424 
THE HOUSE OF PROVEN. 
as the tides rose and fell ; and an iceberg somehow 
or other had found its way into the little port. It 
was a harmless lump, too deep sunk to float into dan- 
gerous nearness; and its spire rose pleasantly, like a 
Tillage church. 
''''July 3. I am writing in the 'Hosky' House of 
Cristiansen. Cristiansen is the Danish governor of 
Proven, and this house of Cristiansen is the House of 
Proven. Its owner is a simple and shrewd old Dane, 
hale and vigorous, thirty-one of whose sixty-four win- 
ters have been spent within the Arctic circle, north of 
70° N. Lord in his lonely region — his four sons and 
five subordinates, oilmen, the only white faces about 
him, except when he visits Uppernavik — the good old 
man has the satisfaction of knowing no superior. His 
habits are three fourths Esquimaux, one eighth Dan- 
ish, and the remainder Provenish, or peculiarly his 
own. His wife is a half-breed, and his family, in lan- 
guage and aspect, completely Esquimaux. 
" When the long, dark winter comes, he exchanges 
books with his friend the priest of Uppernavik. ' The 
Dantz Penning Magazin,' and ' The History of the Uni- 
tas Fratrum,' take the place of certain well-thumbed, 
ancient, sentimental novels ; and sometimes the priest 
comes in person to tenant the ' spare room,' which 
makes it very pleasant, ' for we talk Danish.' 
"Except this spare room, which elsewhere would 
be called the loft of the house, its only apartment is 
the one in which I am. And here eat, and drink, and 
cook, and sleep, and live, not only Cristiansen and all 
his descendants, but his wife's mother, and her chil- 
dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who are 
growing up about her. It is fifteen feet broad by six- 
teen long, with just height enough for a grenadier, 
