THE COMMANDANT'S HERMIT LIFE. 457 



looking out that they belonged to Schei and Hendriksen. We 

 then had a great feast in their tent, and I listened enviously to 

 the narration of their exploits, for I had myself none to relate. 

 After supper Schei and I went out again to the place where I 

 had lost the seal. We could see the animal, but in our attempts 

 to fish it up it sank. On our return to Bjb'rneborg, I turned in 

 and tried to get some sleep, but I was out again at twelve o'clock 

 to see after my lost booty, which I now found had disappeared 

 for ever. Later in the day Schei and I went a longer walk west- 

 ward, when he shot at a seal, but missed it. We looked at some 

 Eskimo meat-larders which I had found on a previous occasion. 

 They were four feet high and about the same in diameter, and were 

 particularly interesting, being built with unusual care, of pretty, 

 oblong, flat stones. They were almost cylindrical in shape, and 

 were just like the ruins of small towers. 



' My visitors stayed till the evening of May 31, when they left 

 Bjorneborg. I had all my meals with them, and have seldom 

 lived so well, for they had invented quite a number of new dishes 

 on their journeys. It snowed the whole of this day, and when I 

 awoke at ten o'clock on June 1, I was surprised, though hardly 

 agreeably so, to hear the sound of dripping water inside the hut. 

 When I went out, I found that it was still snowing, which sent 

 me back into the bag in anything but a good temper. I observed 

 on this occasion positive temperature in the shade for the first 

 time (33 Fahr., 07 Cent.). Not long afterwards, I heard voices 

 and the howling of dogs, and when I went out to look, found my 

 new guests down on the ice-foot, though at first I saw only an 

 arm moving backwards and forwards in regular time, as cease- 

 lessly and inexorably as fate itself. The arm held a whip, and 

 each lash was answered by a howl from the unfortunate hound 

 which had disobeyed, and was now undergoing punishment. The 

 arm proved to be Fosheim's, and I went down to meet him and 

 the Captain. They pitched their tent on land, where Schei and 

 Hendriksen's had been, and I spent the day with them. During the 

 evening it was decided that I should return to the ship with the 

 Captain, and Fosheim succeed me as commandant of Bjorneborg. 

 On the morning of June 2, I accordingly left the castle where 



