334 SPITSBERGEN chap, xxiv 



to consume on the peak, was eaten and washed down with 

 unsweetened coffee. Just as we had finished, Trevor-Battye, 

 with an expression of intense surprise, drew from his pocket 

 a fragment of the rind of an old Dutch cheese which he had 

 bought on the ship in Advent Bay. This he generously 

 divided between us, and then our thoughts turned to a 

 smoke, but our tobacco was finished, and we had only one 

 match left. Raking up the ashes in our pipes we struck 

 our last lucifer in breathless silence and solemnly handed 

 it round. 



After four hours' sleep we started down to the coast. The 

 fog had lifted slightly, and we had no difficulty in finding our 

 way to the boat. We learned that the captain had almost 

 given us up in despair, and that the steamer, which we had 

 hoped to catch on its way to Norway, had sailed two days 

 before, after waiting for five hours in the bay. As our pro- 

 visions were practically exhausted, there was no use in re- 

 maining where we were. While they were getting up steam, 

 we made a short boat expedition up the bay, then set ont to 

 cross the three hundred miles of Arctic Sea which separated 

 us from Tromso and civilisation. 



The voyage was decidedly lively, though not really rough. 

 Our little launch was swept by wave after wave, and we had 

 frequently to slacken to half-speed to avoid diving underneath 

 altogether. Matters in our little cabin reached a climax of 

 discomfort when the water, which was rushing about on deck, 

 poured down the companion in one stupendous leap (as they 

 say in the advertisements of waterfalls), on to our cabin floor, 

 converting the place into a swimming-bath. 



The boat was rolling heavily at the time. Before we could 

 oust the unwelcome intruder, an avalanche of miscellaneous 

 commodities shot over into the water from the shelf above. 

 At the same moment a table, on whose equilibrium we had 

 hitherto implicitly relied, distributed its contents impartially 



