82 Freminville's Voyage to the JV*or/A Pole. 



derable time, respiration is as necessary to promote the cir- 

 culation of their blood as it is in other mammiferous ani- 

 mals ; neither can they dispense with the necessity of com- 

 ing up to the surface of the water, from time to time, to take 

 breath. 



I found the stomach of my seal filled with intestinal worms 

 alive, that appeared to me to belong* to the genus of echinor- 

 hyncs. 



In proceeding along the borders of the ice, we found it 

 stretching along to the east, after having obliged us to mount 

 up to 75 deg. 28 min. and having, in course, passed by 

 the latitude of Beering Island, the pursuit of which we now 

 discontinued. 



May 22d, a profound calm surprized us, in sight of an island 

 of ice of considerable length and extent. As long as the calm 

 lasted we were hemmed round with a groupe of cetaceous ani- 

 mals, from twenty-five to thirty feet in length, marked as the 

 genus Delphinus, by Linnaeus, but which, I conceive, ought 

 to constitute a new species. I have already published a de- 

 scription of them, with cuts, in the Bulletin of Sciences of 

 the Pliilomathic Society, under the name of Delphinus Coro- 

 natus, or the Crowned Dolphin ; this epithet comes from two 

 concentric circles, of a yellow colour, that these animals have 

 on the crown of the head. 



A breeze springing up in the night, we were drawing nearer 

 to the islet of ice that stood to the north of us ; we tried to 

 find an opening or passage, but none appeared ; and after 

 coasting it a long time, keeping to the east, we perceived it 

 ready to join another considerable mass, and that the interval 

 between them was so narrow and so perplexed with floating 

 flakes and heaps of ice, that a passage was impracticable. We 

 tacked about with an intention to double its western extremity, 

 which we could not accomplish till next day. 



After clearing it we bore to the north-east, fall ing straight 

 in wilh the south Cape of Spitzberg, which we were in hopes 

 of soon reaching; but in this we were disappointed, as another 

 island of ice came to present new obstacles. On the eastern 

 side of it we could perceive an opening or avenue ; we plunged 

 into it, but scarcely had we entered, when a thick fog came 

 over us and obliged us to exert particular care to avoid strik- 

 ing against some of the large floating fragments of ice that 

 surrounded us. 



The fog lasted two hours ; when, clearing up, we could see 

 the ice behind us closing up so as to intercept our return. 

 We were now ingulphed on every side, immured as in a kind 

 of basin that might be about two leagues in extent. This, to 



. V . .. v x . <. /O ' 



