WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 43 



found a deficiency in his accounts, found that the outfit for 

 the St Ebba cost 10,000 kroner more than the receipts 

 vouched for, and went over and over accounts, till yesterday 

 we made another pilgrimage to Tonsberg and interviewed a 

 banker and said politely, " How the deuce can this be ? " And 

 he cast his eye over his account-book and found his clerk had 

 merely omitted a figure in addition ; a trifle of 10,000 kroner 

 = 550 ! So we came away smiling, but it gave us a bit of a 

 shake, rather an aggravating and superfluous piece of worry 

 added to vexatious delays and bad weather. 



We motored back in the launch much relieved, and on 

 reaching the St Ebba practised big harpoon-gun drill. 

 Henriksen and I are the only men on board who are familiar 

 with its workings, but one or two of the crew have used the 

 smaller bottle-nose or Right whale guns. It was interesting 

 watching Henriksen' s demonstration to all hands. Smartly 

 they picked up the drill ; quickly, for all of them have served 

 in the naval reserve or army, and anything to do with a 

 tumble about or small craft they are familiar with from child- 

 hood to old age. Yesterday you could readily fancy one of 

 these old Viking fights, for a boatload of ten small boys was 

 fighting another boatload, a free fight, legs and arms in the 

 air, a fearful turmoil, and two boatloads of yellow-haired 

 girls smilingly looked on. 



" Old Man Henriksen," the oldest of the Tonsberg in- 

 habitants, came down the fiord from Tonsberg to-night to 

 wish us God-speed. He sailed down in his cutter single- 

 handed, shot into the wind round our port bow, jibbed and 

 swung alongside round our stern ; seventy-eight years old 

 and sailing his home-built, prize-winning twenty-footer as 

 well as the best of his juniors. On board we had the tiniest 

 skaal, which finished our last bottle of whisky, the remnant 

 of our hospitality in the trial trip ; we are drawing our beer 

 and whisky teeth, as the sailors say, before taking the high 

 seas. 



Then he went off in the twilight, as the lights began to 

 show in the gloom of the pines on shore, alone, sailing single- 

 handed, against the wishes of the family, who say he is old 

 enough and rich enough to employ a crew. He will spend 



