74 FRANZ JOSEF LAND 



occasion he managed to tempt a bear up to the front 

 door, where it was promptly tumbled over, to his 

 evident satisfaction. 



During the winter the party killed twenty-nine wal- 

 ruses and three dozen bears. Once, when only a fort- 

 night's meat was left, and things began to look serious, 

 no less than eight bears were killed in two weeks. At 

 the end of April the birds returned, and in June the ice 

 was cleared away by a gale and walruses were seen 

 swimming on the water in hundreds. Never did a 

 wintering party meet with better fortune, and never 

 was one better managed. 



On the 21st of June they started from Cape Flora 

 in four boats, six men each in three of them, seven in 

 the other, to reach the open sea, leaving in the house 

 six bottles of champagne in case any person might 

 look in, besides a few other things, and blocking up 

 the door to keep out the bears. Before the boats 

 reached the ice they crossed eighty miles of water, and 

 then six weeks' hard labour began, zigzagging through 

 channels, hauling over hurnmocky floes, sailing through 

 pools, halting for days on a floe with no water in sight, 

 but never doubting that a clearance would come. On 

 leaving the ice they steered for Novaya Zemlya, at first 

 in a gentle breeze, which rapidly increased to a gale in 

 a heavy thunderstorm, so that the boats, with their 

 sails of tablecloth and shirt-tail, had to be carefully 

 handled as they scudded before it at such a pace that 

 within twenty-four hours of leaving the ice they were 

 drawn up all safe on the beach at the entrance of 

 Matyushin Shar. Next morning the Dutch exploring 

 schooner, Willem Barents, was descried coming out of 



