24 BRIG &quot; NOBDBYE.&quot; 



Tonsberg, the same brig I had met last summer 

 amongst the Thousand Islands, and whose 

 master had initiated me into the exciting sport 

 of harpooning the walrus. I recognised the 

 portly form of Captain Ericson very like a 

 &quot;stour cobbe,&quot; or large seal himself on the 

 deck, and requested him to come on board to 

 dinner, an invitation with which he promptly 

 complied. The &quot; Nordbye &quot; had left Tonsberg 

 in the Christiania Fiord in February, for the 

 seal-fishery in the great ice-field in the neigh 

 bourhood of Jan Mayen s Island, and, having 

 been unlucky there, had only lately come to 

 Spit zber gen as a dernier ressort, in hopes of 

 making up a cargo; she is an unwieldy tub 

 of about 200 tons, with five boats and twenty- 

 four men, and is far too small for the north 

 western, fishery, as she is unable to hoist or 

 turn over a dead whale ; while, on the other 

 hand, she is too big for the Spitsbergen seal 

 and walrus fishery, as no one locality is gene 

 rally able to employ five boats at a time, and 

 his crew are consequently only half employed. 

 Ericson told us that the spring fishery at Jan 

 Mayen s had been very unsuccessful and very 

 disastrous; many vessels had gone home 

 &quot;clean;&quot; several Scotch and Norwegian vessels 



