374- VOYAGE TO THE 



bones scattered about, and a skull which had the 

 teeth worn down nearly to the gums. There ap- 

 A SS£ § peared to be no place of interment near, and the 

 body had probably decayed where the bones were 

 lying. So little did the natives care for these 

 mouldering remains, that springs for catching birds 

 were set amongst them. The beach upon which 

 we landed was shingle and sand, interspersed with 

 pieces of coal, sandstone, flint, and porphyritic gra- 

 nite. Vegetation was rather luxuriant, and supplied 

 Mr. Collie with three new species. The drift wood 

 was here more abundant than at any place we before 

 visited : it was forced high upon the beach, pro- 

 bably by the pressure of the ice when driven against 

 the coast. 



It was high water at this station at noon. The 

 tide fell three feet and a half in four hours, and ebb- 

 ed to the south-west. 



A post was here put up for the land expedition, 

 and a bottle buried near it. We then embarked and 

 got on board, just as a thick fog obscured every 

 thing, and obliged the ship to stand off the coast. 

 In the course of the afternoon the dredge was put 

 over, and supplied us with some specimens of shells 

 of the area, murex, venus, and buccinum genus, and 

 several lumps of coal. We stood to the N. W., and 

 at midnight tacked amongst the loose ice at the edge 

 of the pack in so thick a fog that we could not see 

 a hundred yards around us. 



At half past five in the morning a partial disper- 

 sion of the fog discovered to us the land bearing N. 

 86° E. extending in a N. E. direction as far as we 

 could see. At six we tacked in eleven fathoms 

 within three miles of it, and not far from an open- 



