356 FARTHEST NORTH 



here .and there were drifts of beautiful rose - colored 

 snow.* 



" (3n the north side of the island we found the breed- 

 ing-place of numbers of black-backed gulls ; they were 

 sitting with their young in ledges of the cliffs. Of course 

 we had to climb up and secure a photograph of this 

 unusual scene of family life, and as we stood there high 

 up on the cliff's side we could see the drift-ice whence 

 we had come. It lay beneath us like a white plain, and 

 disappeared far away on the horizon. Beyond this it 

 was we had journeyed, and farther away still the Frani 

 and our comrades were drifting yet. 



" I had thought of going to the top of this island to 

 get a better view, and perhaps come nearer solving the 

 })roblem of our whereabouts. Ikit when we were on the 

 w^est side of it the mist came back and settled on the 

 top; we had to content ourselves with only going a little 

 way up the slope to look at our future course westward. 

 Some way out we saw open water; it looked like the sea 

 itself, but before one could get to it there was a good 

 deal of ice. We came down again and started off. 

 Alono- the land there was a channel runninq; some dis- 

 tance farther, and we tried it, but it was covered every- 

 where with a thin layer of new ice, which we did not dare 



''' This color is owing to a beautiful minute red alga, which grows on 

 the snow (generally SpacrcUa nivalis). There were also some yellowish- 

 green patches in this snow, which must certainly be attributed to another 

 species of alga. 



