Chapter II: Part 2

It is necessary to observe, that the Dutch at this period entertained hopes of being able to found some permanent establishments in the North, and that for this purpose men were sometimes left in these islands, to make observations during the winter. The wretched fate that generally attended these adventurers, at last induced the States-General totally to relinquish the attempt.

Here we fell in with some _streams_ of ice, which we went through in search of seals; but of these we saw very few, and got none. Spoke a brig from Bergen. 15th, One sail in sight.

On the 16th we were encountered by a violent storm from the north; and after running, as near as we could calculate, about fifty leagues in a south-westerly direction, we were met by a great number of birds; this clearly showed us to be at no great distance from land, and had we continued under the same course, we perhaps would soon have fallen in with Iceland; here however, we lay-to under close reefed top-sails, till the weather moderated, and on the 17th we sailed in a north-east direction. The weather at this time was so hazy that we could not take an observation; and after a gale, and lying-to, not much reliance can be placed on the reckoning by account.

I may here remark that top-sails are now generally reckoned the best sails for a ship to ly-to under. They are not exposed to accidents from becalming in a heavy sea; and, from their height, they have more power to steady the ship than a sail of treble size nearer the deck; top-sails used for lying-to should be made of stouter canvass than usual.

22d, The Greenland fleet in sight.

23d, Eighteen sail in company. Lay-to about three quarters of an hour to get some fresh water ice, which is known from that of salt water by its crystalline transparency, the other being very opaque. We occasionally brought large pieces of it on board in a boat, which were piled upon the deck to serve as water for the use of the men, and had also a hogshead filled with it for the tea-water in the cabin.

24th, Several showers of snow. To-day we passed that solitary spot called Bear, or Cherry Island, in Lat. 74° 30´ N. Long. 19° 5´ E. The surface of this island is mountainous, craggy, and dreary in its aspect; exhibiting in some places a scene of black, stupendous precipices; and in others lofty eminences covered with snow.

The ears of people approaching this island are incessantly assailed with the sounds of the impetuous waves dashing against the rugged shores; the crashing collision of floating ice; the discordant notes of innumerable birds; the barking of arctic foxes; the snorting of walruses[8], and the dreadful roaring of the polar bears.

[8] These animals have been found here, lying huddled together, a thousand in a heap.

The currents near the island are remarkably rapid, which renders it impracticable to cast anchor within two miles of it, where soundings can be had in twenty or thirty fathoms. Vid. Forster, p. 329.

In 1604, this island was visited by a ship commanded by Stephen Bennet, who, in this and many succeeding voyages, killed prodigious numbers of sea-horses, or walruses. He discovered also abundance of lead ore under a mountain, (by him named Mount Misery, from its truly wretched and forlorn appearance,) of which he brought upwards of thirty tons home to England. Here are also found coals of an excellent quality, and very fine virgin silver of different forms. Vid. Forster, p. 332.

Near to Cherry Island is a small spot called Gull Island, on which were likewise found several veins of lead ore and coals.

25th, Clear weather and hard frost.

26th, Clear weather, and a considerable quantity of ice.

27th, Some snow; ice increasing.

28th, At ten A. M. the ship was made fast to a large iceberg, the lowest part of which was about ten, and the highest forty feet from the surface of the water. Its circumference was considerable.

These floating mountains of ice, to which Dutch navigators have given the name of Icebergs, and which are of all different magnitudes, are originally formed on land. The sun, even in those high latitudes, has a considerable power in melting the snow on the mountains, which, running down into the valleys, and again congealing, segments frequently break off from the entire mass, and fall into the sea. The ice of which these floating masses are composed, is of various colours. The original fresh water ice is sometimes incrusted with that formed from the sea water, and this again is covered with new ice formed of fallen snow. The different positions of the spectator relatively to the incidental rays of light, varies likewise the seeming hue of the whole. In some parts it emulates the vividness of the emerald, and in others, the most beautiful sapphire. When the iceberg is totally composed of melted snow, which is sometimes but partly the case, the refraction of the solar rays is the most beautiful; and the appearance of those floating mountains on the side opposite the sun, presents such a blaze of light, intermingled with different glowing tints, as totally to baffle description. “Frost,” says the eloquent Pennant, “sports with these icebergs, and gives them majestic as well as other singular forms. Masses have been seen, assuming the shape of a Gothic church with arched windows and doors, and all the rich drapery of that style, composed of what an _Arabian_ tale would scarcely dare to relate, of crystal of the richest sapphirine blue; tables with one or more feet; and often immense flat roofed temples, like those of _Luxor_ on the _Nile_, supported by round transparent columns of cerulean hue, float by the astonished spectator.”

