314 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



Meals on the Bagna, excellent tliougli they were, 

 sometimes recalled the feast of the stalled ox ; and 

 during the crises of the ice and of the storm, when 

 everybody was busy and anxious, we felt doubly bound, 

 as supercargoes, to be on our best behaviour. Besides, 

 the change from our free-and-easy feasts at Golchika 

 to the order and civility of meals in the ship's saloon 

 was a little difficult at first. It took quite three days 

 to reaccustom oneself to use an especial knife for the 

 butter. These meals used to remind me of the table- 

 talk in the " Soliloquy in a Spanish Cloister" : 



^^ Not a plenteous cork crop: scarcely 

 May we hope oak galls, I doubt : 

 What's the Latin name for parsley ? 

 WhaVs the Gh'eek name for swine's snout ? " 



Our "swine's snoutishness" took the form of tarts, in 

 which we indulged to the extent of five apiece. We 

 looked guiltily down the street as we left the shop, and 

 hoped that if seen we should pass unidentified, lest we 

 should bring discredit on the ship. But all the while 

 we knew that this was a vain hope, for in a place like 

 Hammerfest, everyone knows everything about every- 

 body else, and the shopkeeper had already remarked 

 " Engelske" and " Yenesei " to three deeply interested 

 customers in succession. 



After this satisfactory kick over of the traces, we 

 returned on board. The Ragna waited until midnight 

 for the Skule, who had been oblisred to lie to after the 

 storm in order to restow her deck cargo, most of which 

 was hanging over her side. I employed the time by 

 trying to take a photograph of the town by night, and, 



