The Zoologist— May, 1866. 197 



" Seiritnoline," a sloop of some thirty or forty tons, got under way. 

 The next morning the "Sultana" followed, and, overhauling her 

 consort in the narrow seas, in the course of the afternoon lost sight 

 both of her and the land of Norway. On the afternoon of the 6th July 

 we made the South Cape of Spitsbergen, bearing N.E. 



Our first rendezvous having been appointed abont halfway up the 

 deep bay marked on English charts as Wibelan's Water, and known 

 to Norsk walrus-hunters as Stor Fjord, which indents the archipelago 

 of islands forming Spitsbergen, our course was altered accordingly ; but 

 we were soon brought up, after passing a good deal of drift ice, by the 

 appearance of very closely packed ice, stretching across as far as the 

 slate of the atmosphere would allow us to see it. This to our pilot, a 

 man whose knowledge of Spitsbergen is scarcely surpassed by any one, 

 was a manifest indication of the fjord being completely blocked up, 

 and he did not hesitate to order us to proceed to our second 

 rendezvous in Ice Sound, on the west coast. Thither we made sail, 

 trying as we passed northward successively to enter Horn and Bell 

 Sounds, both of which we found to be impracticable from the same 

 cause as had been the Stor Fjord. On nearing Ice Sound, on the 

 afternoon of the 8th July, we found a good deal of ice drifting out of 

 its mouth ; but it was of such a kind as to cause no risk to the ship, 

 with our careful captain and pilot. While we were watching with 

 interest the novel scene presented to us by the varied shapes of the 

 frozen masses through which we were navigating, there was a cry of 

 " While whales !" and a " school " of Beluga catodon passed across 

 our bows. Though there were the vivid hues of drifting ice-blocks 

 with which to contrast them, I was agreeably pleased to see that their 

 colour stood this high trial. When, some years ago, I saw the so-called 

 " while porpoises " of the river St. Lawrence, identified by Dr. Gray 

 (Cat. Brit. Mus. Cetacea, pp. 78, 79) with this species, they had a 

 very taljpwy appearance; now the worst that could be said of these 

 beasts is that they looked the colour and consistency of a good sper- 

 maceti candle. There were at least six or eight of them swimming at 

 very short distances from one another, and they glided rapidly through 

 the water with an easy and almost graceful roll, now and then 

 emerging from the surface sufficiently to show the whole of their 

 bodies. 



It is not my intention now to say much concerning the birds of 

 Spitsbergen ; but 1 must mention that the sound we were entering 

 presents one of the most beautiful sights to the eye of the ornithologist 



