to the north.  We examined the tracks very closely, and agreed that they were not more than two days old.  They went northward, and we followed them from time to time on our next stage.  At the beacon in 82deg. 45’, where we halted, we saw them still going to the north.  In 82deg. 24’ the trail began to be much confused, and ended by pointing due west.  That was the last we saw of the tracks; but we had not done with these dogs, or rather with their deeds.  We stopped at the beacon in 82deg. 20’.  Else, who had been laid on the top of it, had fallen down and lay by the side; the sun had thawed away the lower part of the beacon.  So the roving dogs had not been here; so much was certain, for otherwise we should not have found Else as we did.  We camped at the end of that stage by the beacon in 82deg. 15’, and shared out Else’s body.  Although she had been lying in the strong sunshine, the flesh was quite good, when we had scraped away a little mouldiness.  It smelt rather old, perhaps, but our dogs were not fastidious when it was a question of meat.

On January 16 we arrived at the depot in 82deg.  S. We could see from a long way off that the order in which we had left it no longer prevailed.  When we came up to it, we saw at once what had happened.  The innumerable dog-tracks that had trampled the snow quite hard round the depot declared plainly enough that the runaways had spent a good deal of time here.  Several of the cases belonging to the depot had fallen down, presumably from the same cause as Else, and the rascals had succeeded in breaking into one of them.  Of the biscuits and pemmican which it had contained, nothing, of course, was left; but that made no difference to us now, as we had food in abundance.  The two dogs’ carcasses that we had placed on the top of the depot —­ Uranus and Jaala —­ were gone, not even the teeth were to be seen.  Yet they had left the teeth of Lucy, whom they had eaten in 82deg. 3’.  Jaala’s eight puppies were still lying on the top of a case; curiously enough, they had not fallen down.  In addition to all the rest, the beasts had devoured some ski-bindings and things of that sort.  It was no loss to us, as it happened; but who could tell which way these creatures had gone?  If they had succeeded in finding the depot in 80deg.  S., they would probably by this time have finished our supply of seal meat there.  Of course it would be regrettable if this had happened, although it would entail no danger either to ourselves or our animals.  If we got as far as 80deg., we should come through all right.  For the time being, we had to console ourselves with the fact that we could see no continuation of the trail northward.