CHAPTER XVI. 



SUMMER WORK. ACROSS THE GLACIERS. 



SEVERAL small expeditions out to Brevoort Island after eggs and 

 sea-fowl had been made during our absence, but, as regards the 

 eggs, had not been very successful ; the largest number taken at 

 one time being seventeen eider eggs, and twenty-nine gulls' eggs. 

 Many sea-birds, however, had been shot, particularly little auk. 

 We captured seal continuously at this time, taking a great many 

 in the vicinity of Bache Peninsula, where a violent storm in the 

 autumn had broken up the old ice. On the young ice, too, which 

 had formed in the big channel leading straight across Hayes 

 Sound, and which we called ' Eutherford Klara,' * the seals were 

 in the habit of congregating, and on clear sunny days would lie 

 there in numbers basking in the sunshine. 



Our summer work was now in full swing ; the scientific men 

 were occupied, sometimes singly in various directions, sometimes 

 together for the purpose of dredging in Kice Strait. They were 

 collecting as hard as they could, in view of our approaching 

 departure. 



A little way south of our harbour were some tarns, in which 

 a quantity of alga was growing; we fished this up with rakes, 

 spread it over the mountain-side to dry, and kept it to tighten 

 the logs of our winter hut when it should be set up. I think we 

 collected as much as thirty sackfuls. 



The time had now come for a general stocktaking, and 

 counting over of the year's consumption of our stores ; a work 

 undertaken by Baumann, and which occupied him and his 

 assistants for several days. The result showed that on our 

 departure we had been abundantly victualled for four years. 



* A Mare is still, open water ; a polynia. 

 1G8 