I have not unfrequently seen floating masses of ice which had evidently been formed of drifted snow, since they wanted the compactness and solidity of those formed by the melting of the snows. Many of these contained trees, and (as there are no trees in Spitzbergen) must have been originally formed in the northern parts of Russia or America, and, being carried by the rapid rivers of these countries into the ocean, had drifted into these latitudes. These trees have often the appearance of being burnt at the ends; and Olafsen mentions, that the violent friction which they frequently experience, occasionally sets them on fire, and exhibits the extraordinary phenomenon of flame and smoke issuing from this frozen ocean.--_Malte-Brun_, tome v. 241.

Between one and two o’clock this morning, I was much entertained by the sun darting his rays through the cabin windows.

30th, Cast off from the iceberg, and endeavoured to force our way through the ice in a northern direction, till it became so thick and close around us, that we were forced to make fast to another large iceberg, where a small part of the surface of the water was free from ice.

May 1st, In the morning, about twelve or one o’clock, the Garland was put upon the main-top-gallant stay by the last married man, as is usual among the Greenland ships. It is formed by the crossing of three small hoops in the form of a globe, and is covered with ribbons, &c. The crew on this occasion blacken their faces with a mixture of grease and soot, and dance round the decks, their chief musical instruments being frying-pans, mess-kettles, fire-irons, &c. This rough mode of festivity they continued till the Captain ordered them a plentiful allowance of grog. After regaling themselves with the very acceptable donation of their commander, they washed themselves, and began to coil away the boat lines, and prepare for the fishing. In every boat there is a line, 720 fathoms long, to the end of which is fixed a harpoon about eight feet five inches long; the iron part is better than two feet long, and is extremely sharp. On each side of the point is placed a barb, or wither, diverging from the harpoon at an angle of nearly forty degrees, to prevent the instrument from flinching and losing its hold. There are also several lances, or spears, about six feet long, the points of which are about two inches broad: by these the whales are killed after being struck with the harpoons.

A boat’s crew consists of a harpooner, a boat-steerer, a line-manager, and three or four men, more or less, according to the size of the boat.

2d, Cast off, and made for a large iceberg, one mile to the east, to which we made fast, and were soon after closed in by the ice. This iceberg was twenty feet high, and mostly composed of fresh water ice. We had not been above two hours in this situation before a strong gale cleared away the ice, and we discovered South Cape in Spitzbergen, bearing north-east, distant thirty miles.

May 3d, Sailed for Charles Island on the west coast of Spitzbergen, the most southern part of which is in latitude 78°.

We were much impeded in our course by ice, which, according to the Greenland phrase, was very _rank_, around us. The ship struck occasionally on masses of considerable size, to the no little surprise of those sailors who were making their first voyage hither. We had this day a piece of fresh beef cooked for dinner, which we brought from England; it tasted as well, and was as full of juice as if newly killed: as did all the fowls which we got at Shetland: These were hung by the legs to a rope upon the quarter-deck; but neither plucked nor gutted. Our eggs likewise preserved their good taste. This proves the antiseptic power of intense cold.

4th, Intense frost. Ice-bound, with several sail in company.

5th, Strong gales. Unhung the rudder.

6th, The ship towed through very rank ice, by four boats manned by half the crew. Ten sail in company.

7th, Made fast to an iceberg about seventy yards long and forty broad, and about twenty feet above the surface of the water. It was very much furrowed, and, from its great depth, drifted but little, while the lesser fragments of ice were driven past it at the rate of about two knots an hour.

I had this day a complete proof of the fallacy of the opinion, which maintained that salt water did not freeze. All around the ship, ice was formed on the surface of the water; I observed the spiculæ darting with considerable velocity, and in an immense variety of forms. This ice, when newly formed, is of a bay colour, and when it has attained the thickness of window glass is called by the sailors, _bay ice_. It is rough on the surface, and opaque; if the frost be not interrupted by a swell of the sea, or storm, the salt-water ice often extends to an immense distance. It is by the Greenland sailors termed a _field_, when of such extent that the eye cannot reach its bounds. The smaller fragments of salt-water ice are called _seal meadows_, and on them these animals often sport by hundreds.

