SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEK 



188 



painful undertaking. Every movement was a work of deliberation. Having, 

 by much care and with some anxiety, made good our descent to the top of the 

 secondary hills, we took our way down one of the steepest banks, and slid for- 

 ward with great facility in a sitting posture. Towards the foot of the hill an 

 expanse of snow stretched across the line of descent. This being loose and 

 soft, we entered upon it without fear, but on reaching the middle of it, we 

 came to a surface of solid ice, perhaps a hundred yards across, over which we 

 launched with astonishing velocity, but happily escaped without injury. The 

 men, whom we left below, viewed this latter movement with astonishment and 

 fear." 



After this perilous descent, Scoresby continued his excursion on the flat land 

 next the sea, where he found scattered here and there many skulls and other 

 bones of sea-horses, whales, narwhals, foxes, and seals. Two Russian lodges, 

 formed of logs of pine, with a third in ruins, were also seen ; the former, from 

 a quantity of fresh chips about them and other appearances, gave evidence of 

 having been recently inhabited. These huts were built upon a ridge of shingle 

 adjoining the sea. Among the boulders heaped upon the shore, numerous sea- 

 birds had built their nests or laid their eggs, which they defended with loud 

 cries and determined courage against the attacks of gulls. The only insect he 

 perceived was a small green fly, but the water along the coast was tilled with 

 medusse and shrimps. The strong north-west winds had covered the strand 

 with large heaps of Fticus vesiculosus and Layninaria saccharincty the same 

 which the storms also cast out upon our shores. 



The view of this high northern life was extremely interesting, but Dr. 

 Scoresby was still further rewarded by the discovery of a dead whale, found 

 stranded on the beach, which, though much swollen and not a little putrid, 

 proved a prize worth at least £400. By a harpoon found in its body, it appear- 

 ed to have been struck by some of the fishers on the Elbe, and having escaped 

 from them, it had probably stranded itself on the spot where it was found. 

 When the first incision was made, the oil gushed forth like a fountain. It was 

 a slow and laborious work to transport the blubber to the ship, which on ac- 

 count of the dangerous nature of the coast was obliged to remain two miles 

 off at sea. After five boat-loads had safely been bi-ought on board, the wind 

 suddenly changed, so that the ship was driven far out to sea, and the boat 

 reached her with great difliculty. 



Of the numerous fjords of Spitzbergen, once the busy resort of whole fleets 

 of whalers, and now but rarely visited by man, none has been more accurately 

 described by modern Arctic voyagers than the magnificent harbor of Magda- 

 lena Bay. Here the Dorothea and the Trent anchored in 1818, on their way 

 to the North Pole ; here also the French naturalists, who had been sent out in 

 the corvette La Recherche (1835-36) to explore the high northern latitudes, 

 sojourned for several weeks. 



The number of the sea-birds is truly astonishing. On the ledges of a high 

 rock at the head of the bay Beechey saw the little auks {Arctiea alle) extend 

 in an uninterrupted Une full three miles in length, and so closely congregated 

 that about thirty fell at a single shot. He estimated their numbers at about 



