XL] THE "SEVEN ICE- HILLS;' 1F5 



sea like an arrow from the bow. " Stand by to make sail !" 

 " Out all reefs ! " I could have carried sail to sink a man- 

 of-war ! — and away the little ship went, playing leapfrog 

 over the heavy seas, and staggering under her canvas, as if 

 giddy with the same joyful excitement which made my own 

 heart thump so loudly. 



In another hour the sun came out, the fog cleared away, 

 and about noon — up again, above the horizon, grow the 

 pale lilac peaks, warming into a rosier tint as we approach. 

 Ice still stretches toward the land on the starboard side ; 

 but we don't care for it now — the schooner's head is point- 

 ing E. and by S. At one o'clock we sight Amsterdam 

 Island, about thirty miles on the port bow ; then came the 

 " seven ice-hills " — as seven enormous glaciers are called — 

 that roll into the sea between lofty ridges of gneiss and 

 mica slate, a little to the northward of Prince Charles's 

 Foreland. Clearer and more defined grows the outline of 

 the mountains, some coming forward while others recede ; 

 their rosy tints appear less even, fading here and there into 

 pale yellows and greys ; veins of shadow score the steep 

 sides of the hills ; the articulations of the rocks become 

 visible ; and now, at last, we glide under the limestone 

 peaks of Mitre Cape, past the marble arches of King's 

 Bay on the one side, and the pinnacle of the Vogel Hook 

 on the other, into the quiet channel that separates the 

 Foreland from the main. 



It was at one o'clock in the morning of the 6th of August, 

 1856, that after having been eleven days at sea, we came to 

 an anchor in the silent haven of English Bay, Spitzbergen. 



And now, how shall I give you an idea of the wonderful 

 panorama in the midst of which we found ourselves ? I 

 think, perhaps, its most striking feature was the stillness, 

 and deadness, and impassibility of this new world : ice, and 

 rock, and water surrounded us ; not a sound of any kind 

 interrupted the silence ; the sea did not break upon the 

 shore ; no bird or any living thing was visible ; the midnight 

 sun, by this time muffled in a transparent mist, shed an 



