Spitsbergen characters

Extract

Beachcombers usually are associated with tropical islands, with hot sandy foreshores and coral reefs, backed by waving palms and jungle-clad slopes. They conjure up an atmosphere of dusky maidens and pearls and the other features of a lazy lotus land. But wherever ordered life frays out on the edges of civilization, the beachcomber makes his appearance. He likes comfort, but cheerfully accepts inconvenience provided only that he can escape a life of rules and ordered conventions: he seeks a measure of freedom far beyond the dreams of the noisy democrat. The untrammelled life that the unsocial beachcomber seeks is not impossible in Spitsbergen: true, conditions are not such as would attract lovers of warmth and comfort in every hour of existence, but a nomad's life in the Arctic has not all the discomforts that the inexperienced might believe.