CHAPTER XX. 



A STONY LAND. 



WE camped in the evening without realizing how near we were to 

 land. Next morning we came across the crack after driving only 

 five or six miles, and we then discovered that between the moun- 

 tains and the sea lay a very low fore-land, and that having entered 

 a bay, which extended a short five miles inland, the fore-land was 

 here at its narrowest. 



We continued our way up the level country, but made a halt 

 at a little valley with a river in it, where it was my intention to 

 go quickly up a height to take bearings and set off angles, while 

 Schei waited below with the dogs ; we meant to go on again as 

 soon as I came back. 



I had a splendid view from the top of this hill. To the south 

 the lowlands stretched away like an immense snow desert, with 

 here and there an oasis of bare land. In many places it was quite 

 impossible to decide where the sea and the land met. In others 

 I could see the land jutting out into the sea in points ; and the 

 more north-westerly of these I put down at eleven or twelve miles 

 in length. 



We did not leave this place so quickly, after all, for I saw a 

 great number of fossils up on the mountain ; in fact, the whole hill 

 seemed to consist of them. I showed Schei some samples of my 

 find, and he said they were very valuable, as they contained 

 several species which we had not come across before. 



We soon agreed to give up the rest of the day to collecting 

 fossils, so after putting the camp to rights and hastily cooking 

 ourselves some food, we started upwards with a full mineralogist's 

 equipment of hammer, chisels, stone- bags, and the like. We took 



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