92 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VII. 



dining with the Prince this evening, and between this and 

 then I shall have made up my mind. After dinner there is 

 to be a ball on board the frigate, to which all the rank, 

 fashion, and beauty of Reykjavik have been invited. 



3 A.M. 



I give up seeing the rest of Iceland, and go North at 

 once. It has cost me a struggle to come to this conclusion, 

 but on the whole I think it will be better. Ten or fifteen 

 days of summer-time become very precious in these lati- 

 tudes, and are worth a sacrifice. At this moment we have 

 just brought up astern of the " Reine Hortcnse" and are 

 getting our hawsers bent, ready for a start in half an hour's 

 time. My next letter, please God, will be dated from 

 Hammerfest. I suppose I shall be about fifteen or twenty 

 days getting there, but this will depend on the state of the 

 ice about Jan Mayen. If the anchorage is clear, I shall 

 spend a few days in examining the island, which by all 

 accounts would appear to be most curious. 



I happened first to hear of its existence from a very in- 

 telligent whaling Captain I fell in with among the Shetlands 

 four years ago. He was sailing home to Hull, after fishing 

 the Spitzbergen waters, and had sighted the huge mountain 

 which forms the northern extremity of Jan Mayen, on his 

 way south. Luckily, the weather was fine while he was 

 passing, and the sketch he made of it at the time so filled 

 me with amazement, that I then determined, if ever I got 

 the chance, to go and see with my own eyes so great a 

 marvel. Imagine a spike of igneous rock (the whole island 

 is volcanic), shooting straight up out of the sea to the height 

 of 6,870 feet, not broad-based like a pyramid, nor round- 

 topped like a sugar-loaf, but needle-shaped, pointed like the 

 spire of a church. If only my Hull skipper were as good a 

 draughtsman as he seemed to be a seaman, we should now 

 be on our way to one of the wonders of the world. Most 

 people here hold out rather a doleful prospect, and say that, 

 in the first place, it is probable the whole island will be im- 



