A NARROW PINCH 215 



bier, and he lowered whenever there was an off 

 chance to bag a leviathan. 



As we worked to the westward, twin peaks 

 rose out of the sea ahead of us. Covered with 

 snow and ice, they stood out against the sky as 

 white as marble. It was our first glimpse of 

 Herald Island, in latitude 71 degrees north. We 

 sailed north of the island and close to it. It 

 looked forbiddingly desolate. Along the shores 

 there was a rampart of black rock. Nowhere 

 else was a glimpse of earth or herbage of any 

 sort. The island was a gleaming white mass of 

 snow and ice from the dark sea to the tips of the 

 twin mountains. It was discovered in 1849 by 

 Captain Kellett of the English ship Herald and 

 named after his vessel. Captain De Long, 

 leader of the ill-fated Jeanette expedition, was 

 frozen in close to the island in the winter of 

 1880. He found polar bear plentiful and 

 trapped and shot a number. 



Here at Herald Island we fell in with eight- 

 een ships of the whaling fleet — all that had 

 cruised to the westward — and it was only by 

 good luck that some of them did not leave their 



