UNPACKING. 



CHAPTER III 



TO SPITSBERGEN 



ON awakening next day (June 13) and looking out 

 through the port-hole, a superb sight met my gaze 

 — the long white front of the Lofoten Islands, stretching 

 away beyond the blue sea into pale distance, Vaaga- 

 kallen, a bold pyramidal peak, the centre and culmination 

 of the range. This glorious scene ushered in a day of 

 perfect delight. Hastening on deck in pyjamas I proceeded, 

 in the sheer excitement of joy, to ruin a series of photo- 

 graph plates — exposing one twice, the next not at all, break- 

 ing a third, taking the double-back off with a fourth before 

 closing the shutter — and so on, the result being that the 

 view was hidden without being photographed at all. By 

 this time the Raftsund had entered the charming harbour of 



