100 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
attempt to capture tlie first Arctic white fox met with 
on our journey. 
We are unwilling to lose the opportunity of devoting 
ourselves altogether to a closer survey of the island,, 
as the wind to the eastward makes it a difficult 
matter to approach the land on that side; to the 
southward the water is calm, and a black sandy 
beach invites us, but the sandy beach is “ steep to,”' 
and is bounded with rough, weather-beaten rocks on 
either hand; it is not a place for anchorage; we 
sound and verify our opinion, and beat up without 
further delay. Broken water extends a long way out 
from the land, but we see no ice in the offing. As 
we sailed along with a fair wind we suddenly fell in 
with the true commencement of the west ice. 
Extending far beyond the range of vision, and as 
we scud along, the fog as it lifts reveals vast plains 
beyond, still encumbered with these quaint-looking 
masses of floating, toiling ice. Here is a plain of some 
twenty square yards burthened with little mounds of 
ice covered with folds of frozen snow; here is a patch 
of a hundred square yards more heavily weighted 
with little hummocks, as the lumps of ice scattered 
over its surface are called by the Arctic voyagers. 
These are treacherous places to venture upon, as the 
action of the air and the wasting influence of the salt 
