THE COMMANDANT'S HERMIT LIFE. 453 



' But I also celebrated days of mark in other ways. I had, 

 namely, no less than three flags Norwegian ones and on 

 occasions of particular rejoicing I hoisted all three. Such days 

 were the birthday of H.M. King Christian IX., the anniversary of 

 the battles in Copenhagen roads and off Heligoland, and the 

 birthdays of some of the members of my family. 



' This time might suitably be divided into periods, extending 

 from one visit to another. The first period lasted till eleven on 

 the night of Good Friday, when Captain Baumann, the mate, 

 and Stolz arrived from the west. It was chiefly remarkable for 

 its bad weather ; there were snowstorms all the time, and it was 

 only calm once or twice for a space of a few hours. The wind 

 was much more violent than it had ever been before, particularly 

 on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday (April 12 and 13) ; and 

 the drift was so thick that in broad daylight I could not see so 

 much as a glimpse of the ruins of Fort Juliana, only thirty yards 

 away. On the evening of the latter day, as aforesaid, Captain 

 Baumann and his party arrived. Both my dogs gave tongue so 

 loudly that I thought it was a bear, and had got ready for it, when 

 I heard Stolz's voice outside. As the new-comers' tent had come 

 to grief during an attempt to pitch it, we all four spent the night 

 in the hut, in a rather uncomfortable manner. The next day was 

 calm, and the tent was repaired and pitched, and the day after 

 that they went off to the " Fram." I kept one of the two dogs 

 which had been with me, namely, the mate's " Tiger." 



' The period which now followed was the least pleasant of my 

 stay at Bjorneborg, chiefly because I had come to an end of my 

 literature, and was obliged to read the only book in my possession 

 (the others had been sent back to the " Fram ") over and over 

 again. By way of compensation, however, the weather was now 

 comparatively good. There was quite a number of sunny days, 

 and I find many notes in my diary mentioning that on such and 

 such a day the sun burned quite powerfully. A phenomenon of 

 the kind, however, was not unnatural, although there were still a 

 good many degrees of frost in the shade ; for, as everybody knows, 

 the sun " strikes " hotter on black than on any other colour, and 

 it was now a considerable time since I had washed myself. 



