34 SPITSBERGEN chap, hi 



for a few days every June by the 10,000 people who frequent 

 the great fair of Stokmarknaes. The ship was regained at 

 eleven p.m., and such was the enthusiasm of our praise that 

 Trevor-Battye and our artist were tired to emulation, and 

 promptly set forth to follow our steps. They climbed the 

 mountain to its top, but the colour was gone. The seem- 

 ingly changeless vision we beheld had vanished like the 

 dream of a moment that it was. 



A pall of grey cloud settled down overhead in the early 

 morning when we sailed again, painting the landscape in 

 mere black and white, save where sometimes a remote hill 

 shone pale yellow in a small island of transient sunlight. 

 All clay long bleak scenery defiled past the ship, enlivened 

 now and again by a picturesque sail or a peak more in- 

 dividual and abrupt in form than its countless fellows. Cold 

 breezes and showers drove us to seek employment below. 

 I read in Gregory's book and found the following description 

 of a happy African day : "In company with the Goanese 

 commandant, I spent a pleasant afternoon catching lizards 

 and scorpions, and digging up skulls." I feared Spitsbergen 

 might seem dull, if that was his idea of bliss. Being a 

 person of varied resources, however, he was actively em- 

 ployed measuring the details of four hundred specimens of 

 a bone from the head of cod-fish. He said the pastime 

 was excellent. A momentary excitement was caused by our 

 touching bottom in the shallow channel of Risosund. The 

 face of a cliff, overlooking a narrow channel between Bjerko 

 and Helo, is the resting-place of countless kitti wakes, who 

 cumbered themselves little about our close proximity, though 

 we blew the whistle a few yards from their nests, causing 

 our own insides to quake like metallic resonators. In the 

 late evening Tromso was approached through a veil of rain. 



Under ordinary circumstances a day in Tromso would 

 not be a wildly exciting experience. For us, however, it 

 was busy enough. We had a horse-dealing transaction to 



