LAND AT LAST 357 



to break through in our kayaks, and risk cutting a hole 

 in them ; so, finally, a little way farther south we put in 

 to drag up the kayaks and take to the ice again. While 

 we were doing this one huge bearded seal after another 

 stuck its head up by the side of the ice and gazed won- 

 deringly at us with its great eyes ; then, with a violent 

 header, and splashing the water in all directions, it would 

 disappear, to come up again soon afterwards on the other 

 side. They kept playing around us, blowing, diving, re- 

 appearing, and throwing themselves over so that the 

 water foamed round them. It would have been easy 

 enough to capture one had we required it. 



" At last, after a good deal of exertion, we stood at the 

 margin of the ice ; the blue expanse of water lay before 

 us as far as the eye could reach, and we thought that for 

 the future we had to do with it alone. To the north* 

 there was land, the steep, black, basalt cliffs of which fell 

 perpendicularly into the sea. We saw headland after 

 headland standing out northward, and farthest off of all 

 we could descry a bluish glacier. The interior was 

 everywhere covered with an ice-sheet. Below the clouds, 

 and over the land, was a strip of ruddy night sky, which 

 was reflected in the melancholy, rocking sea. 



" So we paddled on along the side of the glacier 

 which covered the whole country south of us. We 

 became more and more excited as we approached the 



* It proved later to be Crown Prince Rudolf's Land. 



