96 HAZARDOUS BOAT VOYAGE. 



when they had flensed all their hears they 

 rowed round to where they had left the sloop, 

 and were mightily disconcerted at seeing 

 neither sloop nor iceherg. They shouted, 

 and fired signal- shots, and rowed out to sea, 

 and rowed all around, until they got so 

 bewildered that they lost the island them- 

 selves. However, after a great deal of trouble 

 they found the island again, and waited upon 

 it for several days, expecting, of course, that 

 when the weather cleared the sloop would 

 return. The weather cleared, but no sloop 

 appearing, there stared them in the face the 

 alternatives of passing a winter of starvation 

 and almost certain death on the island, or of 

 attempting to cross the stormy 480 miles of 

 sea w^hich divided them from Norway, in a 

 small open boat ! 



Like bold fellows, they chose the latter 

 chance for their lives, and abandoning * one 

 of their boats on the island, the whole eight 

 got into the other one, with as much bear- 

 meat as they could stow, and rowed for dear 

 life to the south ; four rowed while the other 



* I saw this boat myself on the island, turned bottom up, 

 with all her oars, lances, harpoons, &c. just as they had 

 been left five years before. 



