46 LAY-TO IN A FOG. 



individuals, who wiB. allow themselves to be 

 harpooned. 



On the morning of the 8th we got past the 

 end of the pack, and got a glimpse through 

 the thick fog of " Black Point," a gloomy- 

 promontory, forming the south-east corner of 

 Edge's Land, as this division of Spitzbergen is 

 called. Nothing was visible ashore but snow, 

 mth desolate-looking patches of bare broAvn 

 earth peeping through it here and there, or the 

 bare rocks on some " wind-loved " peak from 

 which the snow had been blown. 



About mid-day the fog got thicker, and we 

 found ourselves running in amongst some 

 heavy icebergs, so as we did not know what 

 the ice ahead might be like, our prudent 

 skyppar judged it advisable to lay-to and wait 

 for clearer weather. 



The greater part of the eastern coast of 

 Spitzbergen is covered with a succession of 

 enormous glaciers descending do^vn to the 

 water's edge, and even protruding far into it. 

 I imagine that these prodigious masses of ice 

 generate the fogs, which it is notorious are 

 much more prevalent here than oli the west 

 side of the country. 



Qtli. — The fog is not quite so thick, but a 



