FALL BACK TO THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 191 



and, probably, snow follow immediately; the 

 brilliant sugary-looking glaciers are bidden, 

 and nothing remains of the glorious panorama 

 of sea, and ice, and hills, and glaciers, but a 

 dim, and cold, and misty circle of an acre in 

 extent, around the boat. 



Such a day, with such a termination, was 

 the 16th, and we were late before we could 

 find our way back to the sloop. 



Vlth. — The other vessels have now all gone 

 southwards, and most of them have gone 

 home altogether, so that I believe we are now 

 farther to the north than any human beings 

 in the world, although only in latitude 78°.* 

 There is lots of heavy ice coming down, and 

 we reluctantly make up our minds to fall back 

 to the Thousand Islands. 



The extreme north to which the outlying 

 skerries to the north of Spitzbergen reach, is 

 about 81°, and very few people have ever suc- 

 ceeded in penetrating to a higher latitude than 

 that, as it is now pretty generally believed that 

 the accounts some of the early Dutch navi- 

 gators give of having sailed to 83° or 84°, are 

 either apocryphal, or founded upon erroneous 

 observations. 



* "We afterwards reached 79°, inside of Stour-Fiord. 



