SPITZBERGEN BEAR ISLAND JAN MEYEN. 



145 



and towards the south it terminates in a solitary hill to which the first discov- 

 erers gave the appropriate name of Mount Misery. At the northern foot of 

 this terrace-shaped elevation the plateau is considerably depressed, and forms 

 a kind of oasis, where grass (Poa pratensis), enlivened with violet cardamines 

 and white polygonums and saxifragas, grows to half a yard in height. The 

 general character of the small island is, however, a monotony of stone and mo- 

 rass, with here and there a patch of snow, while the coasts. have been worn by 

 the action of the waves into a variety of fantastic shapes, bordered in some parts 

 by a flat narrow strand, the favorite resort of the walrus, and in others afford- 

 ing convenient breeding-places to hosts of sea-birds. In Coal Bay, four parallel 

 seams of coal, about equidistant from each other, are visible on the vertical rock- 

 walls, but they are too thin to be of any practical use. 



Bear Island has no harbors,.and is consequently a rather dangerous place to 

 visit. During the first expedition sent out from Hammerfest, it happened that 

 some of the men who had been landed were abandoned by their ship, which was 

 to have cruised along the coast while they were hunting on shore. But the 

 current, the wind, and a dense fog so confused the ignorant captain that, leaving 

 them to their fate, he at once returned to Hammerfesl. When the men became 

 aware of their dreadful situation, they determined to leave the island in their 

 boat, and taking with them a quantity of young walrus flesh, they luckily reach- 

 ed Northkyn after a voyage of eight days. It seems almost incredible that 

 these same people immediately after revisited Bear Island in the same ship, and 



A GLIMPSE OF JAN ME YEN'S ISLAND. 

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