232 SPITSBERGEN chap, xvii 



were all faint with the brilliancy pouring over them from 

 the sun. 



Rowing on, close under the shadowed and overhanging 

 cliff, which the sun presently peeped round and striped 

 with gold, its really small size was forgotten, and the 

 columnar rocks, though only a hundred feet high, gained 

 all the dignity of noble precipices. In places they were 

 red with lichens, elsewhere spattered with patches of white, 

 signs of the nesting-place of many bird-colonies, little auks, 

 guillemots, and puffins. A rifle-shot fired at the rock filled 

 the air with a feathery cloud, but the birds only swung 

 out a few hundred yards over the water, then rounded 

 back, and settled again ; nor did they budge when we 

 approached their nests closely from the shore. There were 

 hundreds of young ones, some already able to fly, others 

 mere balls of fluff. We caught a young guillemot after 

 a chase over fallen rocks below the cliff, under one of 

 which he took refuge. From his cave-like retreat he pecked 

 vigorously at his captors, but once held he was as serene 

 and composed as could be. 



While we were inspecting the nests, a boat came round 

 the promontory, the way we had come, and made straight 

 for us. It was rowed with a long and swinging stroke, far 

 more suggestive of Eton than Norway. A few moments 

 settled the doubt — it contained Garwood and two sailors, 

 hurrying to catch up with us, for they had found the 

 botanist and heard from him of our departure. Glad 

 men were we at this encounter. We rowed to a narrow 

 beach below the cliff and landed our things, just where a 

 great snow-bank overhung. The sailors were sent off to take 

 the borrowed boat back to the botanist, and return to us 

 overland. I for one was not sorry for the long halt thus 

 involved, for we had a most lovely picnic ground, sheltered 

 by cliffs behind, and shone on by the full glory of a clear 



