2 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



and journeyed northwards, and the whaling 

 industry, following in the wake of the cetaceans, 

 was transported to higher seas, Russian trappers, 

 engaged by the furriers of Archangel to ex- 

 ploit the animals of the region, occupied the 

 Spitzbergen coasts. Judging from the number 

 of ruined huts, and the crosses marking the 

 sepulchres of those who succumbed, these 

 trappers must have been very numerous. 



There were, indeed, terrible winters when the 

 ice, unmelting, delayed the relief ships des- 

 patched in the spring, compelling the trappers to 

 remain two consecutive years at their posts, 

 often dying of hunger and scurvy. Then, as 

 now, the success or failure of a wintering de- 

 pended on the character of the leader. Instances 

 might be quoted of sailors, well furnished with 

 all the necessaries of life, but badly disciplined, 

 dying of scurvy ; while others, deprived of 

 almost every resource, but governed by efficient 

 leaders who were wise enough to maintain moral 

 health by physical activity, have survived the 

 dangers and hardships of several winters in 

 those inhospitable regions. In illustration of 

 this, M. Leroy, a member of the Imperial 

 Academy of Science, St. Petersburg, published 

 a brochure in 1750 recording the adventures 

 of four Russian sailors stranded at Spitzbergen 



