SUMMER JOURNEYS AND FERTILITY. 81 



next boat-load of water ; he knew quite well where it was. Bay 

 looked absolutely dismayed at Peder's extraordinary naivete 

 in supposing that it would be possible for him to find it again 

 so long afterwards. 



Now Bay and Peder were specialists at betting ; they were 

 always at it, and by no means kept to small sums from twenty 

 to a hundred kroner being the usual figure. Had all the bets been 

 lost by one party only, it would have looked bad for his financial 

 position. As a rule they betted entirely on matters of chance, as, 

 for instance, the future state of the wind or weather, or whether 

 the melting of the ice would proceed quickly or the reverse ; truly 

 hazardous things to bet on ! But both Bay and Peder were practical 

 men, and as soon as the one had lost, the winner immediately gave 

 the other an opportunity of recouping himself, so that in this manner 

 they liquidated time after time. It was not long since Feder had 

 lost fifty kroner in this way, and he probably thought that now 

 was his chance of getting it back. He had no difficulty in 

 arranging the bet, it was done in less time than it takes to tell, 

 but hardly had it been concluded with all due formality than Peder 

 pulled out the stoat and held it up in triumph under Bay's nose. 

 Bay used a good deal of unparliamentary language, but Peder 

 only grinned and stuck to it that the bet held good. These 

 bets were not all to be taken quite seriously, and after some 

 dispute, where the words ' scoundrel ' and ' blackleg ' and similar 

 appellations were distinctly audible, it was agreed, in a way, that 

 Bay had lost. 



By Saturday, July 28, the thaw was so far advanced that 

 Schei, Simmons, and Bay thought of attempting a trip, with 

 scientific objects, to the inner part of the fjord, particularly along 

 the shore outside a big river which came down on the east side 

 of the fjord. They returned on Sunday evening, neither the 

 weather nor their catch having been very satisfactory. There was 

 little life to be found at the head of the fjord, and the insects 

 remained in hiding. 



Now dawned the dredgers' real golden period. It was done 

 at first by Bay, Peder, and myself in one of the sealiug-boats, at 

 the outer part of the fjord ; but by degrees, as the ice thawed and 



