54 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the north end of Spitzbergen, and hence into the Greenland 

 Sea.* 



Easterly winds having prevailed the ice was exceedingly tight, 

 and there was that want of outlying " points " and sheltered 

 " bights " which forebodes a bad season. Narwhals were very 

 numerous, flocks of Looms and Botches were flying hither and 

 thither, Snow-birds and Burgomasters were flying overhead. 

 Mallemokes followed in our wake. No whales making their 

 appearance at the " barrier," accompanied by the ' Erik ' and the 

 ' Polar Star,' we took advantage of a northerly wind and ran 

 south to try our luck in the next " bight." On the morning of 

 the i9th, while lying becalmed a few miles off the ice-edge, a 

 whale suddenly made its appearance alongside the ' Erik,' and 

 her boats took it. The colour of the water was grass-green. 

 Looms were very numerous. At noon of the same day, a breeze 

 springing up from the S.E., and the ice being slack to the 

 westward, we made sail and ran through it. Towards evening 

 the wind increased to the force of a gale, and next morning, 

 after having ran N.W. for about fifty miles, we tacked at the edge 

 of the " fast ice," consisting of hard packed floes, then lay. The 

 wind died away about noon and thick fog set in; at night a 

 strong breeze sprang up from the westward, and clearing the fog 

 away we found ourselves lying in an open space of water, 

 circular in shape, some ten miles in diameter ; the ice appeared 

 to have completely closed behind us to the eastward ; large floes 

 were lying in sight to the westward. The colour of the water 

 still continued grass-green, and contained abundance of whales' 

 food, chiefly Calanus Finmarckicus. On the 21st a small whale 

 made its appearance, evidently coming from the S.E., and was 

 captured by the * Polar Star." 



The westerly wind continuing, it began to tell on the tightness 

 of the ice to the westward. A vast expanse of open water had 

 broken out amongst the floes, and our room becoming somewhat 

 circumscribed, after some trouble we succeeded in entering it. 

 The water, clear and cerulean, contained no life ; not even a bird 

 was to be seen. 



* Might I suggest that the wi-eckage of the 'Jeanuette,' United States 

 Exploring Vessel, found on an ice-floe, near Juhanhaab, South Greenland, 

 came by this route, rather than by a north-western.— See 'Nature,' December 

 4th, 1884. 



