In a very short time the two deer were being borne, hanging head downwards, over the rough ground till the ice was reached, and finally the boat, the welcome supply of fresh meat being greeted with a cheer as it was hauled up over the side to the deck of the _Hvalross_; and that evening the cook had a busy time, while, as Steve remarked, the smell of that kind of cooking was far better than that which prevailed when the Norsemen were busy rendering down the oil. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. A TALE OF THE WINTER COLD. The shore looked more attractive the next morning, probably from the fact that all on board the _Hvalross_ had had a most enjoyable supper of fresh meat, and afterwards a long--what Steve called day's--night's rest; so that every one was on the alert and eager to carry out the captain's orders. So as not to lose time steam was got up at once, and Captain Marsham explained his intentions, which were to go up the west coast until stopped by the ice, and on the way search the different fiords and bays for signs of the lost party. Failing to find them, he said that they would return to their starting-point, and then proceed in the same way southward, and round to the east coast, and ascend that. "I don't think it is a question of scouting along the land in the search," said the captain, "but of being here, for it must be a matter of accident our finding them. We shall of course build up a cairn wherever we touch, with a paper in it telling when we landed and the direction we take, in case they come here after we have gone." "And you will go on hunting and fishing as we touch at place after place?" "Certainly, until we have filled the tanks. That will enable me to prolong my journey, and, if necessary, repeat it next year." Steve looked at the captain in horror, but said nothing; and directly after a cairn had been built at the most conspicuous point of the entrance to the fiord, and a letter left in a meat canister inside, the _Hvalross_ slowly steamed out, and advanced northward, entering fiord after fiord, and searching vainly. There were always the same forbidding cliffs capped with snow, masses of ice piled up, and the ravines filled with glaciers, and here and there inlets whose entrances were completely frozen up, and not likely to be open for a month. But there was no sign of cairn or signal-post. No human being had left a trace of landing there, and the journey north was continued. "Why, Johannes," said the captain on the second evening, after they had spent about a couple of hours in shooting wild fowl to replenish the larder and keep the men in good health with plenty of fresh provisions, "I thought as soon as we reached this wild region we should find deer, bears, and walrus in abundance; and here we have been touching at place after place for two days, and not seen a single animal since we shot the deer."