On to Greenland 
We were fairly off now for Greenland. 
The next few days had much of sameness; the monotony 
broken at times, very luckily, by the sight of seal. Several 
varieties: Jan Mayen (Phoca foetida), saddle-back ( Pago- 
philus groen landicus), troll or gnome seal, and hooded seal 
(C^stophora cristata), were bagged at one time. 
Several of us, out in a small boat in pursuit of a large 
herd of seal, had the rather exciting experience of being lost 
in the fog, and this among thick ice floes threatening to sep¬ 
arate us permanently from the ship. The herd lay on the far 
side of a broad, thin sheet of rotten ice, to cross which would 
be dangerous. Ever heavier the fog came in; even the fog¬ 
horn was lost, for a time. 
When, again, we came within its sound, an echo accompa¬ 
nied it. At the time we attributed this to reverberation in 
the fog, and paid little heed to the matter. Later, however, 
we learned that a sealer, hunting in the East Greenland ice, 
had also blown his horn at this time, hearing again and 
again what he thought to be an answer. 
Luckily, on the 18th we met with an ice bay, sheltered 
from the force of the wave. This permitted our advancing j ul ^ 18th 
into the pack to a shelter from mighty swells showing furi¬ 
ous storms outside. These swells followed on through the 
ice until Latitude 75 0 38' north, Longitude 3 0 6' east, was 
reached, and here another hooded seal was secured. 
Heavy fog, rigging ice-covered, mercury at zero, formed 
the setting to our ship, forced to buck savagely now in try¬ 
ing to win a passage on, to fairly open water beyond. 
Ever and always, also, we must guard against being 
hemmed in. In the course of this butting the ice-plates were 
[57] 
