chap, xx SEVEN ISLANDS 271 



at all times eddy round and round, and cause the snow- 

 flakes to dance together in columns like restless ghosts. 

 Here it was that Mr. Arnold Pike built a small wooden 

 house, wherein he passed a winter far from the haunts of 

 men. The house was being utilised by the Swedes, who 

 set up their strangely civilised-looking gas apparatus close 

 alongside. Studley, after leaving us at Advent Bay, spent a 

 whole month in Pike's House, waiting to see the balloon 

 go up. Walkey immortalised him in a monumental outline 

 on the door — an unmistakable likeness ! 



Mr. J. Stadling of Stockholm, our companion on the 

 Raftsund, extended a warm greeting to us on the Virgo, and 

 conveyed Herr Andree's invitation to go over the balloon 

 house with him. A few strokes took the boat to the little 

 landing-stage, where Herr Andree and the two intended 

 companions of his proposed aerial flight joined us. We 

 were shown how the gas was made, and the long silk 

 pipe meandering amongst the stones to convey it into the 

 balloon. The great distended sphere rilled the roofless 

 wooden house and bulged out above. Like all balloons, 

 when seen near at hand, it appeared surprisingly large. It 

 is related of a shy curate, who had sat in absolute silence 

 throughout a dinner at the squire's house, that with the 

 coming of dessert he suddenly remarked, a propos of nothing, 

 "The cuckoo is a larger bird than you'd suppose." The 

 same general statement I maintain to be true of balloons. 

 They are all larger than you would suppose. There is here 

 no need to describe Andree's balloon. It has been described 

 often enough. Interesting as it was to me, with all its com- 

 pact contrivances, it was far less interesting than Andree 

 himself. 



No one could see him and not be struck by the evident 

 force and capacity of the man. In his presence, the idea 

 that any wavering of intention found place in his mind was 



