SPITSBERGEN. 
349 
still fast in ice four feet thick, and remained so till 
May 16th. 
Temperature for April—mean 6 93° F. A windy, 
foggy month, except from 10th to 15th, when the sun 
shone for six days and nights from a cloudless sky. 
May 9th. —A pair of Snow-Buntings appear to he 
building among some old graves, near house. 
May 14 th. —An old bearded seal killed to-day con¬ 
tained a young one nearly ready for exclusion—a pre¬ 
cise miniature of its mother, except that it had little or 
no “ speck ” under its skin. Beard well developed, the 
bristles several inches long and stiff. Mother very fat. 
May 1 9th. —Boarded ship again, having at last 
cleared the ice from her bilges, and sailed north next day. 
May 17th. —Heard blue seals whistling under-water. 
The cry is audible for half a mile, not unlike the whining 
of a dog. The sealers say it is not uttered after 
early June. 
May 18 th —Norsk e-Oer—a school of about one 
hundred white whales seen, many of them young. 
May 29th.— Beturned to Dane’s Gat, it being im¬ 
possible to go north owing to continuous E. and N.E. 
gales jamming the ice on coast. Next day sailed south, 
rounding South Cape after a good passage of forty 
hours. 
May 29th. —Storfjord. Grey geese seen for first- 
time this year, flying from S.E. towards mainland. 
May 28 th. —Storfjord. Many walrus seen on ice and 
water. Killed four, also eight big seals. The walrus 
were all three-year-old bulls, the most difficult to tackle, 
and one of them drove his tusks through the upper 
