46 PIIOTOGRAPHIXG 



Knorr, I made my first trial at this new business. It 

 was altogether unsatisfactory, except to convince me 

 that, with perseverance, we might succeed in obtain- 

 ing at least fair pictures. 



Practically I knew nothing whatever of the art. It 

 was a great disappointment to me that I could not 

 secure for the expedition the services of a professional 

 photographer ; but this deficiency did not, I am happy 

 to say, prevent me, in the end, from obtaining some 

 views characteristic of the rugged beauties of the Arc- 

 tic landscape. We had, however, only books to guide 

 us. With our want of knowledge and an uncomfort- 

 able temperature to contend with, we labored under 

 serious disadvantages. 



Sonntag went ashore with me, and obtained good 

 sextant sights for our position, and some useful results 

 with the magnetometer. Knorr added to my collec- 

 tion some fine specimens of birds. The gulls, mol- 

 limuks and burgomeisters, the chattering kittiwake 

 and the graceful tern were very numerous. They 

 fairly swarmed upon the bergs. The hunters were 

 often out after eider-ducks, large flocks of which con- 

 gregate upon the islands, and sweep over us in long 

 undulating lines. Seals, too, were sporting about the 

 vessel, bobbing their intelligent, almost human-looking 

 fixces up and down in the still water, marks for the 

 fatal rifles of our sportsmen. They looked so curi- 

 ously innocent while making their inspections of us 

 that I would not have had the heart to kill them, 

 were it not that they were badly needed for the dogs. 



We led a strange weird sort of life, — a spice of 

 danger, with much of beauty and a world of magnifi- 

 cence. I should have found pleasure in the lazy hours, 

 but that each hour thus spent was one taken from my 



