802 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



thought, it was not more than from five to seven miles off. I here 

 found a butterfly just bursting its prison walls. The wind at the 

 time was so strong as almost to defy my power of holding on. 

 The place looked like a huge tower rather than a mountain ; and 

 on one side of it there was, as it were, a broad highway, leading 

 spirally to within fifty feet of the apex. From this elevation a 

 hundred icebergs were in view. On the way down I found some 

 skeleton bones of a whale, about 300 feet above the sea-ice ; and 

 also tufts of grass and some reindeer moss. At the base I found 

 Koodloo and Ebierbing with more seals which they had killed, 

 and a fire made of the small shrub* before mentioned. 



In the evening we encamped here, close to Eobinson's Bay,f a 

 beautiful sheet of water on the east side of the tower. Here we 

 erected our tupic, such as we could make, and the United States 

 flag floated from its top. Our appearance at that time may be 

 conceived from the following sketch. 



Next morning, having a cloudless sky and a gentle breeze 

 (which afterward, however, increased to a strong gale), we pursued 

 our way. In a short time we captured another fine seal, which 

 was deposited en cache, to be available on our return. As we pro- 

 ceeded, scenes of increasing beauty met my eye. The shore of 

 the " dreaded land" presented many features of interest to me, for 

 it was all new, and especially attractive from its associations with 



* Andromeda tetragona, a plant of the heath tribe that abounds throughout the 

 arctic regions. 



f This bay I named after Samuel Robinson, of Cincinnati. Ohio. 



ENCAMPMENT AT THE FOOT OF JONES' S TOWEK. 



