146 A VOYAGE to SPITZBEEGHN, ETC. 



The meridians of longitude being at this high northern point 

 only some ten or a dozen miles in width, several of these ideal lines 

 would naturally, in the clear northern atmosphere, fall within 

 the range of our vision ; and that our party was, at least, not 

 oppressively scientific, was demonstrated by a report that one 

 member had ascended to the " Crow's Nest," armed with a 

 powerful binocular, in order to examine this phenomenon. Pre- 

 sumably, he expected to view a network of wires, something like 

 what one sees branching away from a telephone exchange. 



The surface temperature was 32°. Several Seals and the usual 

 Arctic birds were observed. Our stay here was necessarily short, 

 as considerations of safety made an immediate retreat imperative, 

 lest the slowly-drifting ice should close up the narrow passage 

 left behind us. Accordingly the order was given to 'bout ship, 

 and with heavy hearts we steamed back to Magdalena Bay. 



Thence the course of the "Pallas" was directed southwards to 

 Bel Sound, where we anchored safely under "Middle Hook." 

 This range of cliffs Avas of the typical Spitzbergen buttressed 

 form, and its higher ridges were occupied by one of the most ex- 

 tensive Loomeries we met with, at an elevation of perhaps a 

 thousand feet. The spectacle of the teeming, hurrying, clamour- 

 ing throng of sea fowl eddying round the lofty summits, dwarfed 

 by the altitude to mere specks, like ten thousand swarms of bees," 

 beggars description. Ceaselessly, day and night, plied the mul- 

 titudinous columns between crag and sea — the upward-bound 

 files with gaping bills and a " cheekful" of Shrimps, intended 

 for their young, but often destined to become the prey of their 

 persecutors, the Arctic Skuas, Stercorarius parasiticus, which 

 ever hovered overhead on piracy intent. Ihe wild Babel-like 

 medley of cries from the myriad throats in these cliffs, ceaselessly 

 resounding from above in varying cadences, resembled the dis- 

 tant roar of a heavy sea, or, perhaps better, of an excited mob of 

 the ignolile vulgus at election times. The buzzing and chatter- 

 ing of the Guillemots, the weird long-drawn "twirl" of the 

 Auks, and the petulant "yapping" bark of numberless Arctic 

 Foxes, each formed a distinctive component. 



Bel Sound at this date, August 2nd, was full of masses of 



