14 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



foam, chattering and fishing. Each receding 

 wave brought them an ample supply of the shell- 

 fish on which they live. We forced a passage 

 through them without disturbing them in the 

 least, and beached our boat. At that moment 

 I perceived a young grey seal lying on the sand 

 some few yards from the sea. Intercepting its 

 retreat, I took it into my arms while the men 

 busied themselves in dragging the boat high and 

 dry. We all caressed the little animal ; indeed, 

 it seemed to have found its way to the spot to 

 accord us a welcome to this desolate island. 

 One of the sailors finally took charge of it. 



We afterwards set out to explore the isthmus, 

 having it in mind to visit the Austrian station of 

 1882, where we expected to find the fur hunters. 

 Scaling a small dune composed of blackened 

 cinders and lava, we saw before us a large plain, 

 quite flat and smooth, which formerly must have 

 been the bottom of the lagoon. Numerous 

 tree-trunks, some with their roots intact, some 

 smashed to fragments, and others stripped of 

 their bark, covered the ground. Here, in fact, 

 was an almost inconceivable collection of debris, 

 which either the ocean had gathered together 

 or the ice had brought from Siberia or America 

 in those distant ages when this now dry soil 

 had been the ocean bottom. The upheaval of 



