40 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



so much backing and going ahead and turning in small circles, 

 just the manoeuvres we will require in pursuit of whales. 



More homely work consisted in getting potatoes on board 

 from Lar sen's farm a retired American naval man whose 

 farm adjoins Henriksen's. He has cut the spruce shafts in 

 our wood for lances, light and pliable, carefully chosen for 

 the quality of each stem, and so as to leave room for growth 

 of the younger trees. And we have cut down a venerable 

 oak, for we need a stout bole for our anvil, and other smaller 

 pieces for toggles for whale-flensing. Anvil and forge are 

 of goodly size, for we shall have heavy ironwork making 

 straight the big harpoons (three-and-a-half-inch diameter) 

 after they have been tied into knots by some strong rorqual. 

 A turning lathe we must have, and an infinity of blocks, 

 bolts, chains, and shackles. Veritably our little one-hundred- 

 and-ten-foot motor, sailing, tank, whaling, sealing, cookery 

 ship is multum in parvo, and parva sed apta. 



We have got our ammunition on board. We brought it 

 from Tonsberg yesterday ourselves, on our Bolinder launch, 

 so saved freight and fright ! for the local boat- owners were a 

 little shy. Henriksen packed the powder in tins on the floor 

 of our launch in the stern sheets, rifles and cartridges on top, 

 and he himself with his pipe going sat on top of all. I think 

 he smoked his pipe to ease my mind, to make me feel quite 

 sure that he thought it was quite safe, now the ammunition 

 is being stowed away under my bunk ! Two thousand ex- 

 press rifle cartridges with solid bullets we have, for we will 

 call on the sea-elephants at a seldom- visited island we know 

 of just north of the Antarctic ice. One load we should surely 

 get in a few weeks' time : their blubber is about eight inches 

 thick, and is worth 28 per ton ; a load of one hundred and 

 sixty tons (I think we could carry as much as that at a 

 pinch) at 28 per ton will equal 4480, not a bad nest egg, 

 and why not two or three loads in the season, not to 

 speak of the excitement of landing through surf and the 

 struggle through tussock grass. Man versus beast, with the 

 chances in favour of man, but not always ; men I know 

 have been drowned, and others nearly drowned, in the 

 kelp and surf that surrounds these islands in the far 



