TRAPPERS ii 



occasionally wintered there because the foxes 

 are very numerous. 



It is both remarkable and unaccountable why 

 the mortality from scurvy has always been so 

 great on this island. The climate is by no 

 means rigorous, although the loneliness must 

 be terrible. 



All the morning the weather had been clear 

 and cold beneath an obscured sky ; we made 

 four knots through a sea as smooth as oil, 

 numerous birds flying and swimming about the 

 ship. Petrels and guillemots were numerous, 

 and I also saw three woodcock, several maca- 

 reux and mergules, one or two grylles, and a 

 stercoraire. 



At noon the weather cleared completely and 

 revealed a magnificent view to us. 



Directly before us Beerenberg reared its 

 white cone, rising majestically above a bed of 

 clouds which encircled it at mid-height. It 

 dominated all and seemed to belong to another 

 world ; the rest of the island, with its peaks and 

 craters, being dwarfed to insignificance by this 

 grand and imposing mass. 



At two o'clock we passed South Cape, which 

 is an enormous split rock. It is a curious 

 coincidence that the last cliff I saw on leaving 

 the Faroe Islands, and the first I sighted at Jan 



