260 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN . 
The glacier next attracted our attention; its vast 
proportions filled the mind with awe. The whole of 
the upper part of the harbour is occupied with this im¬ 
posing object. As we gazed on the novel scene, a 
bottle-nose whale suddenly presented himself in the 
waters close by, and the men at once gave chase; with 
varying fortune they pursued him over the sea, and at 
length, after seven hours’ hard pull, they were forced to* 
desist from the vain pursuit. We landed in the even¬ 
ing, if that can be called landing, when the boat can 
only touch the foundations of some frowning fortress 
whose lofty walls rise abruptly from the waves. 
Here we scrambled up the steep sides whose every 
ledge and “ coigne of vantage ” was occupied with 
flocks of sea fowl. Flocks, say rather countless myriads 
of spectators in some vast arena. We watched them, 
for a long time, and their attitude resembled closely a 
crowd of spectators looking on at some spectacle ; the 
old and the young together chattering away as if they 
had one common purpose. Near by was a patch of low 
land running inland, and the ground was everywhere 
broken up by foxes in search of food of some kind. 
What its nature might have been we could not detect 
worms we hardly think exist, for there was no sign of 
life of that kind, and the scattered blocks of timber,, 
bored and pierced in all directions with some sea-worm,, 
