Their favourite form of amusement was to sit round a large fire, either telling stories of the girls they had left behind, or singing love melodies.

When the weather was at all cold, they would make a fire in a rather shallow tub, the sides of which were lined with a layer of sand.

They were a wonderfully light-hearted lot of fellows, and I greatly enjoyed listening to their chants and yarns.

I was more often with them than in Jensen's company, and it did not take me long to pick up bits of their language.
The _Veielland_ only drew between seven feet and eight feet of water, so that we were able to venture very close in-shore whenever it was necessary.

At length, about a month after starting, we reached a likely spot where the captain thought that the precious shells might be found; here we anchored, and the divers quickly got to work.