OLD WHALING DAYS. 167 



Of late years there has been a close time for seals, 

 catchers not being allowed to kill them until they are nine 

 days old. The cross shooting was very dangerous with 

 such long ranged rifles, as a seal must be shot through the 

 brain or it will sink and be seen no more. The bullet often 

 swerved at an angle of 45, and came with its unwelcome 

 sound of ping-ping amongst the men who were scattered in 

 all directions, and it was a wonder no one was shot. 



When evening was closing the signal was given to return 

 on board, but the ice suddenly opened and left a number of 

 men on different pieces, from which they could not jump 

 from one to the other, and it was two hours before all were 

 safe on board. We had shot and killed upwards of two 

 hundred seals, and we knew that the main body of them 

 could not be far away to the westward. 



During the night the wind rose from the east, causing a 

 heavy sea. The gale continued three days, most of which 

 time it was snowing and freezing keen. We steamed 

 through streams of ice and dodged in holes of water, 

 shifting our position as the ice closed or opened out. The 

 sky cleared, and when the gale abated we found ourselves 

 alone a little to the southward of Jan Mayen's Island. 



Before proceeding any further I will give a short 

 description of the island : Jan Mayen's Island was 

 discovered by a Dutchman of that name in the year 1611. 

 It lies lonely in the middle of the wide, deep sea between 

 Norway and Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen ; and is 

 distant about two hundred and fifty geographical miles from 

 the coast of Greenland. It is twenty-nine miles in length, 

 and six in breadth, and so thoroughly mountainous, mostly 

 with rugged rocks reaching down to the sea, that it has 

 really only at two parts a flat beach and so-called landing- 

 place. The north-east part rises to a height of nearly 7,000 

 feet in the lofty Beerenberg, which has a large crater, and 

 indeed the whole island is of volcanic origin. In the year 



