THE KING'S MIRROR 139 



have been caught in these ice drifts have adopted the 

 same plan: they have taken their small boats and have 

 dragged them up on the ice with them, and in this way 

 have sought to reach land; but the ship and everything 

 else of value had to be abandoned and was lost. Some 

 have had to spend four days or five upon the ice before 

 reaching land, and some even longer. 



These ice floes have peculiar habits. Sometimes they 

 lie as quiet as can be, though cut apart by creeks or 

 large fjords; at other times they travel with a speed so 

 swift and violent that a ship with a fair wind behind is 

 not more speedy; and when once in motion, they travel 

 as often against the wind as with it. There is also ice of 

 a different shape which the Greenlanders call icebergs. 

 In appearance these resemble high mountains rising out 

 of the sea; they never mingle with other ice but stand 

 by themselves. 



In those waters there are also many of those species 

 of whales which we have already described. It is claimed 

 that there are all sorts of seals, too, in those seas, and 

 that they have a habit of following the ice, as if abun- 

 dant food would never be wanting there. These are the 

 species of seals that are found there. One is called the 

 " corse seal; " its length is never more than four ells. 

 There is another sort called the " erken-seal," * which 

 grows to a length of five ells or six at the very longest. 

 Then there is a third kind which is called the " flett 

 seal," which grows to about the same length as those 

 mentioned above. There is still a fourth kind, called the 



* This is called haverkn in modern Norse and seems to be the same as the 

 grey seal: Halichoerus gryphus. See Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 155. 



