The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
no refusal, so I had the unique experience of 
eating two dinners within an hour of each other, 
a doubtful pleasure, for I had already satisfied 
my hunger with the first ! 
Whilst with Andrée I found it extremely hard 
to distinguish night from day. It often happened 
that I did not turn in for a sleep until the after- 
noon of a day, and in this way I missed a trip 
which I had looked forward to with much anti- 
cipation. I would find myself having breakfast 
at four in the afternoon, the other meals being 
correspondingly erratic. My friend Arnold Pike 
owned a wooden steamer that he had used on a 
previous occasion for hunting walrus and polar 
bears, and he had given instructions to his cap- 
tain to make a trip to the north, as he was unable 
to go in her himself, nor was he able to let her 
to a shooting party. I had made arrangements 
before leaving Norway that the skipper should 
call in at Danes Ghat to pick me up. This he did, 
making inquiries for me. By a mistake some of 
Andrée’s men told him I had gone off to get 
eider-down, whereas I was in reality asleep 
within a few yards of him. I thus lost the chance 
of obtaining a polar bear skin, for I heard on 
his return that they had killed a good many 
walrus and a nice lot of bears. The steamer 
that was to take us back to Norway now put in 
an appearance at Ice Fjord. It seemed that we 
only missed seeing Nansen by an hour or so; 
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