234 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



On awaking in the morning, I summoned one 

 of the men to my assistance, and walked to a place 

 about half a mile distant, where, when stalking the 

 stag the evening before, I had observed some bones 

 of a whale protruding from the moss at a good 

 elevation. The height above the sea proved to be 

 about forty-two feet, and the entire skeleton of a 

 very large whale lay there partially imbedded in 

 moss and earth. There was a terrace of trap rocks 

 between it and the sea, higher in most places than 

 the ground where the bones lay. These were a 

 good deal decayed, and were now frozen hard to 

 the ground, but we managed to extract a piece of a 

 jaw-bone,* tolerably sound, and as large as a man 

 could carry. 



I sent my attendant back to the boat with this 

 trophy, and I walked to the top of a steep hill, to 

 have a good look along the straits, to see if there was 

 no appearance of the eastern ice coming through. 

 From the height I was on, I must have seen nearly 

 to the east end of the straits ; but they seemed quite 

 clear of ice throughout their entire length. There 

 were two considerable glaciers some miles down 

 the straits, one on each side, and both protruding 

 into the sea. 



For several miles about me, both to the east and 



west, there extended the most beautiful piece of 



country, to the eye of a deer-stalker, which I ever 



beheld. To the east there lay a low flat plain, 



* Now in the Museum of the Geological Society. 



