152 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



he had very nearly eaten his way out, so we patch- 

 ed up the breaches with the pieces of a stove not at 

 present in use. Although they get as much seal, 

 and walrus-beef, and blubber as they like, they do 

 not eat very much of it, but drink enormous quan- 

 tities of water. They are visibly getting larger and 

 fatter. 



31s£, Sunday. It having been dead calm during 

 the night, we have made little or no progress. 

 Very little ice to the south and west, and too much 

 to the north and east, where it is also jammed too 

 tightly together for boats readily to penetrate among 

 it. The vast accumulation of drift-ice in the Spitz- 

 bergen seas consists partly of flat tabular slabs of 

 all sizes, from that of an acre downward, which have 

 composed part of the winter's growth on the shal- 

 low bays and gulfs of the coast, and partly of rough 

 irregular masses which have become detached from 

 the ice-cliffs of the glaciers. Some of these latter 

 pieces I have observed to be carrying large stones, 

 which, by the way, I have frequently mistaken for 

 seals, and very many of them are charged with such 

 quantities of dark-colored mud or clay that the sea 

 is in places sometimes discolored for many miles 

 around by their washings. 



This was one of the finest and warmest days 1 

 ever knew in Spitzbergen. The thermometer was 

 55° in the cabin, and in the sun it was actually hot. 

 The summer's warmth has had a perceptible effect 

 upon the ice, much of which we observe to be un- 



