84 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



Fulmars, and Little Auks. I noticed a pure white Briinnich's 

 Guillemot* within twenty yards of the ship's side. At 4 p.m. the 

 south cape of Spitsbergen came into view, bearing N.W. by N., 

 some twenty miles off; the temperature of the air was 34°, of the 

 sea 38°. The weather being very fine we hauled in nearer the 

 land, and steamed northward with the bold mountainous coast of 

 Spitsbergen on our starboard. 



By mid-day of July 1st every cloud and wreath of mist had 

 disappeared from sea and land, and the peaked mountains and 

 ice-fields and glaciers stood forth in all their grandeur and glory. 

 In the finest of Arctic summer weather we steered into the estuary 

 of Ice Fiord. The temperature in the shade was 47°, in the sun 

 61°, of the sea 39°; except for our surroundings of snow-clad 

 peaks and vast glaciers descending to the sea on the north side 

 of the fiord, we could scarce believe that we were in Polar regions. 

 As we proceeded up the fiord we could see from the foreyard 

 that the pack-ice stretched continuously from Cape Boheman to 

 Hyperite Hat, but the entrance to Advent Bay was clear. I was 

 surprised to see what a long extent of the foreground on the 

 south side of the fiord was bare of snow, and even up to a height 

 of a thousand feet the mountain slopes were mostly clear. 



Animal life was fairly abundant in the fiord. Thousands of 

 Little Auks and Guillemots floated on the waters, or might be 

 seen high overhead winging their way in flocks to their breeding 

 haunts ; the northern Dovekie and Puffin were far less numerous. 

 Now and then a Seal popped its head above water, and one small 

 Whale showed itself close to the bows of the ship. When we 

 reached the entrance of Advent Bay, an inlet on the south side 

 of the great Ice Fiord, the scene was enchanting. The bay, 

 full of fragments of floe and berg, glistening under the bright 

 sunshine, the sea without a ripple, and the ship gliding to her 

 anchorage between the loose pieces of ice formed a delightful 

 picture. The position we anchored in was that surveyed and 

 charted by Mr. Lamont,f and is by far the best anchorage in 

 Advent Bay. A ship of large size can find ample depth and 

 security close to the abruptly sloping shingly beach. Immediately 



* I procured a similar albino example of this species from West Green- 

 land, which is now in the British Museum. 



f ' Yachting in the Arctic Seas,' 187G. Appendix I. 



