256 WHALE S SKELETON. 



the pious ^Eneas and his companions on the 

 shores of Italia. 



We have lost sight of the midnight sun 

 for the last few days, and it was slightly 

 dusk at night. The temperature was far 

 below frost, but we slept very comfortably. 

 The crew kept watch alternately, to mind 

 the boat and keep up the fire, and I could 

 observe, in my waking moments, that the 

 sentinel always seemed to be whiling away 

 the tedious hours by renewed attacks upon 

 the carcass of the stag. 



On awaking in the morning, I summoned 

 one of the men to my assistance, and walked 

 to a place about half a mile distant, where, 

 whe^n stalking the stag the evening before, 

 I had observed some bones of a whale pro 

 truding from the moss at a good elevation. 

 The height above the sea proved to be 

 about forty-two feet, and the entire skele 

 ton of a very large whale lay there par 

 tially imbedded in moss and earth. There 

 was a terrace of trap rocks between it and 

 the sea, higher in most places than the 

 ground where the bones lay. These were 

 a good deal decayed, and were now frozen 

 hard to the ground, but we managed to 



