CHAPTER XV 
gATURDAY, 24^/2 Dec.— Now for the whales, if there 
are any ! Every one is on the look-out for the black 
back of the finless whale that carries the gold in its 
mouth. 1 Looking back on our course we see Paulet 
Island to the N.E., surrounded with loose ice and small 
bergs, and to the south the horizon is broken with bergs 
and loose ice ; above us there is delicate grey sky that 
lifts at times, showing a yellow band of light in the east. 
To the west the snow-clad land comes out towards us, 
terminating in what, I suppose, is Cape Gordon ; then it 
stretches back, west and south, till we can just make out 
the entrance to Admiralty Inlet — a deep opening into the 
snow-clad land, fortified on either side by black precipitous 
cliffs, which rise one above the other in terraces till they 
are lost in the clouds. The inlet reminds me somewhat 
of the entrance to Loch Huron or some Norwegian fiord. 
In front of the entrance there are some low islands of a 
reddish, chocolate colour, with almost no snow on them. 
Between us and the land, in the open water of the gulf, 
we see our two companion vessels. They help us to 
form an idea of the height of the mountains. Mount 
Haddington lies west, slightly north of Admiralty Inlet, 
but on account of the low clouds we cannot see its top. 
1 Whalebone was worth ^2500 per ton when we left Dundee. A big 
whale has a ton of bone in its mouth. 
232 
