IN SEARCH OF THE EIRA. 143 



100 miles west of Stav Fiord in Norway, we chanced 

 upon a Norwegian fishing-boat lying at anchor in 100 

 fathoms of water, and obtained a very welcome supply 

 of fresh cod in exchange for tobacco, salt meat, and 

 biscuit. The gradually lengthening days, the setting 

 of the sun later evening after evening, and, finally, 

 the emerging into the long summer's day of months' 

 duration of the Arctic regions, brought home to all 

 the fact that we were getting well into the region in 

 which our work lay. Darkness had now vanished, 

 and with it the stars ; and the moon, shining with 

 but a feeble reflection of the great illuminator, alone 

 remained to remind us of such a thing as night. 

 Busily employed in getting ready stores to land at 

 depots, sledges and other travelling gear for use at 

 a moment's notice, and serving out and altering the 

 warm clothing to the various shapes and sizes of 

 humanity on board, we passed up the North Sea 

 and approached the coast of Norway in a thick fog 

 on the morning of July 2d, and encountered a Russian 

 barque, also groping her way in towards the land. 

 About noon the mist lifted and enabled us to make 

 out the precipitous cliffs of North Kvalo and its 

 dangerous outlying rocks, and to continue on our 

 course towards Hamerfest. Steaming across a broad 

 bay, hemmed in by high and snow -flecked islands 

 and by the mainland of Norway, we entered the nar- 

 row channel leading to Hamerfest towards midnight, 

 the stern and forbidding scenery lighted up and 



