RETURNING LIGHT. 
359 
top yibrating, and every now and then tumbling', as 
if by some pulsatory movement below. Presently, in 
one concerted diapason, a group of narwhals, impris- 
oned by the congelation of the opening,^ spouted their 
release, scattering spray and snow in every direction. 
I was not more than three yards from the nearest 
cone ; yet I could see nothing of the animal except 
this jet. 
" The noise was so great that I could hardly make 
the steward hear me. It had, moreover, more of voice 
mingled with its sibilant ' blow' than I had ever heard 
— a distinct and somewhat metallic tone, thrown out 
impulsively, and yet with the crescendo and diminu- 
endo of an expiration. According to the views of some 
systematic naturalists, the cetacea have, strictly speak- 
ing, no voice. This opinion admits of much modifica- 
tion. The white whale in Wellington Sound whis- 
tled while submerged and swimming under our brig ; 
and, in the present singular case, the ejaculatory char- 
acter of the tone sounded like a gigantic bark.f 
" May 1, Thursday. A little before ten this morning, 
the sun showed almost half his disk above the snow ho- 
rizon, with his usual appanage of pearly opals and mel- 
lowed fire displayed about the southern heavens. At 
noon I walked out in the full glare, twenty- five degrees 
above the freezing-point on my face, and about as many 
below it on my back — a May-day frolic in the snow ! 
* I found afterward from the Danes that they assemble in this way when ex- 
tensive areas are frozen. Mr. Moldrup, of Godhaven, mentions fifty being killed 
at one of these congregations. 
t On this occasion, I heard the white whale singing under water — a peculiar 
note between the whistle and the Tyrolean yodel. Our men compared it to 
the Jews-harp. Once, off Cape James, it was so loud that we heard it in the 
cabin, as if proceeding from the cable-tier. I have often, in my walks over the 
ice-openings, been startled by the resemblance between the sudden spout of a 
near narwhal and the bark of an animal. 
