2 7 o SPITSBERGEN chap, xx 



ahead therefore we went, disturbing countless flocks of little 

 auks and with infinite fulmars swooping around. Thick fog 

 and a heavy fall of snow brought us to a halt as soon as we 

 were in the smooth water of land-locked Dutch Bay, which 

 is marked on the chart as Smeerenburg, though that name 

 properly belonged not to the haven itself but to the old 

 Dutch whalers' settlement on the low east spit of Amsterdam 

 Island. The true Smeerenburg, or Blubbertown, had but a 

 brief period of prosperity, and has long been in ruins. 



The west side of Smeerenburg Bay is formed by Amster- 

 dam and Danes Islands. They are separated by Danes Gat, 

 whilst South Gat divides Danes Island from Spitsbergen. 

 Feeling our way through the fog, over water leaden-smooth, 

 we came at length to the little enclosed bay in the south 

 side of Danes Gat, where Andree's ship Virgo was anchored, 

 close by the balloon-house, on the north shore of Danes 

 Island, at the point where once stood the " Cookery of 

 Harlingen." Here we too cast anchor, for the Expres needed 

 coal, and we had good hope that the Virgo s captain would 

 kindly supply us from his superfluity. Crossing in the 

 dingey to call on Herr Andree, we were struck by the intense 

 greenness of the water, rendered all the more emphatic by 

 contrast with a brilliant yellow stain on the rocks by the 

 shore, the result of recent gas-manufacture for the balloon. 



Assuredly few places in the world can be more utterly 

 forlorn than this rock-bound bay, frowned upon by bare 

 hills, about whose bases angular debris are deeply piled, 

 nothing in sight but barren islands and splintered glaciers, 

 "with black air accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom." 

 Snow lay deep down to the very margin of the sea, and 

 a thick snowfall was at that moment taking place. The 

 north winds only "bursting their brazen dungeon, armed 

 with ice, and snow, and hail, and stormy gust, and flaw," 

 avail to fall direct upon this enclosed spot. But draughts 



