en Islands and Finmark to
the Iceland and Newfoundland fisheries; so he would have experience
to aid him in the humane work he was about to undertake, as he fully
agreed with the seamen already consulted that it was in the waters
between Iceland and Greenland that they must look for the survivors,
or at least for some trace of the "Viking." If he did not succeed
there, he would, however, explore the neighboring shores, and perhaps
the eastern part of Baffin's Bay.

"I am all ready to start, sir," he added. "My coal and provisions
are on board, my crew has been selected, and I can set sail this very
day."

"Thank you, captain," replied the professor, "not only for your
promptness, but for the very kind reception you have given me. But one
question more: Can you tell me how long it will take you to reach the
shores of Greenland?"

"My vessel makes about eleven knots an hour, and as the distance from
Bergen to Greenland is only about twenty degrees, I can count upon
arriving there in less than a week."

"Make all possible haste, captain," replied Sylvius Hogg. "If any
of the shipwrecked crew did survive the catastrophe, two months have
already elapsed since the vessel went down, and they are perhaps in a
destitute and even famishing condition upon some desert coast."

"Yes, there is no time to lose, Monsieur Hogg. I will start this very
day, keep my vessel going at the top of her speed, and as soon as
I find any trace whatever I will inform the Naval Department at
Christiania by a telegram from Newfoundland."

"God-speed you, captain," replied Sylvius Hogg, "and may you succeed."

That same day the "Telegraph" set sail, followed by the sympathizing
cheers of the entire population of Bergen, and it was not without keen
emotion that the kind-hearted people watched the vessel make its way
down the channel, and finally disappear behind the islands of the
fiord.

But Sylvius Hogg did not confine his efforts to the expedition
undertaken by the dispatch-boat "Telegraph." On the contrary, he was
resolved to multiply the chances of finding some trace of the missing
"Viking." Would it not be possible to excite a spirit of emulation in
the captains of merchant vessels and fishing-smacks that navigated the
waters of Iceland and the Faroe Islands? Unquestionably. So a reward
of two thousand marks was promised in the name of the government to
any vessel that would furnish any information in regard to the missing
"Viking," and