54 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
available time was, therefore, devoted to the selection 
of a suitable outfit, such as our then limited knowledge 
of these seas suggested. We calculated on a journey of 
some months' duration, with a lurking apprehension of 
a possibility of having to winter somewhere in the— 
by all accounts—inhospitable region, where, if people 
are once “ beset/' they must prepare to endure un¬ 
speakable privations. We laid in, on this account,, 
many sea stores, which in our haste seemed to us 
absolutely essential for such a contingency, and others 
besides, that, had we more time at our disposal, might 
fairly have been dispensed with. 
We hastened to say good-bye to such of our friends 
as we considered might take some slight interest in 
our welfare, and from them we received in turn hearty 
assurance of good wishes, with predictions that the 
voyage we were about to enter upon could not fail to* 
be full of pleasurable enjoyment of every kind. 
We were at Hull at the time appointed, and there 
we found the splendid schooner-yacht, in the care of 
the worthy harbour-master of that busy place, at whose 
hands our good ship was receiving the last finishing 
touches previous to starting on her voyage. To him 
had been confided the overlooking of all the manifold 
requirements of the undertaking, and Captain Wells,, 
an old whaling captain, who had gathered experience 
