Hansen and I one night shot 9 little auks, i kit- 

 tiwake, and i skua, and the following day 21 more little auks 

 and 2 black guillemots. Henriksen in one day's shooting 

 bagged iS little auks and i black guillemot, and Nordahl, 26 

 little auks and i black guillemot ; and, later on, when there had 

 been an abundance of game for some days, we killed as many 

 as 30 to 40 birds in the course of a few hours. 



This hunting life had not only a beneficial effect upon our 

 spirits, which occasionally were rather low, but it also gave us 

 an appetite, which sometimes was quite ravenous. When we 

 were weighed at the end of the month we found that, whereas 

 some of us had previously been losing weight, we had now 

 steadily and uniformly increased from the time when auk's 

 breast, roast guillemot, stewed kittiwake, skua soup, and last, 

 but not least, ribs of bear, became the daily fare on board. 



Indeed, we stood in need of all the encouragement and good 

 living which our hunting procured us. The state of the ice was 

 anything but cheering, and the prospect of getting out of it 

 during the present year became less every day. 



During the first days following the release of the Fraiii the 



