WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 233 



" Now you have shown me your vill ees stronger den de 

 beasts' now I vill leave you," and she did. And through 

 his life his second wife was his right hand. 



What a huge industry has sprung from that new harpoon 

 first planned by Mr Welsh in Dundee, but developed in 

 Tonsberg by Svend Foyn, working with Henriksen the 

 engineer, that wonderful patriarch of Tonsberg. Gruff old 

 Svend Foyn died in 1895, a millionaire ; but he preserved 

 great simplicity of life and dined off one tin plate, and 

 despised luxuries ; and only one ailment did he ever suffer 

 from, that was toothache ; so if anyone had toothache they 

 got his sympathy, no other complaint got any. Only one 

 man in Norway could get to windward of him, and that was 

 Yensen, his steward. Once Foyn came on board at night 

 and Yensen was lying on the cabin floor very drunk, but with 

 just enough sense left to clap his hand to his cheek, and when 

 Foyn roared out : " Halloo, what the hell's the matter with 

 you?" he groaned: "Toothache, Captain, terrible toothache." 

 " Ho, ho," said Foyn, "I'll soon put that right," and he 

 went to his cabin and poured out a sou'-wester of whisky, 

 which he ordered Yensen to swallow neat, of course ; he did 

 so, and made a face, and had some difficulty in getting forward. 

 Foyn was as pleased as could be next morning, when he 

 visited Yensen and found he had only a headache. The 

 steward was very diplomatic and tactful. Once, with his 

 Captain, he went up a high hill somewhere about the Nord 

 Cap to look out for whales in the offing and there came 

 such a clap of wind that it blew the great Foyn down and 

 hurt his person and his dignity. But on looking round he 

 found Yensen slowly getting to his feet, muttering : " That 

 was a terrible blast, Captain." Yensen had really not felt it 

 at all, so he saved Foyn's feelings. 



His new industry has been the making of Southern Norway 

 and half of Tonsberg. But the Tonsberg people remember 

 him with mixed feelings. They would not subscribe capital 

 to their townsman's new venture ; not only that, but they 

 insisted on his doing all his whale factory work outside the 

 town. " All right," he said, " if you won't take a share in 

 the business I will give you the * smell,' " and he built his 



