SPITZBERGEN. — EXCUIISION ON SHOEE. 119 



once, in the same season, on the north side of King's 

 Bay. Being near the land on tlie evening of the 

 23d of Jvdy, the weather beautifully ^lear, and all 

 our sails becalmed by the hills, excepting the top- 

 gallant sails, in which we had constantly a gentle 

 breeze, I left the ship in charge of a principal offi- 

 cer, with orders to stand no nearer than into thirty 

 fathoms water, and with two boats and fourteen 

 men rowed to the shore. We arrived at the beach 

 about 7^ P. M,, and landed on a track of low flat 

 ground, extending about six miles north and south, 

 and two or three east and west, fi-om the east side 

 of which, a mountain-ajm takes its rise, terminat- 

 ing on the south with the remarkable insulated cliff 

 constituting Mitre Cape. This table land lies so 

 low, that it would be overflo^\^l by the sea, were it 

 not for a natural embankment of shingle thrown up 

 by the sea ; indeed, from the sea-weed and drift- 

 wood found upon it, it seems at no very remote 

 period, to hav€ been covered by the title. The 

 shingle forming the sea-bank consists, in general, of 

 remarkably round pebbles ; many of them being cal- 

 careous, are prettily veined. 



After advancing about half a furlong from the 

 sea, we met with mica-slate, in nearly perpen- 

 dicular strata ; and a little farther on, with an 

 extensive bed of limestone in small angular frag- 

 ments. Here and there we saw large ponds of 

 fresh water, derived from melted ice and snow; 



