THE WINTER NIGHT 4^7 



"Wednesday, March 14th. In the evening the dogs 

 all at once began to bark, as we supposed on account of 

 bears. Sverdrup and I took our guns, let ' Ulenka' and 

 'Pan' loose, and set off. There was twilight still, and 

 the moon, moreover, began to shine. No sooner were 

 the dogs on the ice than off they started westward like a 

 couple of rockets, we after them as quickly as we could. 

 As I was jumping over a lane I thrust one leg through 

 the ice up to the knee. Oddly enough, I did not get wet 

 through to the skin, though I only had Finn shoes and 

 frieze gaiters on ; but in this temperature, 38° Fahr. below 

 zero ( — 39^ C), the water freezes on the cold cloth be- 

 fore it can penetrate it. I felt nothing of it afterwards ; it 

 became, as it were, a plate of ice armor that almost helped 

 to keep me warm. At a channel some distance off we 

 at last discovered that it was not a bear the dogs had 

 winded, but either a walrus or a seal. We saw holes in 

 several places on the fresh-formed ice where it had stuck 

 its head through. What a wonderfully keen nose those 

 dogs must have : it was quite two-thirds of a mile from 

 the ship, and the creature had only had just a little bit 

 of its snout above the ice. We returned to the ship to 

 get a harpoon, but saw no more of the animal, though 

 we went several times up and down the channel. 

 Meanwhile ' Pan,' in his zeal, got too near the edge of 

 the lane and fell into the water. The ice was so high 

 that he could not get up on it again without help, and if 



I had not been there to haul him up I am afraid he 

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