6 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



of the unfortunate Russians, their arms and 

 other belongings, exactly as they had been 

 left. 



Andersen, an old and experienced winterer, 

 whom I met at Jan May en, once gave me at 

 Tromso an old portrait of Christian IV of Den- 

 mark, which he had discovered in an abandoned 

 hut at Spitzbergen. The portrait was hung on 

 the wall between two human skulls. These 

 skulls on either side of the portrait of the great 

 law-giver probably commemorated some lynch- 

 law tragedy of the northern wilds. For it is 

 not only scurvy, hunger, cold and the bears 

 which menace the trapper ; he has also to 

 fear his own kind. The primitive law of Might 

 even to-day prevails in Spitzbergen, and fre- 

 quently unfortunate hunters, enfeebled by the 

 hardships of a long winter, have been assailed 

 and murdered in the spring by the crews of 

 fishing vessels, who robbed the trappers of the 

 skins they had collected. Chance has betrayed 

 many of these assassins, but who can tell how 

 many similar atrocities have never come to light? 

 One of the most remarkable instances of retri- 

 bution that has ever claimed my attention is 

 the following: 



About the year 1830 a Russian vessel 

 returned to Archangel minus its captain. The 