In storms large masses of ice are frequently piled on each other, to a considerable height; these are called _packs_, and often assume a very fantastic appearance. The grinding noise occasioned by the collision of those huge masses of ice against each other, and against the ship, not only fills the mind of the auditor with a degree of horror, but, for a considerable time, deprives him of the sense of hearing.

Storms in those seas are so extremely dangerous, that the most powerful pens could convey but a faint representation of their horrific sublimity.-- The fury of the ocean is but the least of the enemies the sailor has to contend with. If the ship, during a storm, should be encircled by ice, there is hardly a possibility of avoiding impending fate.

8th, Discovered the south point of Prince Charles’ Island, bearing east, distant six leagues.

On the 11th, we made Fair Foreland, or Vogel Hook, the northern extremity of Charles’ Island and on the 13th, we reached the southern extremity of the westernmost cape, forming Cross-bay in Spitzbergen, at a short distance from which, we were made fast to a large iceberg.

Spitzbergen is a general appellation given to a vast assemblage of frozen islands, lying between South Cape, in 76° 30´, and Verlegan Hook, in 80° 7´ north latitude. Its greatest breadth is from the westernmost part of Mauritius, or Amsterdam Island, called Hackluyt’s Headland, to the extreme east point of North-Eastland, comprising from 9° to nearly 24° east longitude.

The inhospitable nature of this frozen climate has prevented Spitzbergen from being properly explored. The best charts that have been published are extremely defective, and its larger divisions are but imperfectly defined. It could nowise interest the reader to peruse a dry catalogue of headlands or straits; and a few general observations may suffice to exhaust all that is interesting in its appearance.

The general aspect of this gloomy and sterile country, affords a scene truly picturesque and sombre. The shores are rugged, bold and terrific, being in many places formed by lofty, black, inaccessible rocks, some of which taper to exceedingly high points, and are altogether bare, and almost destitute of vegetation. The entire face of the country exhibits a wild, dreary landscape, of amazingly high[9] sharp-pointed mountains, some of which rear their summits above the clouds, and are capped with strata of snow, probably coeval with the creation of the world.

[9] The altitude of one near the Black Point, south end, was found, by the megameter, to be 1503 yards. Phipps’ _Voyages_, p. 87.

“So Zembla’s rocks (the beauteous work of frost,)
Rise white in air, and glitter o’er the coast:
Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on th’ impassive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows, the growing mass supply,
Till the bright mountains prop th’ incumbent sky;
As Atlas fix’d each hoary pile appears,
The gather’d winter of a thousand years.”

The mountains of Spitzbergen have been observed, by voyagers, to decline in altitude towards the east; neither are the eastern mountains so black, steep, or naked, as those more to the west. This curious phenomenon is considered by some naturalists as a general law of nature. The mountains here are totally composed of one entire and single mass of granite. The only fissures discovered in their vast extent, are formed by the intensity of the frost rending them assunder. They burst with a noise like thunder, and often huge fragments are torn from the summits, and rolled with great impetuosity to the base.

The glaciers are the most astonishing of all the natural phenomena of this county. It would only convey a faint representation of their size and magnificence, to say, that they far surpassed those of Switzerland. Travellers who have been in both countries, declare there is no comparison between them. Perhaps the most proper method to form a just conception of their magnitude, is by considering the size of the icebergs, which, as previously stated, are fragments of them. One of these masses, according to Phipps, has been found grounded in twenty-four fathoms water, while it towered above the surface to the height of fifty feet. Almost every valley can boast of its glacier, some of which vie with the mountains in height. They are occasionally hollow, and immense cascades of water are precipitated from them.

The magnificence of this scene it is impossible to describe. The gloomy silence of the surrounding country, the hoarse noise of the water dashing from an immense height, and the magnificent effect produced by the reflection of the solar rays, form a _tout ensemble_ which can only be faintly conceived.

Though the mountains of Spitzbergen consist generally of rocks of primary formation, it is not altogether destitute of those of a later origin. Captain Phipps discovered several species of marble, which dissolved readily in muriatic acid. On the east side of the country, potters’ clay and gypsum have been found, and different specimens of talc, mica, and lapis olearis, are to be met with. Phipps did not perceive any metallic ores in this country, nor, as far as I know, have other voyagers discovered any. The interior of the country, however, has been very little, if at all, explored, and it would therefore be wrong to conclude against their existence from this circumstance, more especially as they are said to be found in Greenland.

