MEET THE ICE. 21 



gale of south-west wind sprang up, and carried 

 us at the rate of 11 knots an hour, until we 

 sighted South Cape, the southernmost promon- 

 tory of West Spitzhergen, at 1 a.m. on the 2nd. 



We had been steering rather to the west, so 

 as to keep clear during the gale of the heavy 

 drift-ice which our pilot expected to be lying 

 off the south-east of the island, and we now had 

 to alter our course to nearly due east, so as to 

 reach the appointed rendezvous. We got there 

 in the evening, and found the little harbour 

 blocked up by heavy ice, which extended all 

 along the coast. There was no appearance of 

 the sloop, so we got out one of the boats and 

 sent the pilot ashore with a letter, enclosed in a 

 bottle, and addressed to Isaac the skyppar, 

 saying, we had been there, and would return in 

 a few days. 



There are some old ruinous Russian huts 

 on this promontory, one of which we made use 

 of as a post-office, by hanging the bottle up 

 inside of it. 



It was very difficult to get the boat through 

 the ice along shore, and the whole country was 

 covered with deep slushy snow ; we saw no- 

 thing ashore but a few Brent geese and Eider 

 ducks. 



c 3 



