VOYAGE THROUGH THE KARA SEA i/l 



the side of the valley again, leaving another of their 

 number behind with a broken leg. I tore after them, 

 across the valley and up the other side, in the hope of 

 getting another shot, but gave that up and turned back 

 to make sure of the two wounded ones. At the bottom 

 of the valley stood one of the victims awaiting its fate. 

 It looked imploringly at me, and then, just as I was go- 

 ing forward to shoot it, made off much quicker than I 

 could have thought it possible for an animal on three 

 legs to go. Sure of my shot, of course I missed ; and 

 now began a chase, which ended in the poor beast, 

 blocked in every other direction, rushing down towards 

 the sea and wading into a small lagoon on the shore, 

 whence I feared it might get right out into the sea. At 

 last it got its quietus there in the water. The other one 

 was not far off, and a ball soon put an end to its suffer- 

 ings also. As I was proceeding to rip it up, Henriksen 

 and Johansen appeared ; they had just shot a bear a little 

 farther south. 



After disembowelling the reindeer, we went towards 

 the boat again, meeting Sverdrup on the way. It was 

 now well on in the mornino^, and as I considered that we 

 had already spent too much time here, I was impatient 

 to push northward. While Sverdrup and some of the 

 others went on board to get ready for the start, the rest 

 of us rowed south to fetch our two reindeer and our 

 bear. A strong breeze had begun to blow from the 

 northeast, and as it would be hard work for us to row 



