FROM THE SEPARATION OF THE SHIFS. 73 



upon the least enthusiastic observer, and we could not 

 help giving our unqualified assent to Scoresby's descrip- 

 tion, which until then we had thought a little exaggerated. 

 "Arctic birds" (so it runs in the Hansa's Journal 

 at this time) " such as the stormy petrel, gulls, robber- 

 gulls, auks, and puffins surrounded the ship. For want 

 of something else to do, we caught a number of them by 

 angling, and then gave them their liberty after fastening 

 a small piece of metal to them by a silken band with the 

 name Hansa and the latitude (73° N.) engraved upon 

 it. Procellaria glacialis were swimming like ducks in our 

 wake, and biting one another with loud chattering for the 

 pieces of bacon thrown to them almost under the stern." 

 On the morning of the 18th, the atmosphere brightened 

 with a light southerly wind ; and for the first time since 

 we left Jan Mayen, on the 9th of July, it was bright and 

 clear. "We now saw that we were in a large ice bay, 

 opening towards the south-east. It was a wonderfully 

 beautiful (one might almost say a festive) Sunday morn- 

 ing. The eye refreshed itself with the deep blue of the 

 softly rippling and hglitly moving sea, and rested quietly 

 upon the wide semicircle of the glittering ice-bank. The 

 sun once more sent a friendly beam from the clear sky, 

 and seemed to show us that even here he could provide 

 what we had so long needed — warmth and dryness. 

 With what pleasure we enjoyed those morning hours, and 

 drew in the clear fresh air ! How we once more learned 

 to realize what sun and sunshine are to mankind ! But, 

 wonderful to relate, with all this, the recollections of our 

 own country receded more and more. We stood and felt 

 that we were at the entrance of a new world, whose 

 whole enchantment had thus burst upon us. At first, 



