134 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



boat, it is customary to whistle, or make a noise by 

 rapping gently on the gunwale of the boat with a 

 thole-pin, or any other small bit of stick, for the 

 purpose of attracting him to come to the surface. 

 I was skeptical about this at first, but was at last 

 compelled to admit that "there was something in 

 it." Of course, it is not always successful ; but the 

 practice is so universally followed by the seal-hunt- 

 ers, and so thoroughly believed by them to attract 

 the seals, that, even if I had never seen it succeed 

 myself, I should not consider myself at liberty to 

 doubt it. 



We are still only a few miles north of Black 

 Point, and opposite a glacier extending into the 

 sea. Like all the other coast glaciers, with few ex- 

 ceptions, it is only an arm or branch of that vast 

 body of solid ice which occupies all the interior of 

 the country, and which, like an enormous centipede, 

 extends its hundred legs down nearly every valley 

 to the sea on both sides of the islands. 



There are three glaciers on this part of the coast 

 between Black Point and BykYse Islands. The 

 two southmost ones are not of any great size or in 

 any way remarkable. They each have a sea front 

 of about three miles, and protrude into the water 

 for one and a half or two miles in regular semicir- 

 cular arcs. 



The third or northmost of these three glaciers is 

 one of the largest and most remarkable in Spitz- 

 bergen, or perhaps in all the world. It has a sea- 



