THE WHITE WORLD 



Saturday, September ii 

 During last night, floating ice delayed us a good deal. 

 We passed Indian Point before lunch and at noon spoke 

 the " Progress," of New Bedford. She had seventeen 

 whales. At 10 P. M. we were near Plover Bay. A whaler 

 is at anchor a little to the eastward of the bay, trying out. 

 A long narrow shaft of gold ascended from the sun at 

 sunset and the sky was lovely. 



Sunday, September 12 



We anchored in Port Providence, Plover Bay, a short 

 time before lunch. The wind was very light but the day 

 was superlatively good. Not a cloud obscured the sun. 

 Baker and Noyes went ashore at once and had a perfect 

 working afternoon. 



Captain Jerningham, of the barque ** Tropic Bird," came 

 aboard and took lunch with us. He has been in the Arctic 

 twenty or more seasons and saw nothing to equal this 

 before. He was within ten miles of Herald Island early 

 in the season and others have since been within three miles, 

 but nothing has been heard of the missing whalers or the 

 " Jeannette." The impression among whalers is, that the 

 missing men will never be heard from. 



The water of the bay approaching Port Providence is 

 fairly brown by reflection from " whalefood " beneath its 

 surface, and the watermelon or cucumber smell is very 

 strong. Collected two ravens, two Buffon's jaegers, a gol- 

 den plover, a longspur, three marmots, some lichens and 

 ethnologica on the spit. Saw no wagtails, but heard one 

 away up on the high hillside. Climbed up after it, but 

 could not see it. I found, however, two piles of reindeer 

 antlers, heaped up and partly covered with bowlders, and 

 a fragment of a human skull. 



The moon as it sank over the flat, narrow head of the 

 spit to-night, was reflected with very little distortion in 

 the almost perfectly still water of Port Providence; thou- 

 sands of stars were reflected, also. The shadows of the 

 high hills made a perfect image in the waters all round as 

 far as one could see in Plover Bay and the lights of the 

 whalers shone out bright and clear. Low voices could be 

 heard from the vessels in conversation. A lovelier picture 

 I have seldom seen. 



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