ANIMAL LIFE. 269 



efforts might be successful ; accordingly on Sunday the 

 25tli July at nine a.ra. steam was got up and we forced our 

 way westward through the ice; at first it was pretty 

 thick, so that, occasionally, we could only make a way 

 through the floes by boring with high steam pressure 

 and full sail. At noon, after making sixteen miles in a 

 westerly direction, we reached open water ; but after a 

 few miles the ice closed again. We then went more 

 southward and, later on, somewhat eastward, still steaming 

 along the dense pack-ice; the weather was gloomy and 

 rainy, and at eight p.m. it was so foggy that we had to lay 

 by a large floe, that we might not run into a " cul-de-sac," 

 and be blocked up by the ice. 



The great advantage we possessed in our steam can 

 scarcely be overrated, for during the foggy weather we 

 could with our heated machinery remain quiet on one spot. 

 If the ice closed upon us, we could steam to another suitable 

 spot, and in clear weather could in a few hours inspect 

 several miles of the icy edge for an opening. Besides the 

 determination of the ship's position, and the usual meteoro- 

 logical observations, soundings were made when possible, 

 magnetic observations taken, photographing, fishing, and 

 so on. 



Of the lower class of animals there was little that was 

 new, and we tried in vain for the Olio horeallSi the chief 

 food of the whale : seals we saw frequently. 



The bird world remained the same, but was poorly 

 represented. Solitary mallemuckes were seldom wanting, 

 besides which were snow buntings (Larus ehurneus) and 

 robber gulls (Lestris), and between the floes swam small 

 groups of divers and black guillemots {Uria grylle). 



In the neighbourhood of much ice we found that the 

 temperature sank considerably, from 31.52° Fahr. to 



