streaming
through my rock window, and the negro telling me, as he was wont to do
in the ship, that my bath was ready. The bath-room lay away a few paces
from my chamber; but the water that flowed from the silver taps was
icily cold; and I shivered after my plunge, though the beauty and
luxury of the place compelled my admiration. It was no ordinary
bath-room, even in its arrangement, the great well of water being large
enough to swim in, and the basin of pure white marble; while soft and
brightly-coloured rugs were laid on the couches around, and the arched
roof was Eastern in design and decoration. When we returned to my
sleeping-place, I found the bed curtained off, leaving a commodious
apartment, with books, armchairs, a writing-table, and a fireplace, in
which a coal fire burned brightly. But the greater surprise was the
view from my window, a view over a sunlit fjord, away to mountain
peaks, snow-capped and shining; and between them to a vista of an
endless snow-plain, white, dazzling, and not altogether unmonotonous,
yet relieved by the nearer patches of green and almost garden-land
which seemed to stretch towards the sea.

My new home was, as I had thought, upon the side of a fjord which led
through a canyon to the outer basin. There was beach at the upper end of
it, and grass-land where several canoes and kayaks lay; and I saw that
many of the men who had watched the horrors of the night were working
lustily now, dragging stores and barrels from a heavily-charged screw
steamer which was anchored near the beach. The rocks which bound the
opposite side of the bay did not appear to be cut for dwellings as on
our side: but I saw trace of several passages in them; and away above
them there was a small mountain peak by which a river of ice ran into
the sea. But of the outer cave I could observe nothing; or of the shore
itself, though away at a greater distance, over some of the ravines, I
made out the clear blue of the Atlantic, and a waste of peaceful water.

The doctor came to me while I was at breakfast. He was very cheerful,
and began to talk at once.

"The captain sends you his compliments," he said; "and hopes you have
slept. _Entre nous_, you know, he doesn't care a brass button for such
things as we saw last night; but if we didn't keep discipline here, we
should have our throats cut in a week."

I gave him civil words in return, and he went on to speak of personal
matters.

"The men are inclined to rese