chap, xxv A SUMMER RESORT 



339 



Lookout. Presently the famous Hedgehog Mount or 

 Hornsunds Tind will come in view, towering above all 

 neighbouring hills, and producing the impression of a giant 

 mountain. More or less of the west coast will next be 

 seen, with glaciers coming down from the inland ice to the 

 margin of the sea. He will look into Horn Sound, and 

 will in all probability be taken into Bell Sound, once the 

 harbour of the English whalers. Schoonhoven (improperly 

 but commonly called Recherche Bay) will doubtless be 

 visited. There Arctic glaciers can be investigated close at 

 hand, and even walked upon without difficulty. It was not 

 far from this bay that, in 1630-31, a party of English 

 whalers spent the winter in the blubber-boiling hut, having 

 been accidentally left behind. They were the first men 

 who ever lived through a whole year in Spitsbergen ; the 

 account of their adventures made a great sensation in its 

 time and is still worth reading. After passing Bell Sound, 

 the mouth of Ice Fjord is quickly reached. Beautiful, 

 indeed, and highly characteristic is the scene on entering, 

 with the fine mountains on either hand, the great glaciers 

 coming down from the north, and the strange table-hills 

 stretching away to the south. Along the front of these 

 the steamer passes for a few hours before rounding into 

 Advent Bay. 



Of course, in Spitsbergen, as in Europe, much of the 

 pleasure of travel depends upon the weather. The chances 

 of sunshine at any given hour of the twenty-four in any 

 day of July appear to be about even. In August the sky 

 is more frequently overcast, in September yet more fre- 

 quently. But the interest, as distinguished from the charm, 

 of Arctic travel does not depend upon weather. Fogs and 

 low-lying clouds are characteristic of the Arctic regions, and 

 give rise to many most beautiful effects. The temperature 

 on fine, clear, still days is like that of a warm English 



