216 A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
The wind in the morning favours us considerably, 
and we run under Grilles Island, where we find toler¬ 
ably good anchorage, and a beach suitable to our 
purpose. This island is not marked in the chart. 
On the 1st of August two boats go away—one 
party to arrange for beaching our schooner; we in the 
other to look for game. The land here is peculiar in 
its shape. At a short distance from the sea the moun¬ 
tains rise abruptly out of a plain of their own crea¬ 
tion by the constant detritus washed down the steep 
mountain sides, which fill all the foreground with 
the newly formed soil ; the mountain torrents stream 
down and wear deep chasms in this level plain ; the 
ground is strewn with beautiful flowers, and a kind of 
willow, which is almost a creeping-plant here, grows 
over the moss-covered ground. We go gently along 
this charming coast-scene, and as we go we pick up a 
seal, who suffers for his temerity; the noise we make 
has no effect upon him, and he persists in following us, 
so we shoot him in the water and harpoon him before 
there was time for his sinking altogether. 
Although the ground does not differ from ordinary 
wild places where we have often been in search of wild 
game, the eye in roving over the landscape misses the 
presence of verdure of any kind worthy of the name, 
the vast mountain sides are destitute of green places, 
