up the steep slope, we heard Stubberud sing out, “Below, there!” —­ and away he went like a stone in a well.  He had gone through the snow-bridge on which we were standing, but a lucky projection stopped our friend from going very far down, besides which he had taken a firm round turn with the rope round his wrist.  It was, therefore, a comparatively easy matter to get him up on the surface again.  This little intermezzo would probably have been avoided if we had not been without our ski, but the slope was so steep and smooth that we could not use them.  After a few more hauls we had the seal up by the tent, where a large quantity of it disappeared in a surprisingly short time down the throats of fifteen hungry dogs.

The ice of the bay was furrowed by numerous leads, and while the hunters were busy cutting up the seals, I tried to get a sounding, but the thirty fathoms of Alpine rope I had were not enough; no bottom was reached.  After having something to eat we went down again, in order if possible to find out the depth.  This time we were better supplied with sounding tackle two reels of thread, a marlinspike, and our geological hammer.

First the marlinspike was sent down with the thread as a line.  An inquisitive lout of a seal did all it could to bite through the thread, but whether this was too strong or its teeth too poor, we managed after a lot of trouble to coax the marlinspike up again, and the interfering rascal, who had to come up to the surface now and then to take breath, got the spike of a ski-pole in his thick hide.  This unexpected treatment was evidently not at all to his liking, and after acknowledging it by a roar of disgust, he vanished into the depths.  Now we got on better.  The marlinspike sank and sank until it had drawn with it 130 fathoms of thread.  A very small piece of seaweed clung to the thread as we hauled it in again; on the spike there was nothing to be seen.  As its weight was rather light for so great a depth —­ a possible setting of current might have carried it a little to one side —­ we decided to try once more with the hammer, which was considerably heavier, in order to check the result.  The hammer, on the other hand, was so heavy, that with the delicate thread as a line the probability of successfully carrying out the experiment seemed small, but we had to risk it.  The improvised sinker was well smeared with blubber, and this time it sank so rapidly to the bottom as to leave no doubt of the correctness of the sounding —­ 130 fathoms again.  By using extreme care we succeeded in getting the hammer up again in safety, but no specimen of the bottom was clinging to it.

On the way back to camp we dragged with us the carcass of the young seal.  It was past three when we got into our sleeping-bags that night, and, in consequence, we slept a good deal later than usual the next morning.  The forenoon was spent by Johansen and Stubberud in hauling up another seal from the bay and packing as much flesh on the sledges as possible.  As fresh meat is a commodity that takes up a great deal of space in proportion to its weight, the quantity we were able to take with us was not large.  The chief advantage we had gained was that a considerable supply could be stored on the spot, and it might be useful to fall back upon in case of delay or other mishaps.