NORWEGIAN DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION OF 1878. 275 



lu the afternoon a couple of the members of the expedition, accom- 

 panied by our pilot, who was well acquainted in these regions, undertook 

 an excursion in a boat southward toward the mainland. On our way 

 we passed numerous large and small ice-lioes, which came floating in 

 from the constantly ice-tilled sea east of the Norse Islands. Between 

 the ice-blocks were swimming large flocks of auks and black guillemots, 

 of which a few became an easy prey to our guns. At one point where 

 the mountain sides seemed less steep, we landed to take a look at the 

 island. After having passed a high mound of gravel and boulders, 

 among which a few alpine plants eked out a miserable existence, we 

 came into a valley of some width surrounded by steep mountains. The 

 major part of the valley was occupied by a lake of fresh water. But 

 the small amount of summer heat had been able to keep only a small 

 strip nearest to the mound open, while all the rest was covered with 

 eternal ice. The water was carefully examined by the aid of the appa- 

 ratus which we had brought with us. The only living things we could 

 discover were a couple of specimens of the larvae of a species of gnat. 

 The round stones strewn everywhere over the bottom of the lake were 

 covered with a close, dirty, greenish crust, which seemed mainly to be 

 formed from a species of alga, of which we took specimens. Over the 

 water flew a pair of solitary gulls. Otherwise everything here seemed 

 so barren and desolate that we were glad to get back to our boat again 

 and pass on further. We rowed north to the other side of White Island 

 and landed again on a flat holm (rocky island), which on account of its 

 somewhat more greenish hue seemed to give promise of a thriftier vege- 

 tation. On the sandy strand a few eider ducks tumbled about with their 

 recently-hatched young, but quickly absented themselves when we ar- 

 rived, plunging dexterously into the sea, one after the other, and they 

 did not come to the surface again before they had gotten outside of the 

 range of our guns. On White Island itself we gathered a few plants, 

 and from its highest i)oint we had a brilliant view of the mighty mount- 

 ains and glaciers in the so-called Fair Harbor. We returned by way of 

 the north side of White Island. But dense fog soon deprived us of every 

 outlook, so that we only now and then caught a glimpse of the gray, 

 weather-beaten strand of White Island and of one and another iceberg 

 sailing by us. At eight o'clock in the evening we were on board again, 

 where we zoologists were engaged for some time longer in investigating 

 the fauna of the sea-bed in the immediate vicinity of the ship. 



On the following morning the fog lifted a little so that we could see 

 a little more of our somber surroundings. Through the sound came, 

 as usual, one floe of ice after another drifting with the current. One of 

 these, which was not observed in time, turned against our bow with so 

 great force that it shook the whole ship as if we had struck bottom, and 

 it warned ns sufficiently that it would not have been a mere joke if our 

 ship, at full speed, had collided with one of these compact masses 

 almost as hard as stone. About noon the boats belonging to the fish- 