Solid as the rocks of this barren country are, their disintegration has gone on to a considerable extent. The combined effects of cataracts, formed of melted snow, of frosts, and tempests, are at once perceived in the quantity of grit, or coarse sand, worn down from the mountains. This sterile substance, (the only thing among the rocks resembling soil,) is somewhat fertilized by the putrified _lichens_, and dung of wild birds.

No fountains, or springs of fresh water, are to be found here; frost arrests the watery fluid in its course, and prevents it from ascending to the surface. The cascades falling from the glaciers, are solely formed of melted snow, and with this only the navigators can be supplied.

This inhospitable climate is not entirely destitute of vegetation; some plants are found, which brave the rigour of perpetual frost, and convey some faint representation of a more southern country. They are generally short, crabbed, and have a wretched appearance. The _Salix herbacea_, (dwarf willow,) the most vigorous of them all, scarcely rises two inches from the ground. Among the few herbs, the _Cochlearia_, (scurvy grass,) deserves the first rank, as being the providential resource of distempered seamen. Here are also found several species of _Lichen_, (liverwort,) _Saxifraga_, _Ranunculus_, _Bryum_, and a few others, of little or no use in the medical world.

On the west side of Spitzbergen there are some safe harbours and roads for ships. The sea near the shore is, for the most part, shallow, and the bottom rocky; but it often suddenly deepens to some hundred fathoms, where the lead sinks in soft mud, and sometimes mixed with shells. In Smeerenberg, which has a sandy bottom, vessels may ride in thirteen fathoms water not far from the shore, where they are sheltered from all winds.

The tide, from the number of islands through which it passes, flows very irregularly, in some places only three and four feet.

Mr. Marten has affirmed, that the sun here, at midnight, appears with all the faintness of the moon; but his assertion has not been corroborated by the experience of subsequent voyagers. During my stay in this country, in 1806 and 1807, distinction between day and night was almost completely lost. Any perceptible difference between the splendour and radiance of the mid-day and mid-night sun, in clear weather, (if these expressions may be used,) arose only from a different degree of altitude. Some of our most experienced Greenland sailors, when called upon deck, have frequently asked me whether it was day or night; and I have often seen them obliged, even in clear sun-shine, to consult the quadrant on this head. I may add, that Captain Phipps has also contradicted Mr. Marten in the most positive manner.

The temperature here is extremely fluctuating. Sometimes the heat is so great as to melt the pitch on the decks and cordage of the vessels, and in a few minutes after, succeed high winds, snow, and frost. The sky, even in calm and serene weather, is covered with dense white clouds, the repositories of the snow so often falling.

The degree of heat experienced in these northern latitudes being so much greater than is experienced in the same latitudes in the southern hemisphere, is supposed to proceed from the greater quantity of land in the north reflecting the rays of the sun, which in the south are absorbed by the ocean. Whatever hypothesis may be adduced to account for the greater temperature of the north, the fact itself is indisputable. Terra del Fuego, situated only in fifty-five degrees south latitude, is extremely cold; and Captain Cook could not penetrate farther than the seventy-first degree of latitude, a distance far short of what the Greenland ships are every year in the habit of sailing towards the other Pole.

Thunder and lightning are unknown at Spitzbergen, or at least are extremely rare. Forster supposes that the electric exhalations in a country so much covered with snow must be very few, and these so much consumed by the frequency of the _Aurora Borealis_, that there is never collected at one time a quantity of fluid sufficient to produce thunder and lightning. That luminous appearance, so often observed during a storm in this country, he alleges to be the effect of volcanic eruptions; though this, I confess, seems to me extremely problematical. Vid. Forster’s _Hist. Voyages_, p. 486.

There is a great diversity among the accounts given by different travellers, of the forms assumed by the new fallen snow in this country. During hard frost, I always observed that the flakes closely resembled an asterisk with six points. As the temperature varied, their appearance was changed, which may, perhaps, serve to explain the differences alluded to.

The one summer day of Spitzbergen continues from about the middle of May to the middle of October, when the sun bids a long adieu to this northern region. The horrors of winter are discovered, not alleviated, by the splendour of the _Aurora Borealis_, and the pale lustre of the moon.

Here, says the energetic Thomson,--

“Here winter holds his unrejoicing court;
And through his airy hall the loud misrule
Of driving tempest is for ever heard;
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath,
Here arms his winds with all subduing frost;
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows,
With which he now oppresses half the globe.”

