WESTWARD WITH THE SHIP. 41 



did not rise above the surface, but beat and splashed with their 

 hind-limbs, solely for the purpose, apparently, of attracting the 

 greatest amount of attention just as among us human beings. 



But there were others besides the folk on board who watched 

 the seals. ' Gammelguleu ' and his friends were tied up forward 

 on the forecastle, and had a good view from there of all that was 

 going on. They were dozing in the quiet of the early morning, 

 but, when they caught sight of the seals under the bows, started 

 up as if the deck were burning under them. Very far they did not 

 get, needless to say ; they remained by the gunwale staring at 

 the seals, whining and uttering short howls of baffled hopes, and 

 every now and then making as if they meant to jump over. 

 They would not have done this even had they been loose, but 

 they hung over as far as they could reach, while their bodies 

 quivered and shook from eagerness to go in pursuit. It was not 

 a pleasant sight. 



The other teams had not such a good view as the lot forward, 

 but they, too, understood that something was going on, and 

 assisted to the best of their ability. 



All the way west the sea was free of ice ; but south of us 

 was ice the whole way from North Devon to a good distance 

 north, so that we had to steer a little north of due west, and 

 run a little nearer under the north coast than we had thought of 

 doing. A meridian altitude which Baumann and I took that 

 day showed a latitude of 76 7'. We continued to stand west- 

 ward, and neared land, along which we sailed, turning into a 

 big bay on the south side of ' Colin Archers Halvo,' or ' Colin 

 Archer Peninsula.' This I did in order to have a look at the 

 fjords about there, for the land westward appeared to be so low 

 that we thought Colin Archer Peninsula might possibly be an 

 island, and that by sailing round it we might come out in Norfolk 

 Inlet. 



About midnight we moored to the ice on the west side of a 

 point projecting east, which we called ' Nabben,' or ' The Knoll.' 

 The ice was very weak, and did not seem as if it had many days 

 left. It was extremely thin, and there was hole upon hole in it 

 all the way inwards as far as we could see from the crow's-nest. 



