586 FARTHEST NORTH 



and if we went into a shop it was soon overflowing with 

 people. 



Thus we spent some never-to-be-forgotten days in 

 Vardo, and the hospitahty which we met was lavish 

 and cordial. After we had said good-bye to our hosts 

 on board the IVimizuard and thanked them for all the 

 kindness they had shown us. Captain Brown weighed 

 anchor on the morning of Sunday, the i6th, to go on to 

 Hammerfest. He wanted to pay his respects to my wife, 

 who was to meet us there. On August 21st Johansen 

 and I arrived at Hammerfest. Everywhere on the way 

 people had greeted us with flowers and flags, and now, 

 as we sailed into its harbor, the northernmost town in 

 Norway was in festal array from the sea to the highest 

 hilltop, and thousands of people were afoot. To my 

 surprise, I also met here my old friend Sir George 

 Baden- Powell, whose fine yacht, the Otaria, was in the 

 harbor. He had just returned from a very successful 

 scientific expedition to Novaya Zemlya, where he had 

 been with several English astronomers to observe the 

 solar eclipse of August 9th. With true English hospi- 

 tality, he placed his yacht entirely at my disposal and I 

 willingly accepted his generous invitation. Sir George 

 Baden-Powell was one of the last people I had seen in 

 England. When we parted — it was in the autumn of 

 1892 — he asked me where we ought to be looked for 

 if we were too long away. I answered that it would 

 be of little use to look for us — it would be like 