Spitzbergen has no settled inhabitants. It is, however, resorted to by parties of Russians, who, in turn, continue there throughout the year for the purpose of hunting, which they practise in all weathers. These hardy adventurers have erected huts adjacent to several of the harbours and bays, and are well provided with fuel, from the immense quantities of drifted wood that is every where to be found in the different creeks. Archangel supplies them with dried fish, rye-meal, and an abundant supply of whey, similar to, if not made in the same manner, as the Shetland beverage. This last constitutes their chief drink, and is likewise used in baking their bread. Their beds are principally composed of skins of the animals which they kill, and of these they also make garments, which they wear with the fur side next their bodies. The walrusses and seals afford them a plentiful store of their favourite delicacy, _train-oil_, and the bears, deers, and foxes, fall frequent victims to the dexterity of these excellent marksmen. They are at liberty to return to their native country towards the latter end of September, if not relieved by a fresh party before that time. Some of these Arctic hunters came on board our ship, and when set down to meat, they preferred a mess of biscuit and whale oil to all the dainties placed before them. Of this coarse repast they ate with a sufficiently healthful appetite, and in their own language pronounced it good. They had the complexion of Siberians, and were dressed in bear and deer skins. They had an athletic and vigorous appearance, though somewhat stiffened and cramped by the extreme cold to which they are exposed. During the time they were on board, and particularly while at meat, they behaved with a decorum and gentleness which could hardly be expected from their grotesque appearance: and the neatness of their fowling-pieces, boat-tackling, &c. manifested a taste and ingenuity of which the inhabitants of a more refined country need not be ashamed.

The zoology is the only remaining subject of importance in the description of this country to be here considered. After giving an account of the bear, deer, and fox, I shall notice the seal and walrus, and conclude with describing a few of the birds. Afterwards I shall give a short history of its discovery; and then pursue the account of our voyage.

The _Ursus maritimus_, or Polar bear, may with great propriety be termed the sovereign of the land animals of Spitzbergen, or even of the Arctic circle. Unlike the lion of Africa, his dominion is not confined solely to the land; for, by means of the ice, he extends his ravages far from any continent, and disputes the supremacy of the ocean with the walrus himself, even in his own element. Here, says the poet just quoted,

---- “The shapeless bear,
With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn;
Slow pac’d, and sourer as the storms increase,
He makes his bed beneath the inclement drift,
And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint,
Hardens his heart against assailing want.”

The Polar bear is the largest of the species, and has frequently been found of an immense size. Barentz killed one thirteen feet in length, and it is asserted they have been found of a much larger size, but not on equally good authority. The one which Captain Phipps describes was only seven feet one inch long, and the largest we got on board did not exceed seven feet six inches; though we killed one apparently much larger, but a gale coming on, we were obliged to bear away, and leave it on the ice.

The hair of this species is very long, woolly, and of a yellowish white colour. Its teeth lock into each other like those of a rat-trap, and are so remarkably strong and sharp, that it has been known to shiver lances made of steel. Its head is small, and a good deal elongated; nose black, and without hair; ears short, erect, and rounded; neck slender. Its limbs are of a vast thickness, and each foot is armed with five exceedingly strong black claws. The carcass of the one mentioned by Captain Phipps, though without the skin, head, and entrails, weighed 610 lbs. The flesh is white, and though of a coarse texture, is prized by some as equally delicious with mutton, especially when boiled; for when roasted it is of an oily taste. The liver, it would seem, is of a poisonous nature, as some Dutch sailors who ate part of one were taken so extremely ill, that, after recovering, the skin all over their bodies fell off in scales.

The fat makes good train oil, and that which is procured from the feet is sometimes used in medicine, and is commonly known by the name of bear’s grease. In some upwards of a hundred pounds of fat has been got; and Captain Fox is said to have killed one which yielded forty-eight gallons of oil. Forster’s _Hist. Voy._ p. 363.

The skins are imported into Britain, chiefly for covering coach-boxes. In Greenland the inhabitants use the flesh and fat as food; and of the skins they make seats, boots, shoes, and gloves; the tendinous parts they split into fibres for the purpose of sewing.[10]

[10] Fab. _Faun. Groenland._ edit. 1780, p. 24.

