324 FARTHEST NORTH 



noticed that the three dosfs nearest the starboard franor- 

 way were missing. He came down and told me, and 

 we agreed that possibly this might be what all the ex- 

 citement was about ; but never before had they taken it 

 so to heart when some of their number had run away. 

 At last I fell asleep, but heard them in my sleep for a 

 long: time. 



" Wednesday, December 1 3th. Before I was rightly 

 awake this morning I heard the dogs 'at it' still, and 

 the noise went on all the time of breakfast, and had, I 

 believe, e,"one on all nis^ht. After breakfast Mos^stad 

 and Peter went up to feed the wretched creatures and 

 let them loose on the ice. Three were still missing. 

 Peter came down to Liet a lantern ; he thouq;ht he mio;ht 

 as well look if there were any tracks of animals. Jacob- 

 sen called after him that he had better take a gun. No, 

 he did not need one, he said. A little later, as I was sit- 

 ting sorrowfully absorbed in the calculation of how much 

 petroleum we had used, and how short a time our sup- 

 ply would last if we went on burning it at the same rate, 

 I heard a scream at the top of the companion. ' Come 

 with a gun !' In a moment I was in the saloon, and 

 there was Peter tumbling in at the door, breathlessly 

 shoutins:, ' A oun ! a o-un !' The bear had bitten him 

 in the side. I was thankful that it was no worse. 

 Hearing him put on so much dialect,* I had thought 



* He says " ei borsja " for "a gun " instead of " en bosse." 



