NORTH DEVOX AND ST. HELENA. 311 



by a flat fore-land two or three hundred yards in breadth there rose 

 from the very midst of the island a flat-topped mountain, which 

 from its strange shape looked absolutely like an old castle. The 

 tooth of time had eroded the rocks and formed fantastic vaults and 

 grottoes, and adjoining these were long rows of pillars, sometimes 

 standing alone, sometimes framed in deep niches. 



And what life and movement was there ! On the top of it the 

 gulls were nesting ; in the clefts and fissures lived thousands of black 

 guillemots, and well sheltered under the sides of the mountain were 

 long rows of eider-ducks' nests. The sites of several tents told us, 

 too, that some time or other the Eskimo must have been here. As 

 far as I could understand, they had even built nests for the ducks of 

 the same construction that is in vogue to this day up in Nordland. 

 At all events, we came across a number of very small stone houses. 

 Certainly I have never heard that the Eskimo were in the habit of 

 protecting the birds in this fashion ; but everything indicated that 

 we were the first civilized people to visit the spot. Although there 

 were young birds in most of the eggs, we found a good many that 

 were fit for use, and had we gone there earlier, might have gathered 

 eggs by the hundred. 



The island was most conveniently situated for observations, 

 and Isachsen got some rounds of angles between different points 

 on North Devon and King Oscar Land. 



After staying here a day, we steered a course for North Devon. 

 The voyage began with a fresh sail, and ended in a rowing trip, 

 during which we worked our way along laboriously stroke by 

 stroke. We landed under a high mountain, which has been 

 named ' Cape Vera.' Here numbers of fulmars were nesting, and 

 here, too, we at last found represented the vegetable kingdom, 

 though certainly by somewhat sparse vegetation. 



It had been our intention to steer into ' Sandspollen,' but a 

 huge floe came drifting up towards land, and put an effectual stop 

 to this. The only way of getting there was to row round the floe. 

 But in so doing we discovered that the whole mass of the ice was 

 slowly receding from land, and, with wind and stream dead against 

 us, we had hastily to put in to shore to avoid drifting out to sea. 

 We landed on a point of rock, and next day wedged our way 



