120 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
round the point end of the ice, and so stand away 
again to the north. 
The fog on the following day hung like a pall round 
the ship, lifting occasionally its vapory fringe and 
letting us see in the clear spaces around such easy 
chances for obtaining sport with the seal, that we are 
all impatience to be gone in their pursnit, but the har- 
pooneers, grown cautious by long experience, are 
strangely averse to any such proceedings in the present 
condition of the atmosphere. They tell of former mis¬ 
adventures and narrow escapes, which happened to 
themselves, enough to fill the stoutest heart with 
apprehension. One of these poor fellows was actually 
lost by his ship, and when almost on the point of 
giving up in sheer despair, he was picked up by ano¬ 
ther whaling vessel, and so got safe out of a danger 
which otherwise might have terminated fatal]y. Two 
boats' crews belonging to a captain who still sails in 
these seas were left to such a horrible fate as falls to 
the lot of those left behind, no haven for them but 
death, through their utter inability to find their ship 
again ; they were lured away by some such tempting 
chance as now offered of procuring a seal or two. 
Towards the afternoon the curtain lifted and the 
sun shone out; all semblance of danger being now 
removed, we get out the dingy, an unsteady little 
