OFF THE SPITZBERGEN COAST. 



78 



Garh'eld had been shot by some one where he did not 

 know, and for what he could not tell. He had just one 

 cheerful fact, that the President was recovering." 



HUT OF WKKCKl-:;> NORWEGIANS, BEAR ISLAND. 



On the 29th of July the travelers left Hammerfest and 

 started north. On the second day out they sighted Bear 

 Island, and endeavored to work around to the westward of 

 it, but were stopped by ice. Turning back, they cruised 

 westward, but what seemed an impenetrable barrier of ice 

 opposed their passage to the north. They then returned to 

 Bear Island, and finally made their way slowly north to 

 Spitzbergen and along its western coast. When near Horn 

 Sound they had their first view of the midnight sun. It 

 was on a clear, bright night, with not a fleck of cloud as big 

 as a mustard-seed in the amber sky. In the clear water 

 astern, several white whales sported about. 



"The sun looked like a great disk of molten gold, which 

 seemed, through the smoked snow-glasses, to throb and pul- 

 sate, sending waves of light from its center to its rim. 



