140 A VOYAGE TO SPITZBJ3RGEN, M'C. 



sight, the lofty peak of ''Mount Misery" bearing East distant 

 about sixteen miles. The surface temperature of the sea had 

 fallen to 32°, the air maximum, during twenty-four hours, 39°, 

 minimum 33°. Birds were here abundant ; Eulmar Petrels cir- 

 cled round the ship, gracefully gliding on motionless pinions, 

 Kittiwakes following our course, evei- chased by Skuas of at 

 least two species, while strings of Briinnich's Guillemots whirled 

 across our bows like driven Grouse. The heavy ice rendering 

 a landing on Bear Island impracticable we steered 'N., and that 

 evening encountered a fresh gale from !N".E., with heavy sea. 



'Early next morning, July 26th, the South Cape of Spitzbergen 

 was sighted, and the impressiveness of the scene fi'om the decks 

 of the "Pallas;" the grim grandeur of hopeless desolation con- 

 veyed to one's mind will never be forgotten by those who wit- 

 nessed it. The day was foggy, and dense masses of grey mist 

 appeared to fill each valley, while fleecy wreaths of it, only less 

 white than the mantle of everlasting snow, obscured and en- 

 circled the mountain slopes. The barren grey rocks appeared 

 wholly innocent of the faintest trace of colour or vegetation, and 

 above the cloud stratum the sharp and lofty peaks stood out in 

 bold jagged contour against the sky. 



Steaming along the West coast, the entrance to Horn Sound 

 was judged by our ice-pilots to be impassable on account of the 

 masses of ice drifting outwards ; nor did any better luck attend 

 our intention of entering Bel Sound. The embouchure of that 

 inlet was studded with hundreds of drifting ice-floes of the 

 most varied and fantastic shapes, and the brilliancy of whose 

 hollowed wave-eaten sides rivalled the hues of emerald, sap- 

 phire, and chrysolite. See Prontispiece. Round our ship gam- 

 bolled "schools" of Black Bottle-nosed Whales, Glohiocephalus 

 melas, '? sp., and the scene was further enlivened by myriads of 

 Auks, Petrels, Guillemots, and other sea-fowl. 



Proceeding north the coast presented an almost unbroken series 

 of glaciers. Each valley appeared to be occupied by one of these 

 ice-streams. Central Spitzbergen seems to consist of one im- 

 mense elevated plateau of pala3ocrystic ice, a " mer de glace,'''' 

 from which innumerable glaciers take their rise, winding a 



