MEET THE ICE. 35 



Although this was the third time that I have 

 passed close by Bear Island, I had never yet actu- 

 ally been able to see it, as it is generally shrouded 

 by impenetrable mist. One can, however, always 

 tell when you approach it by the enormous quanti- 

 ties of gulls, puffins, guillemots, razor-bills, divers, 

 etc., which use it as a sort of head-quarters and 

 nursery, and afford to the mariner a perfect index 

 to its* proximity. * 



The thermometer here fell to 36°, and a fresh 

 gale of southwest wind sprang up, and carried us 

 at the rate of eleven knots an hour until we sight- 

 ed South Cape, the southernmost promontory of 

 West Spitzbergen, at 1 A.M. on the 2d. 



We had been steering rather to the west, so as 

 to keep clear during the gale of the heavy drift-ice 

 which our pilot expected to be lying off the south- 

 east of the island, and we now had to alter our 

 course to nearly due east, so as to reach the ap- 

 pointed rendezvous. We got there in the evening, 

 and found the little harbor blocked up by heavy 

 ice, which extended all along the coast. There 

 was no appearance of the sloop, so we got out one 

 of the boats and sent the pilot ashore with a letter, 

 inclosed in a bottle, and addressed to Isaac the 

 skyppar, saying we had been there, and would re- 

 turn in a few days. 



* Bear Island is inaccurately laid down on the charts; its 

 actual longitude being 19° east from Greenwich, and not 20° 

 east, as the charts make it. 



