178 SPITSBERGEN chap, xii 



cord pillaged from the tents at the last moment, and 

 hitched together, for our proper climbing rope had long 

 ago been made into sledge harness, and otherwise turned 

 to mean uses. We advanced gingerly, therefore, in doubt- 

 ful places, and only after much proving of the ground with 

 axe-thrusts. 



The view from the crown of the dome was indeed superb. 

 The immense white foreground, curving away to every outlook, 

 alone sufficed to give it singularity. In the whiteness were 

 infinite grades of tone, for all the surface was rippled and 

 broken by crevasses with blue edges. But it was away to 

 the distance that the eye chiefly turned, especially to the east, 

 to Agardh Bay and Wybe Jans Water, the gem of the pros- 

 pect, and the goal of our toil. There, beyond the edge of the 

 visible ice, lay the mud flat, neither land nor water, burnished 

 bright over half its area, and becoming ever brighter farther 

 away, till the swamps ceased and water reigned alone, 

 water smooth with the utter calm of distance, bright with 

 the reflection of the golden over-clouded sky, and speckled 

 with dots and lines of ice and with great bergs stranded on 

 its shores. This entrancing prospect was before us for the 

 remainder of our way, at the end of an avenue of hills, 

 terminating on the left in Mount Agardh, a prominence of 

 some dignity of form, and on the right in a row of bluffs, 

 buttressing a snowy area, above which rose a group of 

 collared peaks, so called by us because of the thin vertical- 

 sided beds of intrusive rock, which cut horizontally through 

 them, near their summits, and form a protruding ring around 

 the neck of each. 



Forward we went, but now down hill, towards Agardh 

 Bay, debating somewhat as to where the bay might reason- 

 ably be considered to end, and how far along the flat it 

 was necessary for us to go in order to complete the crossing 

 of Spitsbergen. In our heart of hearts there was perhaps 