The food of the Polar bears consists chiefly of fish, of seals which they seize when sleeping, and the carcasses of whales, walrusses, &c. so often found floating in the northern seas. On land they prey on the rein-deers, young birds, and eggs; and sometimes lay hold of the Arctic fox, notwithstanding all his stratagems in order to escape. Some naturalists have maintained that the Polar bear chiefly delighted in human flesh; this, however, is expressly contradicted by Fabricius, who, from his long residence in Greenland, must be allowed to be unexceptionable authority. It will not prey on man, says he, unless pressed by hunger, and it deserves to be mentioned, that the Greenlanders feign themselves dead when they wish to avoid the pursuit. It cannot, however, be denied, that, when attacked, or hungry, they are extremely dangerous to man. Many well authenticated instances are to be met with of the courage with which they have attacked the crews of boats, or even of ships. The following is one of the many: “A few years since, the crew of a boat belonging to a ship in the whale fishery, shot at a bear at a short distance, and wounded it. The animal immediately set up the most dreadful yells, and ran along the ice towards the boat. Before it reached it, a second shot was fired, and hit it. This served to increase its fury. It presently swam to the boat; and in attempting to get on board, reached its fore foot upon the gunwale; but one of the crew having a hatchet, cut it off. The animal still however, continued to swim after them, till they arrived at the ship, and several shots were fired at it, which also took effect; but on reaching the ship it immediately ascended the deck; and the crew having fled into the shrouds, it was pursuing them thither, when a shot from one of them laid it dead upon the deck.” Vid. Bewick’s _Hist. Quadrup._ 6th edit. p. 296.

The walrus is the most dangerous enemy the bear has to contend with, and his immense tusks often give him a decided superiority. What the bear, however, wants in strength, he supplies by cunning, as he takes huge fragments of ice in his paws, and, dashing them against the head of the walrus, attacks and kills him after he is stunned by these blows. The one and the other often fall in this desperate fray.[11]

[11] Fabr. _loc. cit._

According to Fabricius, their time of parturition is in the winter, and their number of young at a birth seldom exceeds two. At this period, if on land, they make large dens in the snow; but they frequently bring forth in some of those vast caverns, so often found in the huge masses of _packed_ ice. Their attachment to their offspring is remarkably great. When mortally wounded, they will take their little cubs under their paws, embrace, and bemoan them with their latest breath.

Polar bears are equally at home by land and by sea, where they swim with great strength and agility; they also dive, but cannot remain long under water. As if impatient of rest, they are frequently seen passing from one island of ice to another, and are often met with at a great distance from land. They are frequently drifted into Iceland and Norway, where, from the extreme hunger they suffer in their passage thither, they make dreadful ravages among the cattle, but are soon dispatched by the inhabitants, who rise in a body as soon as they learn that one of them has approached their shores. The government of Iceland encourages the destruction of these animals, by paying a premium of ten dollars for every bear that is killed.

That these animals are possessed of considerable sagacity is evident from the account we have given of their combats with the walrus, and may be farther elucidated by the following fact:--The Captain wounded one in the side, and immediately the animal, as if conscious of the styptic nature of snow, covered the wound with it, and made off. We did not perceive any blood in its tract.

The sight of the bear is rather defective, but its senses of smelling and hearing are very acute, and compensate for any feebleness in the other.

Some writers have affirmed that Polar bears lie in a state of torpor through the long winter night, and appear only with the return of the sun; but this is denied by Fabricius, who says, they are equally on the hunt summer and winter.[12]

[12] _Tam brumali, quam aestivo tempore occurrit extra praedans._ Fab. _loc. cit._

The _Cervus tarandus_, or rein-deer, comes next in order. This useful and beautiful animal is found in every part of Spitzbergen. It has long, slender, branched horns, bending forwards, and palmated at the top, and broad palmated brow antlers.

Its body is thick, and rather square; tail short; legs not so long as those of a stag; hoofs large, concave, and deeply cloven; hair very thick, and under the neck long and pendent: before the first coat is shed it is of a dark cinereous colour, but after that period it changes to white, except a large space round each eye, which is always black.[13] Some rein-deer are four feet six inches high; and a pair of their horns has been found which were three feet nine inches long, two feet six inches from tip to tip, and weighed nine pounds and three quarters. The horns of the females are less than those of the male, and not altogether of the same form. She has six teats, four of which only give milk.

[13] _Hieme etiam barbam albam, ut hircus habet._ Fab. _de Cerv. Tarand_.

The principal food of the rein-deer is the _lichen_ (or liverwort) which it frequently raises from below great depths of snow by means of its feet and antlers. The female goes about eight months with young, and seldom brings forth more than one at a time. Her attachment to her offspring is remarkably strong.

