COMMANDER GILLIES' LAND. 181 



We also gathered some pieces of lime- 

 stone Ml of fossils, and some pieces of water- 

 worn native coal or lignite. 



A small vessel becalmed near us had, early 

 in the summer, sailed as far to the north as the 

 land marked in the charts as "Commander 

 Gillies' Land," which lies sixty or seventy 

 miles to the north-east of Spitzhergen. I 

 was anxious to ascertain some particulars about 

 this distant country, but I could elicit no in- 

 formation except that " it was a hilly country, 

 very like Spitzhergen, and that there were no 

 sea-horses or seals, or even reindeer, there." 



This vessel, however, had a large number of 

 seals and wakuses on board, and although 

 they said they had killed the most of them 

 about Ryk-Yse Island, still I think it not im- 

 probable that they actually did so at Gillies' 

 Land, but that they wish to keep the fact of its 

 being so good a place in the dark. 



There is no doubt that many of the seals and 

 sea-horses frequenting this part of the Spitz- 

 hergen coast come down from the north-east, 

 and I have often suspected that Gillies' Land, 

 or some other unknown country in that direc- 

 tion, must be the grand emporium which 

 supplies them. A great many are known to 



H 3 



