100 THE THOTJSAKD ISLANDS. 



sides of the islands ; landed on several, but saw 

 nothing except one or two seals in the water ; 

 gathered a lot of excellent drift-wood for fuel. 

 Thirteen years ago four Norwegian sailors had 

 to winter on this island, their vessel having 

 been driven away by a storm and ice ; they 

 constructed a hut (the remains of which stiU 

 exist) of mud, moss, and drift-wood, and three 

 of the four contrived to survive the winter ; the 

 fourth died. 



This cluster of islands is exactly of the same 

 formation and appearance as the one which I 

 have abeady described — trap rocks, imperfect 

 columns, thousands of rounded boulders of the 

 same, and a few occasional small ones of 

 granite and limestone; one of the latter con- 

 taining fossil pectens and other shells. 



No ice to speak of has been driven to this 

 direction by the gale, and as plenty of floating 

 ice is indispensable for the success of our 

 operations against both the seal and the walrus, 

 we got the anchor up in the afternoon, and 

 proceeded to beat to the N.E. again in hopes of 

 meeting it, but wind and current being against 

 us, our progress was very slow. 



These islands are most absurdly misnamed 

 " The Thousand/' for there are not in reality 



