VOL. XVII. (3) THE ISLAND OF JAN MAYEN 339 



as we realized what it meant, the httle craft came back to us, 

 rising and falling with the increasing swell. 



We weighed anchor and departed northward. Skirting 

 the outermost point of " Egg Bluff " (easily recognised by us 

 to be the remains of a partially-submerged crater) we came 

 opposite the lower or seaward end of the South Glacier, whose 

 huge crevasses thrilled us all with their imposing aspect. The 

 upper end of the glacier climbing serenely towards the higher 

 slopes of huge Beerenberg, was still lost in the rolhng mists 

 gathered over the summit of the mountain. Evening was 

 now setting in, but a rather deceptive kind of evening, for 

 the light " held up " till next day, to say nothing of the day 

 after. 



The general " he " of Jan May en is from the south-west 

 to the north-east ; we accordingly steered a north-easterly 

 course (or rather N.E. by E.) for a few miles till we came off 

 the " S.O " Cape shown on the Austrian map (1882-83), where 

 we turned due north for some ten miles or so up the eastern 

 coast-line of Mount Beerenberg. This proved perhaps the 

 most impressive portion of all our voyage of three thousand 

 miles. One by one the five great eastern glaciers came into 

 view, and were seen in their entirety as they rose from the 

 very edge of the sea in huge ice-steps to the snow-fields 

 thousands of feet above. 



Far up towards the summit a snow-storm was evidently 

 raging, and one was tempted to compare the comfort of our 

 little saloon with the rigours of those upland wastes. The 

 sea, protected somewhat by the precipices of Mt. Beerenberg, 

 had become calmer by this time, and upon the gloomy waters 

 behind us the .pale full moon was shining : an intruder, as 

 it were, upon the daylight of midnight, but an intruder so 

 beautiful to behold that it will take years to efface the memory 

 of the scene. 



That night we turned south. The rising sea and wind 

 bade us begone. Mists hung along the coast, and water was 

 coming on deck from time to time. As we rounded the nor- 

 thern end of the island we passed in nearer to the Beerenberg 

 glaciers, whose ice-falls, ending abruptly in the sea, stood out 



