i22 SPITSBERGEN chap, viii 



photographing, discussing, and agreeing upon conclusions. 

 The wind was cool, but the sun so warm that, in descending, 

 we found it agreeable to rest in the shade below each 

 shoulder of the ridge. The sliding debris was pleasant to 

 descend. Then came a snow couloir and a short glissade 

 below it. On reaching camp I took my rifle — for we had 

 no shot-gun — and went to stalk a company of pink-footed 

 geese who had come to visit the twelve nesting couples by the 

 waterfall. One, I thought, was as good as in the pot, but the 

 rifle missed fire, thanks to the state of rust into which Pedersen 

 had allowed it to come — small blame to him, considering 

 through how much water the sledges had been dragged. 



After supper came a golden midnight, when the sun 

 shone warmly and the sky was clear. Between wind and 

 waterfall, sounds reached us through all the sleeping hours 

 as of trains going into tunnels and cuttings. Long and late 

 we slept, making a "Europe morning" and a day of rest of 

 the Sunday (July 5) that followed. . It was a day amongst 

 a thousand, worth winning by weeks of labour and wet. 

 Cool airs played around ; the sun was warm, and the pale 

 blue sky brilliantly clear. It might have been an English 

 May day. There was a Sunday sentiment in the air. One 

 almost expected to hear church bells pealing from afar off 

 over the russet Sassendal flats, but the only sounds were the 

 booming river, the rippling brook, and the flapping of the 

 tents in the breeze. 



Two reindeer came and stalked us. They wandered up 

 to the tents and smelt at the sleeping-bags lying out for 

 an airing. We took snapshots at them with harmless 

 cameras till we were tired, and left them to amuse them- 

 selves as they liked best — one might as well shoot sheep in 

 a field as such careless and stupid beasts. 



The snowfield at the head of Rabot Glacier was abso- 

 lutely clear, and, to an unobservant eye, might have seemed 



