X.] 
OPENINGS IN THE ICE. 
519 
hunter over the ice on the 18th December to see how it was. 
In three-quarters of an hour’s walking from the vessel he found 
an extensive opening, recently covered with thin, blue, newly 
frozen ice. A fresh northerly breeze blew at the time, and by it 
the drift-ice fields were forced together with such speed, that 
Johnsen supposed that in a couple of hours the whole lead 
would be completely closed 
REFLECTION-HALO. 
Seen simu’taneously with the Refraction-halo delineated on the preceding page, in the part 
of the sky opposite the snn. 
In such openings in Greenland white whales and other small 
whales are often enclosed by hundreds, the natives thus having 
an opportunity of making in a few hours a catch which would 
be sufficient for their support during the whole winter, indeed 
for years, if the idea of saving ever entered into the imagination 
of the savage. But here in a region where the pursuit of the 
whale is more productive than in any other sea, no such occur¬ 
rence has happened. During the whole of our stay on the coast 
