He played and drank as usual, and as the evening wore on he mellowed under the influence of “mountain dew.” With each successive draught his uneasiness gradually disappeared, until he became quite communicative; and then--well then, feeling for all the world like a murderer--I added him to the number of my victims. DOCTOR ANGUS SINCLAIR. I have--as seaman, mate, and skipper--in forty years seen some curious sights, you may be sure, although all my voyages have been to the north, ay, and pretty far north too, some of them; for we whalers have to go wherever the fish are to be found, and if we cannot find them near home, why, we have just got to go north and search till we do fall in with them. You want to know the most wonderful thing I ever came across in my long life of hardship and adventure in the Arctic Seas? Well, there is nothing that I know of to equal the finding of Doctor Angus Sinclair in 1862. But as you want it spun properly I’ll give you the yarn from beginning to end, and then you’ll see for yourself what a curious adventure it was. In 1862 I was mate of the _White Swan_ whaler, sailing from the port of Dundee, and as we had made a very poor fishing during the previous season in the Greenland Sea, our skipper made up his mind to try fresh ground, and to steer north-eastward to the Spitzbergen Islands, as he knew of some likely ground to the eastward of those islands. The most eastern of the Spitzbergen Isles is one called Wyches, or King Charles’s Island, and our skipper made straight for this island, intending to build a hut there, and make it a kind of winter habitation, should we be obliged to go into winter quarters before getting a full cargo. Our owner had instructed the skipper to take what oil he could get of the right sort, but, if he could not obtain a full cargo, to wait till he could fill up with something else--by this meaning seal-pelts, seal-oil, bear’s robes, walrus’ tusks or skin, or anything else worth the freight. Having all our outfit aboard we left Dundee, touched at Tromso, and in a fortnight arrived safely at Wyches Island, where we stayed about a week to build a large and comfortable hut, with timber brought with us from Dundee. Holes were dug into the everlastingly frozen ground, and posts erected, upon the outsides of which inch boards were nailed, and afterwards upon the inside also. This formed a double skin, leaving a space of some six inches between, which was filled with sawdust tightly rammed down. The roof was made in the same way, and when it was finished the whole of the interior was lined with thick felt.