sounded as
if he were sitting still, howling in despair. Perhaps he was at an
opening in the ice that he could not get across. Blessing had also
heard him during his night-watch, but then the sound had come more
from a southwesterly direction. When Peter went after breakfast to
feed the dogs, there was the lost one, standing below the gangway
wanting to get on board. Hungry he was--he dashed straight into the
food-dish--but otherwise hale and hearty.

"This evening Peter came and said that he was certain he had heard
a bear moving about and pawing the ice; he and Pettersen had stood
and listened to him scraping at the snow crust. I put on my 'pesk'
(a fur blouse), got hold of my double-barrelled rifle, and went on
deck. The whole crew were collected aft, gazing out into the night. We
let loose 'Ulenka' and 'Pan,' and went in the direction where the bear
was said to be. It was pitch-dark, but the dogs would find the tracks
if there was anything there. Hansen thought he had seen something
moving about the hummock near the ship, but we found and heard nothing,
and, as several of the others had by this time come out on the ice
and could also discover nothing, we scrambled on board again. It is
extraordinary all the sounds that one can fancy one hears out on that
great, still space, mysteriously lighted by the twinkling stars.

"Friday, December 15th. This morning Peter saw a fox on the ice astern,
and he saw it again later, when he was out with the dogs. There is
something remarkable about this appearance of bears and foxes now,
after our seeing no life for so long. The last time we saw a fox we
were far south of this, possibly near Sannikoff Land. Can we have
come into the neighborhood of land again?

"I inspected 'Kvik's' pups in the afternoon. There were thirteen,
a curious coincidence--thirteen pups on December 13th, for thirteen
men. Five were killed; 'Kvik' can manage eight, but more would
be bad for her. Poor mother! she was very anxious about her young
ones--wanted to jump up into the box beside them and take them from
us. And you can see that she is very proud of them.

"Peter came this evening and said that there must be a ghost on the
ice, for he heard exactly the same sounds of walking and pawing as
yesterday evening. This seems to be a populous region, after all.

"According to an observation taken on Tuesday we must be pretty nearly
in 79 deg. 8' north latitude. That was 8 minutes' drift in the three days