AN AUTUMN VISIT TO SPITZBERGEN. 405 



close to the house, and placed over it a board with the inscription, 

 "Her under hviler Stovet af 15 Mand, som dode her Foraaret 

 1873. Fred med eders stov" — i. e. " Hereunder rest the remains 

 of fifteen men, who died here in the spring of 1873. Peace with 

 their remains." We were received with the greatest hospitality 

 by the members of the Expedition, and spent a most pleasant clay 

 with them, in this the only inhabited house in all Spitzbergen, 

 and inspected the observatories, &c. The Swedes had brought 

 with them two pointers, six tame Lapland reindeer (one of which 

 had been killed for the table before our visit), three pigs, and 

 twelve pigeons, one of which last had disappeared a few days 

 previously, and as Arnesen and some of the crew of the Expedition 

 while standing near the dovecot in the afternoon observed a falcon 

 stoop at one of the pigeons, which the men saved by shouting and 

 waving their arms, the fate of the lost pigeon may be conjectured. 

 An Arctic Fox had taken up its abode under the house, and seemed 

 to consider itself quite under the protection of the Expedition. 

 Observations began on August 15th, except with the anemometer 

 and anemoscope, which yet remained to be fixed at the date of 

 our visit. The spot chosen for these, on the Fjeld behind the 

 house, is 826 feet above the sea level, and about 570 yards distant 

 from the house. The astronomical observatory is about 280 feet 

 and the magnet-house about 240 feet above the sea. Observations 

 are taken every hour, the watches of the observers being — from 

 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. ; 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. ; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ; 3 p.m. to 

 8 p.m. ; 9 p.m. to 12 p.m. The thermometer cage contains two 

 wet and two dry thermometers, one Saussure's hygrometer, and 

 one evaporimeter. The anemometer is by Robinson, and marks 

 with an electric register made by Herr Andree, one of the members 

 of the Expedition, at Cap Thordsen. The International Cir- 

 cumpolar Expeditions of Denmark, Russia, Germany, Holland, 

 Austria, and Sweden have similar instruments, by Edelmann, of 

 Munich. Some distance west of the house Lieut. Stjernspetz 

 and I, while taking a walk in the afternoon, found a large whale's 

 rib, partly imbedded in shingle about forty feet above the present 

 high-water mark. We saw a few Fulmars along the coast, and 

 several Pink-footed Geese, a young specimen of which the 

 Lieutenant shot, the others keeping well out of reach. Cast-horns 

 of Reindeer were lying about in numbers ; I picked up and kept 

 a few of the best met with. After an excellent dinner we took 



