Freminville's Voyage to the North Pole. 81 



stunning- kind of noise, like that which the sea-water makes 

 over a strand of pebbles and gravel. 



We cleared those mountains of ice-flakes, many of which 

 rose to the height of our main-top-mast; they were transparent, 

 and of a most beautiful azure blue. 



Still bearing on to the N. E. we endeavoured to near Beering 

 Island (Beereh Eylandt,) situated in 74 deg. 33 min. lat. 

 Its extent is not above four or five leagues. It is reported 

 that the Russians have discovered in it a very rich silver 

 mine. 



May 19th, at midnight, (there was no darkness then during 

 the night) a bluish, lustre, visible in the horizon, warned us of 

 the approach of the ice. This phenomenon, produced by the 

 refraction of the rays of light on the water, is a sure sign of 

 the proximity of considerable bergs ; in fact, we observed one 

 soon after, but consisting of blocks so large and so close toge- 

 ther, that there appeared no interval through which we could 

 penetrate. We coasted along it for several hours; it was covered 

 with thousands of phocte^ that is, seals, or sea-calves (phoca 

 vitulina, L.) that were rolling about, and seemed to be sporting 

 in the snow. We were so near that we could salute them with 

 discharges of our musketry, but were unable to kill any, as the 

 balls merely slid over their hard smooth skin without piercing 

 it. Knowing that they were dispatched at once with a blow 

 on the nose, we prepared a boat and descended, to the num- 

 ber of seven or eight, among immense heaps, the smallest of 

 which were five feet in length. Our presence did not terrify 

 them, and they viewed us with a stupid kind of stare. We 

 knocked some of them on the head with our oars, when they 

 tried to make their escape, uttering a noise like the shrill 

 barking of a young dog. 



It is generally thought that seals derive the faculty which 

 they possess of staying long under water, to the botal aperture, 

 which they preserve during life.* I wished to inform myself 

 on this important point of comparative anatomy, and took care 

 to open the heart of one of those we had taken ; I found the 

 notion to be erroneous, that the botal aperture was entirely 

 closed, and that, of course, the blood could not pass from the 

 veins into the arterial system without previously crossing the 

 lungs; then to disengage itself by the contact of the external 

 air from the carbone which it contains. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that although seals may plunge under water for a consi- 



* In hot-blooded animals, the botal aperture is only to be found in the 

 foetus, and becomes extinct instantly after the birth. 



VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. 2. Vol. IL M 



