AN ARCTIC RESIDENCE 241 



goods, coal, salt, and fishing material. Thus, 

 without going further into the commercial and 

 political aspects of the case, it will be seen that the 

 Germans had an almost unassailable grip on the 

 Norwegian fish industry, practically the chief busi- 

 ness of Norway, and that only by threats of reprisals 

 could we prevent nearly the whole of the produce 

 going to Germany, since a free and safe waterway 

 existed between Kirkanaes and the Baltic German 

 ports. Moreover, the Germans were paying the 

 Norwegians something like a 600 per cent, advance 

 on the price of their fish, whilst we, who only began 

 to buy fish on a large scale in 1916, were offering 

 only something like a 200 per cent, advance. The 

 results were therefore obvious, even at the risk 

 to the merchants of being put on the " black list " 

 or threatened with deprivation of coal or salt. 

 These penalties, however, for the most part, were 

 only laughed at, as they were seldom carried into 

 effect. 



Hammerfest lies on the Arctic coast of Norway, 

 160 miles south of Bear Island and 450 miles from 

 Spitzbergen. As a rule its climate is vile, but 

 it has intervals of good behaviour, when mosquitoes, 

 " the size of humming-birds," some sufferers say, 

 arise from the soil and render life insupportable. 

 Winter lasts for eight months in the year, so the 

 brief summer — ^which officially begins about June 

 6th, sometimes in July, and sometimes not at all — 

 is always hailed with delight. In 1914 there were 

 but three fine days in the year. This Arctic 

 severity, alternating with rain and fog, is due to the 

 proximity of the perpetual Polar ice-pack, which 

 is never much further away than 120 miles. When 



