2o8 SPITSBERGEN chap, xv 



Director of the British Museum (Natural History), and be- 

 cause of its relative botanical wealth. A naval officer once 

 told me a story of his first Arctic experience. He was sent 

 from his ship with a few men to land at some spot on the 

 neighbouring coast and find a cairn built there by a previous 

 expedition. One of the seamen with him was an old Arctic 

 hand. When they had landed, the seaman said to him, 

 "Where's your food, sir?" He replied, "I haven't brought 

 any ; we shall be back on board in three hours." " Excuse 

 me, sir," was the reply, " but that ain't Arctic." " W T here's 

 your rifle, sir ? " was the next question. "I haven't brought 

 one." "That ain't Arctic either, sir." They climbed the 

 hill and found the cairn. While it was being searched the 

 seaman carved the officer's name on one side of a piece of 

 wood, and his own initials on the other side. " What's that 

 you're sticking into the cairn, Jack ? " " Just a piece of wood 

 with your name on it, sir." " But I don't want my name 

 carved all over the place." " Excuse me, sir, but that's 

 Arctic." Returning to the shore they found the ice packing, 

 and were only just able by the narrowest shave to get back 

 to the ship before the way was blocked. 



We went forth this day without either rifle or provisions, 

 except a few biscuits. As Gregory afterwards said, " It ain't 

 Arctic." We needed both — the rifle when we found reindeer 

 about half a mile from camp, and the provisions a few hours 

 later. We followed the left bank of Flower Valley by an 

 up-and-down way over various steep-flanked gullies. The 

 scenery was tame, and resembled that of some of the less 

 interesting valleys of Tirol. The slopes were bare, with 

 snow-beds lying on them, and there were large snow accumu- 

 lations by and overhanging the river. Masses fell from these 

 into the stream with the boom of an avalanche, and cast 

 clouds of snow-dust into the air. 



The sun was hot ahead, and we felt his power, and per- 



