chap, in TO SPITSBERGEN 37 



during the voyage. The hour appointed for sailing came, 

 but the preface lingered. Furiously the author worked on 

 amongst teacups and the debris of food. At last the work 

 was done. A wild rush on shore, and the precious docu- 

 ment was consigned to the post and all the printer's devils. 



At last it became clear that the ship would soon be 

 ready to sail. Various Jeremiahs bade us good-bye, and ex- 

 pressed hopes for our success, which at the same time they 

 prophesied would not be realised. They said the season 

 was a late one, that the ice would keep us out of Ice Fjord, 

 that we should not reach Advent Bay before August. Few 

 were the prophets of smooth things. They derided our 

 ponies. They knew of better men — as indeed they easily 

 might — than those we had engaged. They wished, one and 

 all, that we had come to them for advice, when we might 

 have started with some chance of success. Thus we quitted 

 Tromso in a chastened mood, which, about the supper 

 table, gave place to wildest merriment, for at last we felt 

 that the preliminary stage of our journey was ending and 

 that the fun would soon begin. 



There remained, even yet, a final incident, when we un- 

 expectedly stopped at Skaaro, close to the entrance into the 

 northern ocean, and visited the whaling station there, about 

 midnight. Three newly captured tinner whales lay stranded 

 or moored by the shore, and were in process of being flensed. 

 One was a great fellow ; the stink that arose from all was 

 overwhelmingly horrible ! The wife of the manager of the 

 company invited us to her charming house, where success 

 was pledged to our enterprise in champagne. A wood fire 

 blazed on a picturesque hearth ; the walls were hung with 

 bearskins, bold autographs of Kaiser Wilhelm and other 

 distinguished visitors, and various trophies. The windows 

 commanded views over a landlocked sound to a row of 

 the snowy mountains we had just come by. The cosiness 

 and comfort of this hospitable home were most enjoyable. 



