I860.] IAMONT — SPITZBEKGEIT. 433 



bergen mainland: some of it is much worm-eaten*. The sealers 

 say it is floated from the rivers of Siberia, which I believe to be the 

 case, as there is little or no Pine-wood on the opposite coast of Nor- 

 wegian Lapland. I have seen some few very large trees with the 

 roots on ; but the wood is mostly small and a good deal broken up, 

 also very much bleached and water- worn. Much of it lies at least 30 

 feet above high-water mark. I nowhere observed any wood in situ. 



On all parts of Spitzbergen and its islands which I have visited, 

 I have found numerous bones of Whales far inland and high above 

 the sea-level ; I send several specimens labelled. Some of these 

 were discovered and brought to me by the sailing-master of my 

 yacht, so that I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of the 

 heights and distances marked on all of them ; but one large piece 

 of a jawbone (sent in October 1859) was discovered by myself at 

 40 feet above the sea. It was part of an entire skeleton, which lay 

 half-buried in moss at about half-a-mile distance from the sea in 

 "Walter Thymen's Straits, North-east Spitzbergen. There was also 

 a terrace of trap-rocks higher than the moss, intervening between 

 the latter and the sea. 



In one of the Thousand Islands I counted eleven very large jaw- ■ 

 bones, along with many bones forming other parts of the Whale's 

 skeleton, all lying close together in a slight depression about 10 feet 

 above the sea-level. 



On this same island I observed what I take to be a further proof 

 of the recent upheaval of the land ; this was a sort of furrow or 

 trench about 100 yards long, by 3 to 4 feet deep, and 3 or 4 feet 

 broad, ploughed up amongst the boulders : I presume this was caused 

 by an iceberg grazing along the surface while yet the island lay 

 under water. It was on a gentle slope about 20 feet above the sea, 

 and extended from N.E. to S.W., — exactly the run of the current- 

 borne ice at the present day. 



These islands are a favourite haunt of the Walrus ; particularly 

 towards the autumn, when they assemble in vast herds, and lie 

 heaped up on dry land without moiling or feeding for weeks at a time. 

 On these occasions, if they are discovered by the hunters, immense 

 numbers are sometimes slaughtered, as their numbers impede their 

 escape ; and they arc also said to be sometimes so lethargic as to 

 allow themselves to be killed almost without resistance. In 1858 I 

 visited an island on which six years previously 900 walruses had 

 been slain in a few hours by sixteen men with lances. There were 

 said to be 3000 or -lnno walruses on the island at the time. The 

 men had not been able to remove the skins and blubber of more than 

 300; and the 900 carcases still remain putrefying on the island. 

 The smell is horrible even at two miles* distance, the carcases Lying 

 two and even three deep in places. 



I frequently opened the stomachs of both Walruses and Seals, 

 and found the food of the Walrus to consist principally of shells. 

 sandworms, and shrimps; that of the Seals, of shrimps and small 

 fish. 



* Specimens 



