70 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



the mist shifted a little, the view from the crow's-nest 

 was very beautiful ; first the icy boundary, and then 

 behind the endless labyrinth of floes. One was also 

 able exactly to trace how the light and dark parts of the 

 clouds lying over the horizon, as well as the light and 

 dark stripes in them, reflected a true picture of the ice 

 on the sea, and to study attentively this important 

 appearance known as the " Ice and water sky." 



The chase brought us a new bird to-day, a handsome 

 black guillemot {Uria grylle, L.), with its greenish shining 

 plumage ; the white band on its wings, and the red beak 

 and wings looked wonderfully pretty. Our interest was, 

 however, more aroused by a young crested seal which was 

 killed in the night {Cystopliora cristata), with shining black 

 back, and whitish yellow belly. Of the peculiar blistery 

 formation on the nose, from which they take their name, 

 and which characterizes the grown-up male, there was 

 yet no sign : but the creature was unmistakable from the 

 form of its head ; the well-defined snout of the common 

 seals had entirely disappeared ; but the strongest zoological 

 mark lay in the teeth. We filled a wine-barrel half full of 

 its fat, and the rest fell into the hands of the zoologist. 



On the 17th we cruised about in the thick fog with a 

 south-westerly breeze. We had no sooner tacked than 

 we came upon ice, and were obliged to tack once more. 

 It seemed as if we lay in a bay, surrounded by floating 

 ice. At the same time many small loose floes were 

 drifting around us, and were covered on the surface 

 with the decomposing ice like white snow. We took 

 up some shovelsful to melt, with a view to renewing 

 our store of water. The mischievous fog played us 

 many a trick in our tacking backwards and forwards. 



