FOREIGN BAILORS. 
257 
shore, and protected by it we rest secure. The sloop 
joined us here, and soon after two steamers put in, 
followed by two more fishing craft. We form quite 
a fleet resting here for safety, and we pass our time 
inquiring from the men what sport they have had 
during the season. 
The ice to them had been equally unfriendly with 
ourselves; the sport consequently was poor. The 
northern coast being so much obstructed, but few 
white whales had been captured, and the men had a 
gloomy prospect for the coming winter, depending, as 
they did, upon the full stores they expected to bring 
home, out of which their share in the venture would 
be paid. 
During our short acquaintance with these foreign sea¬ 
men we learned one fact worth knowing; soap is by 
them considered an expensive luxury, and the gift of 
a morsel was esteemed as an exceeding great favour. 
The price of soap in Norway places that necessary 
article quite out of the reach of most poor people, and 
we need not dilate on the want of it amongst men not 
particularly careful in their persons, packed so closely 
in their poorly provided ships. These ships themselves 
are small, and ill-contrived for Arctic navigation; 
built of their native fir, the timber is sometimes 
made more capable of resisting ice by the addition of a 
