16 SPITSBERGEN chap, n 



produces a feeling of restless impatience that hinders the 

 invention of immediate employments. Besides, I was cum- 

 bered with small anxieties about baggage and ponies, for, 

 contrary to my orders, it had been arranged that ponies 

 should be supplied to us here, instead of at Tromso. I 

 feared the beasts would be unsuitable, but could not see 

 them, for they had not arrived, and only came just in time 

 to be put on board. There are many worse places to idle 

 in than Bergen, which has its fair share of sights, first 

 among which is assuredly the Hanseatic Museum. It is 

 an old Hanse merchant's house, kept in the state in which 

 it was used, with its internal arrangements and furniture 

 complete — the unwholesome cupboards for master, fore- 

 man, and apprentices to sleep in ; the secret staircases, 

 cunningly contrived for purposes of intrigue ; the light 

 weights for selling and the heavy weights for buying ; the old 

 ledger with its usurious entries; and "the key of the dairy" 

 — an instrument of correction for refractory apprentices. 

 The owner of the place, a local antiquary, humorous and 

 original, congratulated us on the absence of ladies, and 

 proceeded to explain its history and mysteries with many 

 a giggled insinuation. 



Next came the fish-market, with its tanks full of live 

 fish, whose names and points the vendors described in 

 language we could not understand, without ten words of 

 Norwegian at our combined command. One large leaden- 

 coloured fish, with a great oval head (a Gymnetrus, Norsk 

 Sildekonge), in a tank full of cod, was shown off for our 

 delectation. Its owner scooped it out, and, seizing it 

 firmly round the throat, gave it a lump of wood to bite. 

 The brute caught on like a bull-dog and rent the corner 

 off. A more wicked mouth I never saw out of a criminal's 

 head, and I believed immediately in the devil with a per- 

 fectly medireval conviction. Old women came to cheapen 



