FROM SCURVY AND HUNGER. 227 



bed on to the floor, and lie had soon after- 

 wards expired himself, only a few days 

 before the Norwegian party arrived. The 

 Russians had a large pinnace in the harbour 

 and several small boats on shore, but the 

 ice at first prevented them reaching the 

 open sea, and latterly, when the ice opened 

 out, those who survived so long were much 

 too weak to make any use of the boats. 

 The shipwrecked Norwegians, therefore, took 

 advantage of the pinnace to effect their own 

 escape to Hammerfest, carrying with them 

 the poor superintendent's journal, which 

 the Russian consul at that port transmitted 

 to Archangel. 



When I first visited this spot in 1858, I 

 took a photograph of it. 



Everything then remained almost exactly as 

 the unfortunate Russians left it, and some of 

 their weapons, cooking utensils, and ragged 

 fragments of clothes and bedding lay scattered 

 around. A great many skulls and bones of 

 bears, foxes, deer, seals, and walruses also testi- 

 fied to their success as hunters. We likewise 

 found a curious implement, like a miniature 

 wooden rake, the use of which contrivance was 

 a complete enigma to me, until our pilot ex- 



* q2 



