266 SPITSBERGEN chap, xx 



came to near Green Harbour Camp, and blew the whistle. 

 The screaming thing bored the drums of our ears, but such 

 was the turmoil of the air, that it was inaudible ten minutes' 

 row to windward, where the tent was pitched behind a rock. 

 Only the chance that Garwood was on a look-out revealed 

 our presence. By noon all were on board, tightly packed 

 into the little cabin. It was of a truncated V-shape, ten feet 

 wide at its broadest. Down the midst was a passage cluttered 

 up by a stove, a table, and a washstand. On either side was 

 a narrow bench, and then a shelf on a higher level. A 

 man might lie on this shelf, but he could not turn over, 

 for the ceiling was too close down. Only in an area of 

 about two square yards at the foot of the companion would 

 there have been room to stand erect, but that too was filled 

 with baggage. Everywhere else you bumped your head, 

 even when sitting. We were fairly bruised all over, after 

 a week's knocking about in such narrow and angular quarters. 

 The five of us packed in somehow with all our baggage and 

 bags. Two lay on each narrow bench with heads propped 

 up against the ends, and legs like overthrust strata. The 

 fifth was either on the floor or on a shelf. The tents were 

 roomy palaces compared with this cabin. 



In such relative discomfort we headed for the sea, and 

 were glad ; for there was a sense of freedom now that bogs 

 and ponies were well left behind, and new scenes were at 

 hand. Once Dead Man's Cape was rounded a new world 

 would open, and all the known hills be wrapped away. 

 Round we went in the tumbling sea. The west front of 

 Spitsbergen began to unroll before us, the sea front of the 

 long mass of hard archasan rocks, which keeps the rotten 

 interior of the island from being swept away by the inroading 

 ocean. A series of splintered ridges, striking inland, here 

 abut upon the sea. Their other ends are presented towards 

 Advent Bay. Broad glaciers flow lazily down between them 