The rein-deer species do not bound, but run with an even pace, and with considerable rapidity; in running, they make a clattering noise with their hoofs. They swim very well, crossing in their way narrow arms of the sea. Their senses of smelling and hearing are extremely acute; and it has been observed, that they are more cautious when in flocks, than when living in a solitary manner.

The camel is not more useful to the Arabians, than the rein-deer to the Laplanders, and northern Asiatics; it, in fact, constitutes their whole riches; and on this valuable animal they may be said entirely to depend. An attention to rearing and preserving them, forms the sole business of their lives, and to that alone their agricultural economy is confined.

“The rein-deer forms their riches. These, their tents,
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth,
Supply their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups:
Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe
Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift
O’er hill and dale, heap’d into one expanse
Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep,
With a blue crust of ice unbounded glaz’d.”

The _Canis lagopus_, or Arctic fox, is found in all parts of Spitzbergen. Its nose is sharp and black; eyes black, with yellow iris; ears short, erect, round, and almost hidden in the fur; legs short, with the toes furred like those of a hare; tail long and bushy. The male is generally larger than the female; but neither reach the size of the common British fox. In summer, its hair is of a greyish colour, which in winter changes to white, when it also becomes longer, softer, and a good deal thicker than it is in the former period.

The Arctic fox is monogamous, and brings forth twice a year, in the months of March and June. It has several pups at a time.

This species feeds chiefly on young water fowl and eggs, and when very hungry, will eat any kind of shell or other fish. In the northern parts of Asia, and in Lapland, they prey on the _lemming_, or _Lapland marmont_, (_Mus Alpinus_,) which are often seen there in surprising numbers.

They generally burrow in the ground, but in Spitzbergen and Greenland, where the intensity of the frost renders this impracticable, they lie in caverns, and in the cliffs of rocks, two or three together. They are so remarkably hardy, that the most rigorous severity of winter in these regions, never stops their search of prey. They are excellent swimmers, and are often seen passing from one island to another, especially at the time when bird-nests are to be found. Some zoologists have affirmed, that they are harmless, simple, and easily taken; but Fabricius assures us that they possess all the wildness and cunning of the _vulpes_, or fox of these kingdoms. Fabricius says, the Arctic fox has three different kinds of voices[14]. Its smell is not so fetid as that of the common fox. Its flesh is not only eaten by the Greenlanders, but some voyagers have esteemed it as being good food. Vid. _Phipps_, p. 184.

[14] _Vocem habet triplicem: esurientis ejulando: coire volenti clamando, periclitantis murmurando._

Their skins are of little value in traffic, especially the white furred ones, as the fur easily comes off.

It was formerly supposed that there were two species of Arctic foxes, but this is denied by Fabricius on very satisfactory grounds.

These three quadrupeds constitute the entire of that great division of animals which belong to Spitzbergen. In warmer climes, the species are more numerous; but the individual animals do not there seem to possess more vigour or animation than these are imbued with. The climate of Spitzbergen being an extreme of cold, the animals of a more genial country cannot exist there. These species are indigenous to the regions of frost; cold is their element, and in it alone they thrive.

The amphibious animals come next in order; and as the accounts of them, given by different voyagers and naturalists are extremely confused, I have been more circumstantial than would otherwise have been necessary.

The _Phocæ_[15] are the most numerous class of animals which frequent Spitzbergen, where they are found in vast numbers. Though the specific characters of each particular tribe are distinctly marked, their general resemblance is, upon the whole, so very striking, that the following observations may be applied to them all indiscriminately. In the scale of nature, the Phocæ hold an intermediate station between amphibia and perfect fish; but nearer the latter than the former. The organization of other amphibious animals, such as the beaver, castor, otter, &c. fits them better for living on the land than the water. In this genus the contrary takes place. The arms and legs of the Phocæ, (if we may employ these terms,) are wholly enveloped in the flesh of the animal, the hands and feet being alone protruded; these too are webbed, and are instruments evidently more calculated for swimming than moving on land.

[15] Under this general appellation, I include the seal, walrus or morse, dugon, &c.

This unaptness of organization is strongly displayed in the painful motion of the animal, which, from the shortness of its legs, has to rest at every step on its belly, until it prepares for a new advance. Its agility, considering these defects, is indeed astonishing, and is certainly the effect of great exertion.

The eloquent and ingenious Buffon was of opinion that the Phocæ approached to fish by a still more decisive criterion. “They are the only animals,” says he, “which have the _foramen ovale_ open, and which can therefore live without respiring, and to whom water is as proper and suitable an element as air.” Theoretic views appear to have here led this excellent writer into an error, as it is now well known that the Phocæ cannot remain long in the water without coming to the surface to breathe.

