MN 
20 British Antarctic Expedition. 
the Jason when Nansen was landed on the pack 
at Greenland. He had taken a part in the fight 
against the ice in the North, as he had. to fight 
with me against the Antarctic ice-pack; but besides 
this he had had fights of a warmer kind when he, in 
former days, returned from the North with his Viking 
comrades, and landed in some town on the coast of 
Norway, having in their pockets a small fraction of 
the value of that blubber which they, through risking 
their lives, had brought on board, and of the skins of 
seals which had cost them many a frozen finger. 
Having had a hard time for months at such work, it 
was not to be wondered at that he and his fellows had 
a gay time the first evening on shore, and woe 
to those who crossed the path of these Vikings 
from the icy regions when they, in delight at 
their return, went their way through the small 
town, where probably one feeble policeman was 
supposed to keep everyone in order, including 
these sailors, whose extravagant frivolities richly 
deserved all that sympathy and forbearance which 
they generally received. 
Once, he told me, they had returned from a 
very successful sealing expedition, where they had 
worked hard in dragging the seal skins into large 
heaps on the ice, while the captain came along with 
the vessel in the open channels and picked up the 
great heaps dotted about on the ice-fields. They 
had all this fresh in mind, and so had their gallant 
captain, who, also in celebration of their success, had 
sought some well-earned comfort from Bacchus in 
his quarter of the town. Singing and laughing these 
descendants of the Vikings proceeded through the 
