92 VISIT TO SPITZBEEGEN 



August 27. Anchored at Hammerfest at 4 p.m., and 

 got our letters. 



So ends my Spitzbergen journal. I found the mail 

 steamer going to sail at 1 a.m. on the 28th (Sunday) and 

 went qn board her. At Tromso I parted with Ludwig, 

 with great regret. He is the handiest and most obliging 

 fellow I ever had to do with, and you may speak to him 

 just as you would to a companion and he does not 

 presume upon it. He was to start next day for Bals 

 Fjord, whence he would walk across to Mukkanoma and 

 so get to Muoniovara. 



Of my voyage down the coast of Norway I need not 

 say much ; it was not a pleasant one. The country is 

 thriving and the people are not improved by it. The 

 merchants are as boorish as Germans, and the lower 

 classes as extortionate as Jews. They all spit infinitely 

 worse than Yankees. The Prinds Gustav is a small 

 steamer constructed to carry about 15 cabin passengers 

 and we had nearly 40. The further south we came, the 

 more people came on board, and the closer every door, 

 port and window were shut. To make matters worse, 

 the winter hours were adopted and we scarcely ever ran 

 at night ; this made the voyage three days longer. 



