80 VISIT TO SPITZBERGEN 



dead calm when you are in a hurry is not a cheerful 

 business ; but I like him altogether very much. I only 

 wish he would smoke, an accomplishment he is not equal 

 to, though here it is almost a positive duty ; for nothing 

 can be more disgusting than the smell of boiling blubber 

 on shore ; or if that operation is not going on, there is 

 always stock-fish. 



Trondhjem, 



September 7, 1864. 



We have returned actually without any one of our 

 party setting eyes upon a Bear, a Walrus, or what to my 

 mind was as bad, even a Lagopus hemileucurus ! Nor in 

 the egg way has my success been even tolerable. Not a 

 single Grey Phalarope's, I never saw but one bird alive, 

 but I believe it is not otherwise than numerous, though 

 extremely local. The only point on which I think I have 

 determined, and which is of any importance, is that the 

 large species of Goose which frequents the Sound (and I 

 dare say other localities) is the Pink-footed Goose ; but 

 even of this I was unable to get an adult specimen, 

 though I saw two in the possession of Malmgren, the 

 Swedish naturalist, who was up there with the Scientific 

 Expedition. All the same I shall never repent of having 

 gone, still less of having taken Ludwig with me. It is 

 almost a new world to have seen. I must also record 

 among our captures nearly 50 Reindeer, and about a 

 dozen Seals, mostly large ones. 



Now that you may understand our movements I must 

 draw you a map, for there is not one in existence that 

 can be at all relied on, and we have been to many places 

 which have never yet been mapped at all. 



Cambridge, September 25, 1864. 



The day after I dispatched my letter to you from 

 Hammerf est, I went out to sail and shoot in Hammerfest 

 Bay. We saw a large flock of Long-tailed Ducks, and I 

 got 4 at 3 shots ; they did not appear to be breeding, but 

 were immature birds that had never properly moulted. 



