COMMANDER GILLIES' LAND. 181 



"We also gathered some pieces of lime- 

 stone full of fossHs, and some pieces of water- 

 worn native coal or lignite. 



A small vessel becalmed near us had, early 

 in the summer, sailed as far to the north as the 

 land marked in the charts as " Commander 

 Gillies' Land," which lies sixty or seventy 

 miles to the north-east of Spitzbergen. I 

 was anxious to ascertain some particulars about 

 this distant country, but I could elicit no in- 

 formation except that " it was a hilly country, 

 very like Spitzbergen, and that there were no 

 sea-horses or seals, or even reindeer, there." 



This vessel, however, had a large number of 

 seals and walruses on board, and although 

 they said they had killed the most of them 

 about Ryk-Yse Island, still I think it not im- 

 probable that they actually did so at Gillies' 

 Land, but that they wish to keep the fact of its 

 being so good a place in the dark. 



There is no doubt that many of the seals and 

 sea-horses frequenting this part of the Spitz- 

 bergen coast come doAvn from the north-east, 

 and I have often suspected that Gillies' Land, 

 or some other unknown country in that direc- 

 tion, must be the grand emporium which 

 supplies them. A great many are known to 



N 3 



