SPITZBERGEN. — EXCUESION ON SHORE. 133 



time its lading was discharged, the sea had become 

 high, and the ship had drifted some miles from the 

 place where nearly one-half of the crew were on 

 shore. We were six hours before we could beat up 

 to this station, when, having stood within a mile of 

 the shore, though rocks were then on both sides of 

 us, we despatched two boats under shelter of the 

 windward rocks, and rescued the whole of the men. 

 They had been by this time above thirty hours ab- 

 sent ; they amused themselves on shore by cooking 

 several birds which had been shot, and kept them- 

 selves warm with a fire made of drift-wood and the 

 fragments of the ruinous hut. Several of them 

 who had the first watch after they came on board, 

 were so fatigued, that they actually slept as they 

 stood on their feet on the deck. 



On the following day, the weather having mode- 

 rated, we set about securing the remainder of our 

 prize, and after about eighteen hours close attention, 

 we succeeded in bringing off all that was valuable. 

 This whale, from a harpoon found in its body, ap- 

 peared to have been struck by some of the fishers 

 of the Elbe ; and having escaped from them, it had 

 probably stranded itself where we found it. 



During these operations, my anxiety for the safety 

 of the ship was considerable, as we navigated a dan- 

 gerous shore, which had never been scientifically sur- 

 veyed, and of the charts of which, such as they are, 

 I had no copy. Rocks, at low-water, were seen a 



