chap, iv ICE FJORD 59 



with great care, the mouth of Advent Bay was steadily 

 approached. Far inland we could not see, but enough of 

 the southern shore was visible to reveal the character of 

 the country in that direction. It consists of soft, horizontally 

 bedded rock, divided roughly into two stages or cut-down 

 plateaus. Of the upper plateau only fragments remain, 

 forming the higher mountains, such as Mounts Lindstrom 

 and Nordenskjold. The lower plateau, which was probably 

 at sea-level when the upper plateau was being cut down, 

 is represented by more considerable remains, but it also is 

 divided by numerous valleys, and largely cut away. There 

 remains no continuous plateau over which you can travel, 

 only a series of broad ridges all of approximately the same 

 height. 



Winding her way amongst floating ice-blocks, the Raft- 

 sund ultimately reached the mouth of Advent Bay, which is 

 rendered narrow by a low spit of land that juts out from the 

 west and makes the harbour so safe, for ice cannot drive 

 directly in upon a ship that lies behind the spit. The steamer 

 entered without difficulty, and came to anchor between the 

 fast ice of the bay and Advent Point. Our first goal was at- 

 tained. We landed at once with Thue to visit the winterers' 

 hut. Their poor little vessel lay near the shore, firmly 

 fixed in the ice and full of water — doomed to sink as soon 

 as the ice broke up about her. On the beach were such 

 articles of value as they had saved — chains, anchor, rein- 

 deer carcasses, antlers, and so forth. The reindeer were 

 in a frozen heap. There were also five barrels of reindeer 

 meat, to which bears had recently helped themselves, for 

 their great spoor was plainly visible in the snow. On a 

 raised beach, some thirty feet higher, was the hut, and by it, 

 in two barrels, the body of the skipper, close to some old 

 graves. The hut was neatly built, dug out of the ground 

 about a yard deep, and with trim steps leading down to it. 



