52 CKUT8E OF STEAMER OOBWIH EST THE ARCTIC OCEAff. 



we approached Herald Island the ice became very much heavier, and the difficulty of getting 

 through it mneh greater, bat after a good deal of bumping, squeezing, and twisting around through 

 narrow, crooked leads, and occasionally charging through an icy harrier, we succeeded in reaching 

 the island at 9.45 p. rn.. and made fast to a rim of re .'•" old ice which lay aground alongside 



the island. The drift Me of U ting to the northward about 1 knot per hour. As 



soon as the vessel was made fast to the ice. and permission was given, a general rush was made for 

 the shore, each trying to be the first to land. The rim of ice was probably 1,(100 feet in width, 

 and fall of hollows and hummocks, but after many falls, with some narrow from going 



into the deep c: hicb run through it in various directions, the shore was reached and 



ramble up the almost perpendicular rocks followed. While this was being done Profes 

 Mnir. who is an experienced mountaineer, came over the ice with an ax in his hand, and reach- 



tbe island a few hundred feet farther north, opposite a bank of frozen snow and ice 100 

 landing at an angle of fifty degrees, he deliberately commenced cutting steps and 

 ending the ice cliff, the top of which he soon reached without apparent difficulty, and from there 

 the top of the island gradual ascent neither difficult nor dangero 



While approaching the island, by a careful examination with t Mail's practiced 



had easily selected the most suitable place for making the ascent. The place selected by the 

 otbei "her the place upon whicb they stumbled — for the attempt to ascend was made on the 



point reached — was a small, steep ravine about 200 feet deep. The jagged nature of its 



:» tidet made climbing possible, and from the sea level the top of this ravine appeared to 

 these ambitious but inexperienced mountain-climbers to be the top of the island. After several 

 nan from falling rocks they succeeded in gaining the top of the ravine, when they dis- 



ered that the ascent was hardly begun. Above them was a plain surface of nearly a thousand 

 feet in height, and so Steep that the loose, disintegrating rock with which it was covered gave way 

 on the slightest touch and came thundering to the bottom. Some of the more ambitious were still 

 anxious to keep on, notwithstanding the difficulty and danger, and I found it necessary to inter- 

 my authority to prevent this oseless risk of life and limb. A retreat was ordered, and with 

 a good deal at difficulty accomplished. The descent had to be made one at a time, the upper ones 

 remaining quiet until those below were out of danger. Fortunately, all succeeded in reaching the 

 bottom in safety. In the mean time Mnir and several others bad reached the top of the island and 

 were aln rching for cairns or other signs of white men. Although the search was kept up 



until halt past -' a. m., nothing was found. 



Notwithstanding the bleak, barren appearance of this island at a distance of a few miles, an 



nidation oi its summit resulted iii the finding of the following species of plants : saxifrage, 

 poppy, silene, draba, dwarf willow, stellaria, two of the composite, two sedges, one grass, one 

 veronica, and a number of mosses and lichens. Every rocky projection on the cliff's seemed cov- 

 ered with nesting birds, gulls, murres, auks, guillemots, &c. Borne had their broods of young 

 hatcher! out and others were Still sitting on their eggs. Although so tame that they would not 

 fly away when approached, they nevertheless each fell called upon to protest loudly against this 

 invasion <if their home, ami their combined voices made a din such as is seldom heard. On the 

 top of the island a number- of snow-bnntings were flying merrily from rock to rock. On the top 

 of the east end, overa thousand feet above the sea, was a bed of turfy muss, about loo yards in 



extent and from .'; to i feet in depth, containing a number of holes, which at first resembled 

 the tracks Of some hoofed animal, but which, upon closer examination, proved to be white- 

 fox burrows. One of the young seen by Mr. Nelson seemed to resent the intrusion of strangers, 

 and retreated Step by step, snapping and barking when an effort was made to catch him, 

 until, the chase becoming a little too pressing, he turned and fled into a hole and escaped. The 

 following reference is made to thi^ land in a letter by Professor Mnir: 



Kellett, who discovered tbi* inland in 1849, ami landed on it. trader unfavorable circumstances, describee it as 

 " an Inaccessible rock." The sides are Indeed in general extremely sheer and precipitous all around, Ihongh skilled 

 mountaineers would find many gullies ami slopes i>v whicb they might reach the summit. I Bret pnshi d on to the 

 head of the glacier valley and i bence along the backbone of tbe island to the highest point, which 1 fonnd to be about 

 1,300 feel abore the level of the sea. This point is aboat H miles from the northwest and t; from the northeast end, 

 thus making the island ftbonl 6 miles, ill length, It baa been eat nearly in two by the glacial action it has 



