Extracts from Diary of Nicolai Hanson. 97 



owing to the violent swerving of the ice. At last we got through with our 

 work, and not a bit too soon, for half a minute afterwards the floe on 

 which we had lieen was swept out to sea. A few Megalestris are still 

 to be seen, but apparently the cold now becomes too much for them, so I 

 expect it will not be long before the last bird will have left us. 



March 31s<. — No Seal has been seen or killed. Saw an Ossifraga 

 gigantea to-day. Borchgreviiik saw a Pagoclroma nivea to-night. 



April 1st. — This morning I shot a Seal, a female of the Leptonychotes 

 weddelli, which is very common here. At the same time I observed iiine 

 other Seals swimming and playing among the ice. These were all White 

 Seals [Lohodon carcinuphagus). There appears to be a great deal of animal 

 life on the drift ice to-day, as I saw two large flights of Megalestris and 

 also some of the common Lepfonychotes, but too far out for me to reach 

 them. The one I killed had no embryo, but its stomach was filled with 

 remnants of fish. Among these I found a lower jaw, three inches 

 broad, with a construction of the teeth very much like that of the 

 T0rsk (Brosmius vulgaris). 



April bfh. — Walked along the beach to-day with Fougner and Evans 

 to see if the sea had washed anything ashore of any value for my col- 

 lection during the last gale. Besides a number of Sand-skippers 

 of several different kinds, we also found a grey Holothurian and a 

 large brown Jelly-fish. Of birds we saw a Pagoclroma and some 

 Megalestris maccormicJci. 



April Qth. — To-day I have assorted the small animals I gathered 

 yesterday. All in all, there seem to be eight diflerent species, all sea- 

 bottom forms. 



Jj;n7 7th. — When the gale had moderated, Borchgrevink and I walked 

 along the beach to collect, and we had not gone far before we had 

 gathered so much that Borchgrevink had to return to the house to fetch 

 two knapsacks to carry our collection in. We found three different kinds 

 of PolyjMs, one yellow, one grey, and one white. Of the two first- 

 mentioned we found a large number. Besides these we obtained seven 

 beautiful Star-fish and two or three other species of Invertebrata. 



Aptril 8th. — Walking along the beach this morning, all I found was 

 one little fish. I saw, however, large numbers of this fish, apparently 

 of the Cuttus scorpius kind, but I had no gear with me to catch them. T 

 also saw a large Jelly-fish, like the Stinging Medusa we have at home, but 

 the stinging threads on tliis one were thicker. Of Seals I saw only one 

 Lohodon in the sea, and two Leptonychotes, of which I killed one, a male, 

 perhaps the biggest I yet have seen of this species. In its stomach I 

 found a number of fish of three diflerent species. 



April 13th. — The day before yestei-day we tried a cast with a sein-net 

 on the outside of the point to see if we could catch some fish. The only 

 results were wet clothes and frost-bitten fingers, but of fish we got none, 

 as the current and the cold were both too strong. While we were busy 

 with the sein, two dogs drifted out on an ice-floe, and Ole and I, who 

 were in the boat, had to pull away to save them. It was certainly not 

 with the most amiable feelings towards the animals that we pulled the 

 deserters into the boat, as we had more than 100 yards of drift-ice in 

 rapid motion to pass through in a canvas boat, without mittens — I had 

 left mine on shore — and the temperature at -2G° Fahr. My temper, too, 



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