s season, when he is so hungry, he will hardly go right away from
all the good food for him here on board. I struck about with my arms
to get a little heat into me, then went below and to bed. The dogs went
on barking, sometimes louder than before. Nordahl, whose watch it was,
went up several times, but could discover no reason for it. As I was
lying reading in my berth I heard a peculiar sound; it was like boxes
being dragged about on deck, and there was also scraping, like a dog
that wanted to get out, scratching violently at a door. I thought of
'Kvik,' who was shut up in the chart-room. I called into the saloon
to Nordahl that he had better go up again and see what this new noise
was. He did so, but came back saying that there was still nothing to be
seen. It was difficult to sleep, and I lay long tossing about. Peter
came on watch. I told him to go up and turn the air-sail to the wind,
to make the ventilation better. He was a good time on deck doing this
and other things, but he also could see no reason for the to-do the
dogs were still making. He had to go forward, and then noticed that
the three dogs nearest the starboard gangway were missing. He came
down and told me, and we agreed that possibly this might be what all
the excitement 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 13th. 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, gone on all night. After breakfast
Mogstad and Peter went up to feed the wretched creatures and let
them loose on the ice. Three were still missing. Peter came down to
get a lantern; he thought he might as well look if there were any
tracks of animals. Jacobsen called after him that he had better
take a gun. No, he did not need one, he said. A little later, as
I was sitting sorrowfully absorbed in the calculation of how much
petroleum we had used, and how short a time our supply 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 shouting,
'A gun! a gun!' The bear had bitten him in the side. I was thankful
that it was no worse. Hearing him put on so much dialect, [43]
I had thought it was a matter of