348 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VP^GA. 
[(’IIAP. 
and immediately after this was changed to a sea-monster, re¬ 
sembling a walrus-head, as large as a mountain. This got life 
and motion, and finally sank all at once to the head of a common 
wa.lrus, which lay on a piece of ice in the neighbourhood of the 
boat; the white tusks formed the snow-fields and the dark-brown 
round head the mountain. Scarce was this illusion gone when 
one of the men cried out Land right a head—high land ! ” We 
now all saw before us a high Alpine region, with mountain peaks 
and glaciers, but this too sank a moment afterwards all at once to 
a common ice-border, blackened with earth. In the spring of 
1873 Palander and I with nine men made a sledge journey round 
North-east Land. In the course of this journey a great many 
bears were seen and killed. When a bear was seen while we 
were dragging our sledges forward, the train commonly stood 
still, and, not to frighten the bear, all the men concealed them¬ 
selves behind the sledges, with the^ exception of the marksman, 
who, squatting down in some convenient place, waited till his 
prey should come sufficiently within range to be killed with 
certainty. It happened once during foggy weather on the ice at 
Wahlenberg Bay that the bear that was expected and had been 
clearly seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his usual 
supple zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to nose 
himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners for 
food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings 
and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time 
during the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which 
we rested the cook, who was employed outside, cry out: A bear ! 
a great bear! No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!” The 
same instant a well-directed shot was fired, and the bear-rein¬ 
deer was found to be a very small fox, which thus paid with 
its life for the honour of having for some moments played the 
part of a big animal. From these accounts it may be seen 
how difficult navigation among drift-ice must be in unknown 
waters. 
