3 2o SPITSBERGEN chap, xxiii 



which one bold ram - like promontory jutted forth. It 

 seemed as though solid night had fallen upon the island, 

 and held it down in a foul embrace. The gloom reached 

 out over the sea, threatening to overwhelm whoever should 

 dare approach. Who could help thinking of " the land of 

 the Cimmerians, shrouded in mist and cloud, where the 

 shining sun never looks down with his rays, neither when 

 he climbs up the starry heaven nor when he returns earth- 

 ward from the firmament, but deadly night is outspread over 

 miserable mortals " ? x 



By six o'clock next morning (Aug. 16), we were 

 entering Horn Sound, not for the purpose of retrieving 

 Garwood, but to carry off the Exprcs for Dr. Wegener. 

 Snow was falling, and there was much new snow on all 

 sides, yet we had fine views of the crags and glaciers that 

 immediately surround the bay, though Hedgehog Mountain 

 was utterly hidden. In this, as in all west coast fjords, 

 splendid mountains stand on either side of the entrance, 

 the finer being Rotjes Mountain on the north, into the heart 

 of which runs a short green valley. Farther in on this 

 side are two splendid glacier tongues flowing from the inland 

 ice. The right bank of the inner (Paierl Glacier) consists 

 of an exceptionally grand rock ridge, steep on the west, 

 and plumb-vertical on the east side, so that the end section 

 is very bold. At the head of the sound is a third great 

 glacier, and round to the south a fourth, which does not 

 quite reach the water's edge. 



Off it the Expres was anchored in the retired Goes 

 Haven, and it was up this glacier that our friends had gone 

 to look for Hornsunds Tind, whereof not a trace was 

 discoverable by us. All we could see was the wide gently 

 domed end of the glacier, spreading back into fog with 

 mountain bases on either hand. The rest was left to the 



1 " Odyssey," xi. {vide Butcher and Lang). 



