156 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



of enormous size, displaying every conceivable 

 colour variation. Only once before in the 

 Greenland ice-fields have I seen so many bergs 

 detached from a glacier assembled in one place. 

 A few grey walruses swimming up the Sound, 

 seen thus from on high, seemed like hippopotami 

 floating on the surface of the water. The 

 atmosphere, however, reminded us that we 

 were in Franz Joseph Land and not in 

 Africa. 



Among the birds flying above or swimming 

 in the Sound were guillemots, uria grylles, 

 mergules, and both sea and land gulls. I also 

 observed two specimens of the dwarf macareux, 

 which is very rare, and which I have only seen 

 at Spitzbergen. They were, unfortunately, quite 

 out of range. 



We collected specimens of red and violet 

 quartz, agate, serpentine, etc., and afterwards 

 returned to the boat. On the beach was Merite, 

 sheltering himself from the wind beneath a 

 large umbrella, and painting, with his usual 

 conscientiousness, a skua he had killed in its 

 nest. We returned aboard, where I read the 

 letter I had discovered, and gave my companions 

 an account of the morning's occurrences. 



A number of Greenland seals swam about the 

 ship, but I did not disturb them, and we sat 



