XI.] EX PL ORING. 1 95 



was a work of deliberation. Having by much care, and 

 with some anxiety, made good our descent to the top of 

 the secondary hills, we took our way down one of the 

 steepest banks, and slid forward with great facility in a 

 sjtting posture. Towards the foot of the hill, an expanse 

 of snow stretched across the line of descent. This being 

 loose and soft, we entered upon it without fear; but on 

 reaching the middle of it, we came to a surface of solid 

 ice, perhaps a hundred yards across, over which we launched 

 with astonishing velocity, but happily escaped without 

 injury. The men whom we left below, viewed this latter 

 movement with astonishment and fear." 



So universally does this strange land bristle with peaks 

 and needles of stone, that the views we ourselves obtained 

 — though perhaps from a lower elevation, and certainly 

 without the risk — scarcely yielded either in extent or 

 picturesque grandeur to the scene described by Dr. 

 Scoresby. 



Having pretty well overrun the country to the northward, 

 without coming on any more satisfactory signs of deer than 

 their hoof-prints in the moss, we returned on board. The 

 next day — but I need not weary you with a journal of our 

 daily proceedings ; for, however interesting each moment of 

 our stay in Spitzbergen was to ourselves — as much perhaps 

 from a vague expectation of what we might see, as from any- 

 thing we actually did see — a minute account of every walk 

 we took, and every bone we picked up, or every human 

 skeleton we came upon, would probably only make you 

 wonder why on earth we should have wished to come so 

 far to see so little. Suffice it to say -that we explored the 

 neighbourhood in the three directions left open to us by the 

 mountains, that we climbed the two most accessible of the 

 adjacent hills, wandered along the margin of the glaciers, 

 rowed across to the opposite side of the bay, descended a 

 certain distance along the sea-coast, and in fact exhausted 

 all the lions of the vicinity. 



During the whole period of our stay in Spitzbergen, we 



