66 GEEAT HERDS OF SEA-HOESES. 



spirits of wine for their reception, they fought 

 furiously in a sort of indiscriminate melee 

 amongst themselves, and were more particu- 

 larly virulent against a small pink Jelly-fish 

 which I put into the tumbler beside them. 



13^/^^. — At 3 A.M. this morning we were 

 aroused by the cheering cry of " Hvabuus paa 

 Ysen " (walruses on the ice). "We both got 

 up immediately, and from the deck a curious 

 and exciting spectacle met our admiring gaze ! 

 Pour large flat icebergs were so densely packed 

 with walruses that they were sunk almost a- 

 wash with the water, and had the appearance 

 of being solid islands of walrus ! 



The monsters lay with their heads reclining 

 on one another's backs and sterns, just as I 

 have seen rhinoceroses laying asleep in the 

 African forests ; or, to use a more familiar 

 simile, like a lot of fat hogs in a British straw- 

 yard. I should think there were about eighty 

 or one hundred on the ice, and many more 

 swam grunting and spouting around, and tried 

 to clamber up amongst their friends, who, like 

 surly people in a full omnibus, grunted at them 

 angrily, as if to say " confound you, don't you 

 see that we are full." There were plenty more 

 good flat icebergs about, but they always seem 



