56 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



9th. The fog is not quite so thick, but a very 

 cold wind is blowing from the northeast, and the 

 thermometer on deck is just above freezing-point. 

 In such weather seals and walruses do not lie on 

 the ice, nor show more than their heads above wa- 

 ter occasionally, as if to inquire if the weather above 

 was getting any more favorable for basking. We 

 pretty much imitate these sensible amphibia in our 

 habits, as we don't show much on deck. 



In the afternoon a small sloop came in sight, 

 and appeared desirous of speaking us, so we hove- 

 to for them. The captain of the sloop then came 

 on board in a boat, and, touching his cap to us, he 

 began a dismal story, which my slight knowledge 

 of Norsk did not enable me to follow, so we had it 

 translated to us by one of our crew, who, from hav- 

 ing sailed in an American ship to San Francisco, 

 could speak tolerable English, or rather American. 

 It appeared that about three weeks ago another 

 small sloop, with a crew of six men, had been to- 

 tally lost among the ice near Hope Island. The 

 crew had taken to their boat, and had been rowing 

 and drifting about, looking for another vessel, until 

 yesterday, when this sloop had picked them up. 

 They were in the last extremity from cold and 

 hunger, having had nothing to eat for several days 

 past but the dry seal-skin mumings of their oars — 

 two of them, who were in this boat, looked very 

 thin and pale. The worst of the story was that 

 the captain of the wrecked vessel had got both his 



