1 68 Chapter V. 



I think this will suffice to give an idea of the nature of 

 this coast. Its belt of skerries, though it certainly 

 cannot be classed with the Norwegian one, is yet of the 

 kind that it would be difficult to find except off glacier- 

 formed coasts. This tends to strengthen the opinion 

 I had formed of there having been a glacial period in 

 the earlier history of this part of the world also. Of 

 the coast itself, we unfortunately saw too little at any 

 distance from which we could get an accurate idea of its 

 formation and nature. We could not keep near land, 

 partly because of the thick weather, and partly because 

 of the number of islands. The little I did see was 

 enough to oive me the conviction that the actual coast 



o o 



fine differs essentially from the one we know from maps ; 

 it is much more winding and indented than it is shown 

 to be. I even, several times, thought that I saw the 

 openings into deep fjords, and more than once the 

 suspicion occurred to me that this was a typical fjord 

 country we were sailing past, in spite of the hills being" 

 comparatively low and rounded. In this supposition 

 I was to be confirmed by our experiences farther 

 north. 



Our record of August 2jth reads as follows: "Steamed 

 among a variety of small islands and islets. Thick fog- 

 in the morning. At 12 noon we saw a small island right 

 ahead, and therefore changed our course and went north. 

 We were soon close to the ice, and after 3 in the after- 

 noon held north-east along its edge. Sighted land when 



