ERICSON S CARGO. 267 



to Hamnierfest, as it would save the expense 

 and delay of sending him by steamboat from 

 Tonsberg, in the south of Norway, to Hammer- 

 fest, in the extreme north. The man thus 

 luckily avoided a voyage of about 3000 miles. 



Poor Ericson has a pretty wife with a young- 

 family in Tonsberg, and he must have gone 

 home to her with a heavy heart, for he has 

 made but a bad summer s &quot;fishing&quot; of it. 

 Between Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, he has 

 been away from home seven months ; and his 

 letter to me mentions that he has only killed 

 270 Jan Mayen seals, 140 big Spitzbergen 

 seals, 62 walruses, 4 bears, and 35 rein-deer ; a 

 cargo which will afford but a miserable remu 

 neration for eight* months 5 time of a brig 

 carrying twenty-four men, and constantly man 

 ning four boats, and five upon an emergency. 



S~Lst. Early in the morning we are off South 

 Cape, the sea quite free from ice and the 

 weather fine. I think storms are very local 

 in Spitzbergen, and it is probably as coarse as 

 ever at Black Point, that stormy promontory 

 where we encountered so many fierce gales of 

 wind. 



* Allowing one month to reach Tonsberg. 



