3H SPITSBERGEN chap, xxm 



somehow. Trevor-Battye, Garwood said, had agreed to come 

 with him, though he was not eager to climb the mountain, 

 having never made a regular mountain ascent before. 



Till the sun had been observed it was not possible for me 

 to go. My presence on the mountain was in no sense neces- 

 sary, as Horn Sound and the surrounding hills had already 

 been mapped by Von Sterneck in 1872. 1 Moreover, there was 

 the business of the expedition to be attended to, and the re- 

 maining baggage to be packed. I was pledged to return with 

 the Lofoten to look after the sale of the ponies at Tromso and 

 other matters. I was, therefore, forced to let Garwood and 

 Trevor-Battye go without me. Garwood heard my decision 

 with heartless glee. "Then you will lend me your climbing 

 boots. I sent mine back to Norway by the last steamer along 

 with the other baggage." It really showed wonderful self- 

 denial on his part not to have told me this sooner, for 

 without nailed boots he could not safely have made the 

 ascent, and mine were the only ones to be had. 



We spent the rest of the day putting things together for 

 the Horn Sound party. In the evening I had a long talk 

 with Bottolfsen about Spitsbergen traditions, the Russian 

 trappers, and the doings of Mr. Jeaffreson's party while he 

 was with them, all which I duly noted down from his lips. 

 He said that the last Russian hunters who visited Spits- 

 bergen were a group of three or five, whose huts were on 

 the Dun Islands. They met a tragic end, which shall be 

 recounted as far as possible in his own words. 



" The story," he said, " is written down and printed. It is 

 well known in Hammerfest and Tromso. I once read it and 

 have often heard it told, but I do not now remember all the 

 details. It was, at all events, to this effect. There was at 

 Hammerfest a skipper named Andersen, by birth a Dane, but 

 regularly settled in Hammerfest. This year — it may have 



1 " Petermann's Mittheilungen," 1874, Tafel 4. 



