CHAPTER X 
Spitzbergen—Finner Whales—A Sealing Crew’s Fate—Rein- 
deer—Belugas or White Whales—Andrée and his Balloon— 
Andrée’s Cooking-stove—Catching Gulls—EKider-down. 
Therefore a health to all that shot and miss’d. 
Taming of the Shrew. 
N the spring of 1896 I was asked to accom- 
pany Sir Martin Conway to Spitzbergen, 
and had but three days in which to make 
up my mind. Eventually I decided to join the 
party, and make myself as useful as_ possible. 
The idea of this expedition was to explore the 
island, and if possible to cross from Ice Fjord to 
the other side. 
On arriving at Trondhjem I tried to buy some 
small iron rat-traps to catch birds, and the search 
for these things was a long one. When I found 
what I needed I padded the jaws with tow, so 
that there could be no possibility of breaking 
the leg of anything I might be able to catch. I 
was very anxious to bring home with me some 
live specimens of the ivory gull, glaucous gull, 
and the different species of skua. 
After leaving the North Cape the nights 
became shorter the farther north we went, until 
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