ACCIDENTS FROM FOG. 97 



and eider-ducks, when the sloop appeared in sight, 

 about three miles off, and in a totally different di- 

 rection to that in which we thought we had heard 

 the signal-shots. 



We got on board before noon on the 18th, and, 

 after a breakfast of hot brandy and water, cold beef 

 and biscuit, we turned in for a few hours' sleep. 



Many poor people have been left to perish mis- 

 erably on these bleak and desert islands by acci- 

 dents arising from fog, ice, currents, and brandy. 

 One notable case of a somewhat ludicrous nature, 

 but which might have ended very tragically, took 

 place five years ago, the scene being an island which 

 I afterward visited, about thirty miles to the south- 

 west of this one. A great many walruses had been 

 killed on this island the previous season, and a 

 small sloop from Hammerfest came to the island 

 for the chance of finding bears feeding on the car- 

 casses. They found a perfect flock of bears— ^up- 

 ward of fifty — congregated on the island, holding a 

 sort of carnival on the remains of the walruses. 

 The crew of the vessel consisted, as is usual, of ten 

 men, of whom the skyppar and seven others land- 

 ed to attack the bears, after having anchored their 

 sloop, securely as they thought, to a large ground- 

 ed iceberg close to the island, and given the two 

 men left on board strict injunctions to keep a good 

 look-out. 



They had a most successful "battue," and killed 

 twenty-two or twenty-three of the bears, the rest 



G 



