WINTERING ESTABLISHMENT. 223 



a Spitzbergen winter was made manifest, and 

 a company of Russian traders in Archangel 

 organised a regular wintering establishment, 

 for the purpose of hunting the seal and the 

 walrus, the Polar bear and the reindeer. 

 Their men were left there in September , or 

 October, and were distributed in small parties 

 of two, three, or four individuals each, in 

 wooden huts, which had been constructed in 

 Archangel, and were erected in different parts 

 of the coasts and islands of Spitzbergen. The 

 men were paid by a share of the proceeds, 

 and were supplied by their employers with 

 provisions, consisting principally of rye-meal, 

 salt pork, and tea. They had a sort of head- 

 quarters establishment at Hvalfiske Point, 

 which was under the charge of a superin- 

 tendent or clerk, who distributed the supplies 

 to the hunters and collected the skins and 

 blubber from the diflPerent outposts ; and the 

 company sent over a vessel in the month of 

 May every year, to relieve the men and carry 

 the proceeds of their labours to Archangel. 



It was probably found to be too severe a 

 strain upon the constitution to pass successive 

 winters in this way, as I believe it was usual 

 for these men only to remain every alternate . 



