TRAPPERS 7 



crew reported that he had been carried away 

 with two of the sailors during a tempest ; such 

 incidents are of common occurrence in these 

 regions and the statement was accepted without 

 question. The world went on its way and the 

 matter was forgotten. 



Ten years afterwards a Norwegian fisherman 

 discovered on one of the Spitzbergen coasts a 

 human skeleton, and a metal tobacco box, on 

 which had been scratched certain words in a 

 language he did not understand. He brought 

 the box to Tromso, where the Russian Consul 

 translated the words and announced that the 

 box had belonged to the captain of the above- 

 mentioned Russian vessel, that his crew had 

 abandoned him, that his two companions had 

 died of starvation, and that he himself was on 

 the point of death. 



The tobacco box was sent to Archangel, where, 

 notwithstanding the lapse of years, several 

 members of the crew were discovered, brought 

 to justice, and condemned to expiate their 

 villainy beneath the lash in the Siberian mines. 



Nowadays it is not the custom to spend 

 the winter on any of the Spitzbergen islands 

 except those to the east, such as Hope Island 

 and Kong Karl Island. The annual destruc- 

 tion of the bears on these islands is so enormous 



