Esau arrived in camp about half-past seven, quite exhausted, and followed by Öla, also dead beat, and again bearing the heads and skins of two deer, a buck and a doe. He was hailed with fervent joy and many congratulations: it is certainly great luck to fall in with deer on two stalking days in succession, for they are by no means numerous here this year. Dinner was served in a marvellously short time.
MENU.—August 23.
Poisson.
Truite à la Fried in Butter.
Entrées.
Kari of Reindeer Tongue.
Rôts.
The Boss Pie.
Gibier.
Ryper à la Spitchcock.
Entremets.
Jam. Wimberry tart. Marmalade.
Potage.
Could not eat any.
Then came Esau’s romance.
‘We walked up the Memurua to the great glacier, and then skirted its south side. We found many fresh tracks, and about two o’clock, when we were seven miles from home, Öla spied three deer chewing stones about three quarters of a mile away. The wind was just in the right direction to allow us to approach them, and they were in capital ground for stalking, full of little hollows and slopes. But there was a serious drawback: on one side was a lake, on the other an impassable precipice; and before we could get into a place out of their sight we should be obliged to cross a narrow strip of ground in full view of them, though perhaps half a mile from them. We sat down and had our lunch, and waited an hour watching for them to lie down, and at last they did so; then we determined to risk the passage of the dangerous strip, and by crawling like serpents and aided by luck got across without the deer seeing us. Then we had to creep along the side of a scandalous precipice for the next half-mile, in no danger of being seen, but with our hearts constantly in our mouths as, despite our care, some stone was dislodged and went clattering down the rocks, sounding to my strained ears as if it must disturb every living thing within a mile. Very slow and difficult was our progress, occasionally dangerous, but at last we arrived at a spot 200 yards from the deer, which were still lying down, and pronounced by Öla to be a buck and two does.