AN ARCTIC RESIDENCE 245 



lifts the tusks over the gunwale and pushes the 

 animal back into the water. Accidents in hunting 

 rarely occur, but when two walruses are harpooned, 

 and one follows the herd away from the boat 

 whilst the other dives straight to the bottom, it is 

 necessary to have an axe handy to sever the rope 

 attached to the second animal, or the boat will 

 be upset. Occasionally the little vessels are crushed 

 in the ice, in which case the men escape in their 

 small boats, and are generally picked up by other 

 vessels, but one was completely lost, with all hands, 

 in 1914, owing to a sudden gale. 



To this melancholy place I came as British Vice- 

 Consul on May 15th, 1916, after a visit to the 

 British Embassy in Christiania, and at once took 

 up my duties. The consular and naval work was 

 not easy, and occupied the greater part of the day, 

 and it was only at night in summer time that I 

 was able to go out into the mountains and get 

 some exercise and relaxation in watching the 

 various Arctic birds now arriving on their spring 

 migration. In early May the whole country was 

 still wrapped in its shroud of snow and ice — ten feet 

 deep in some places — and no birds were to be 

 seen but the resident Ravens and Magpies, except 

 a few Herring, Kittiwake, and Lesser Black-backed 

 Gulls, which had already commenced their court 

 ships. On May 25th came the first spring arrivals, 

 flocks of Snow Buntings two hundred strong, the 

 black-backed males resplendent in their new plumage. 

 In a few days these beautiful little birds began to 

 sing, though there was no sign of the ice-break, 

 and in a week all flocks had broken up into pairs 

 and scattered over the adjoining hills. About the 



