FURTHER COASTING OF THE I'.ERMAxNIA. 307 



the higli-lying lands, and tlie fact that the snow-fields 

 seemed exclusively to form a distant background to the 

 glaciers ; drifts, and the more or less accidental gatherings 

 in clefts, and so forth, of course excepted. 



" We left the top after an hour's observatiouj and made 

 some coffee on our way down in a rift in the glacier, 

 returning to the ship by a most glorious aurora, after 

 four hours and a half absence." 



So far First Lieutenant Payer's account. At the same 

 time a boat-journey along the coast towards the south 

 was carried out and the coast surveyed. It is here 

 particularly free from shallows, and the depth so regular 

 that the lead was a sure guide for the approach of the 

 ship to land. The mountains on the shore are from 450 

 to 550 feet high, and mostly rise rather abruptly. On 

 a tongue of land between Flache Bay and Cape Borlase 

 Warren we found the remains of some Esquimaux huts, 

 and near them some graves^ which we inspected, and 

 found all sorts of curious vessels. The graves were old 

 and decayed, and probably no living Esquimaux had been 

 on the spot for a very long time. Gael Harakes Bay was 

 so filled with ice, and the blocks and floes so heaped up 

 at the cape, that even with the boat we could not get 

 round, and therefore could not reach Clavering Island. 

 It was often necessary to drag the boat for some nautical 

 miles over the ice-blocks — a gigantic Work, bearing no 

 proportion to the small results to be expected. We there- 

 fore contented ourselves with inspecting the immediate 

 neighbourhood more closely, especially the graves. Vege- 

 tation was more plentiful than on Pendulum Island ; even 

 some grass plats were to be found. We also saw nume- 

 rous traces of the reindeer in a valley running westward 



X 2 



