56 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VII. 



along the purple edge of the precipice towards the staircase 

 by which we had already descended. 



Half an hour afterwards the little plot of grass selected for 

 the site of our encampment was covered over with poles, 

 boxes, cauldrons, tea-kettles, and all the paraphernalia of a 

 gipsy settlement. Wilson's Kaffir experience came at once 

 into play, and under his solemn but effective superintendence, 

 in less than twenty minutes the horn-headed tent rose, dry 

 and taut, upon the sward. Having carpeted the floor with 

 oil-skin rugs, and arranged our three beds with their clean 

 crisp sheets, blankets, and coverlets complete, at the back, 

 he proceeded to lay out the dinner-table at the tent door 

 with as much decorum as if we were expecting the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. All this time the cook, who looked 

 a little pale, and moved, I observed with difficulty, was mys- 

 teriously closeted with a spirit-lamp inside a diminutive tent 

 of his own, through the door of which the most delicious 

 whiffs occasionally permeated. Olaf and his comrades had 

 driven off the horses to their pastures ; and Sigurdr and I 

 were deep in a game of chess. Luckily, the shower, which 

 threatened us a moment, had blown over. Though now 

 almost nine o'clock p.m., it was as bright as mid-day ; the 

 sky burned like a dome of gold, and silence and deep peace 

 brooded over the fair grass-robed plain, that once had been 

 so fearfully convulsed. 



You may be quite sure our dinner went off merrily ; the 

 tetanus-afflicted salmon proved excellent, the plover and 

 ptarmigan were done to a turn, the mulligatawny beyond all 

 praise ; but, alas ! I regret to add, that he — the artist, by 

 whose skill these triumphs had been achieved — his task ac- 

 complished, — no longer sustained by the factitious energy 

 resulting from his professional enthusiasm, — at last suc- 

 cumbed, and, retiring to the recesses of his tent, like Psyche 

 in the " Princess," lay down, "and neither spoke nor stirred." 



After another game or two of chess, a pleasant chat, a 

 gentle stroll, we also turned in ; and for the next eight hours 

 perfect silence reigned throughout our little encampment, 



