358 FARTHEST NORTH 



headland to the west. Would the coast trend south 

 here, and was there no more land westward ? It was 

 this we expected to decide our fate — decide whether we 

 should reach home that year or be compelled to winter 

 somewhere on land. Nearer and nearer we came to it 

 along the edge of the perpendicular wall of ice. At last 

 we reached the headland, and our hearts bounded with 

 joy to see so much water — only water — westward, and the 

 coast trending southwest. We also saw a bare moun- 

 tain projecting from the ice-sheet a little way farther on ; 

 it w^as a curious high ridge, as sharp as a knife- blade. 

 It was as steep and sharp as anything I have seen ; it 

 was all of dark, columnar basalt, and so jagged and 

 peaked that it looked like a comb. In the middle of 

 the mountain there was a gap or couloir, and there we 

 crept up to inspect the sea-way southward. The wall of 

 rock was anything but broad there, and fell away on the 

 south side in a perpendicular drop of several hundred 

 feet. A cutting wind was blow^ing in the couloir. While 

 we were lying there, I suddenly heard a noise behind me, 

 and on looking around I saw two foxes fighting over a 

 little auk which they had just caught. They clawed and 

 tugged and bit as hard as they could on the very edge 

 of the chasm ; then they suddenly caught sight of us, not 

 twenty feet away from them. They stopped fighting, 

 looked up wonderingly, and began to run around and 

 peep at us, first from one side, then from the other. Over 

 us myriads of little auks flew backward and forward, 



