206 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



ly be left to their own vessel, as nothing was yet 

 known of her loss either there or at Archangel. 

 The ice in the summer months prevented any ves- 

 sel from accidentally approaching Hvalfiske Point, 

 and no one went near it until the end of August, 

 when a party of Norwegians, who had lost their 

 own vessel, traveled along the shore to seek for as- 

 sistance from the Russian establishment ; but, on 

 approaching the huts, they were horror-struck to 

 find its inmates all dead. Fourteen of the unhap- 

 py men had recently been buried in shallow graves 

 in front of the huts, two lay dead just outside the 

 threshold, and the remaining two were lying dead 

 inside, one on the floor and the other in bed. The 

 latter was the superintendent, who had been able 

 to read and write, and a journal-book lying beside 

 him contained a record of their sad fate. 



It appeared that early in the season scurvy of a 

 malignant character had attacked them ; some had 

 died at the out-stations, and the survivors had with 

 difficulty assembled at the head-quarter station, 

 and were in hopes of being speedily relieved by the 

 vessel ; but the latter not arriving, their stores got 

 exhausted, and the unusual quantity of ice surround- 

 ing the coast prevented them from getting seals or 

 wild-fowl on the sea or the shore. In addition to 

 the scurvy, they then had the horrors of hunger to 

 contend with, and they gradually died one after an- 

 other, and were buried by their surviving compan- 

 ions, until at last only four remained. Then two 



