182 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Fjord Factory. The ‘Glimt’ made a very successful beginning, 
taking a Blue Whale in May. 
One rough evening in June, when off Kildin Island, on the 
Murman coast, her commander, Captain Larsen, was sitting 
reading. in the cabin. The sun being at that time above the 
horizon throughout the twenty-four hours, there was no light 
burning, and Capt. Larsen was not smoking. Without any 
apparent cause the powder, amounting to about 80 kilos. (more 
than 14 ewt.). which was kept in the cabin, exploded. Captain 
Larsen was hurled, frightfully burnt, through the broken sky- 
light, while the vessel was reduced to a complete wreck, and was 
burning fiercely. The crew took to the whale-boat, taking 
Capt. Larsen with them, who was completely blinded, the skin 
being entirely burnt off his face and hands, and otherwise 
injured. It blew a gale of wind, and for fifteen hours he lay 
helpless in the bottom of the boat in agonies, which were 
terribly aggravated by lying in salt water, for the seas broke 
over the boat constantly, filling it, and every moment threatening 
to swamp it. He gradually began to lose sensation, the 
numbness creeping slowly upwards from the feet, and he felt 
that, if the numbness should reach as high as his stomach, it 
would put a fatal termination to his sufferings. Happily, before 
this occurred the boat was picked up by another whaler, which 
at once steamed off to Yeretiki, the nearest oasis of civilisation, 
where he received every possible attention at the hands of Capt. 
Horn. He was thence taken by sea to Vardé, and from there 
he eventually proceeded home. I am happy to be able to add 
that he has recovered his sight, and the last account I heard of 
him was that he was in a fair way to convalescence ; but it may 
be doubted whether he will ever again undertake the command 
of a whaler where so large an amount of powder on so small a 
vessel must always be a source of danger, and, though all the 
managers are going to adopt extra precautions during the 
approaching season, they expect this accident will largely affect 
the rates of insurance. 
Several accidents have at different times occurred from the 
premature explosion of the harpoon-shell. A man belonging to 
one of the Hast Finmarken boats was badly injured at the 
beginning of last season in this way, and was an inmate of the 
Vardé Hospital nearly all the summer. 