The _Phoca vitulina_, by the English termed _seal_, and by the French, _phoque_, is the most common species of those animals in the north, and is dispersed with some variety throughout the rest of the ocean. Its head is large and flat; the teeth strong, and so sharp that I have seen it bite in two the handspikes with which the men were attempting to kill it; the tongue is forked; and it is well furnished with whiskers around the mouth; has almost no external appearance of ears, but merely an aperture to convey the sound to the _sensorium_; the eyes are small, and have a haggard appearance; the neck thickens as it approaches the shoulder, the thickest part of the animal; from whence the body gradually tapers in a cylindrical form, to the extremity, where the hind legs are placed, between which is a very short tail; the fore paws consist of five fingers, joined together by a membrane, and furnished with very strong cylindrical nails; the hind paws are formed in the same way, except that the fingers are longer than in the fore paws, and that the shortest of them are in the middle, and the longest on the outside of the paw. The length of an ordinary full grown seal is about seven or eight feet; and its thickness at the shoulder four or five. It is covered with short coarse thick hair, which varies in its colour with the different ages of the animal.

The flesh of the seal is of a reddish colour, and is, by the Greenlanders, accounted excellent food. Our sailors esteemed the entrails of a young one which they dressed, as equal to those of a hog. A seal will yield about twelve or fourteen gallons of good oil; their skins are very valuable, serving for covers to trunks, vests, &c. and are now used to a very considerable extent in the manufacture of shoes. The Greenlanders, who depend almost entirely for subsistence on this animal, make their boots, and other articles of dress, as well as the inside of their huts, of its skin.

The seal is a gregarious and polygamous animal. It is never met with at a great distance from land, but frequents the bays and seas adjacent to the shore. It feeds promiscuously on most sorts of small fish, but chiefly on the spawn of the salmon.

Fabricius differs from both Buffon and Pennant in asserting, that the seal brings forth but one at a time, while they maintain that it brings forth two.[16] At the time of parturition, it comes on shore, and suckles its young there for about six weeks before it takes them to the water, where it instructs them in swimming. Though naturally timid, the female defends her young with great boldness and spirit; on other occasions they generally place their safety in flight; but I have sometimes seen them throw back stones and pieces of ice on the sailors who pursued them.

[16] Perhaps Pliny has hit the truth, “_Parit nunquam geminis plures_.” _Nat. Hist._ lib. 9. § 13.

Seals delight to lie upon the ice, or on the shore, exposed to the sun[17]; they there sleep very profoundly, and fall an easy prey to the sailors, who dispatch them by a blow on the nose.

[17] _Sternunt se somno diversæ in littore Phocæ._ Georg. lib. 4.

Their voice has been not unaptly compared by Buffon to the barking of a hoarse dog; when attacked, they make a more doleful kind of noise.

Pliny expressly states this animal to be of a docile and tractable nature, and in this he is supported by the more enlarged experience of modern times. The seal described by Dr. Parsons[18] was taught to come out of his tub, and return to the water at the command of its keeper, to stretch out its neck to kiss him, and to perform several other motions.

[18] Pennant’s _Quadrupeds_, vol. ii. p. 272.

Seals have a very delicate sense of hearing, and are very much delighted with music. The Captain’s son, who was a good performer on the violin, never failed to have a numerous auditory, when we were in the seas frequented by those animals; and I have seen them follow the ship for miles when any person was playing on deck. This fact was observed by the ancient poets[19], and is thus alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, in one of his poems:

“Rude Heiskar’s seals, through surges dark,
Will long pursue the minstrel’s bark.”

[19] _Apol. Rhod._ lib. 1. _Val. Flac._ lib. 5: lin. 440. _Gaudebant armine Phocæ._

These animals, in swimming, _constantly keep the head_, and often the whole body, as far as the shoulder, above the surface of the water. The first I saw was at a considerable distance, and might easily have been mistaken for a man, though it was much liker a dog.

Buffon has already remarked, that this animal had given a foundation to the poetic fiction of the Nereids in antiquity; and perhaps we may add, to the no less fictitious mermaids of modern times.

The Arctic walrus, or _Trichechus rosmarus_ of Linnæus, the other great variety of the Phocæ, frequents the bays and shores of Spitzbergen in vast numbers, though they are not now found in such quantities as when the Europeans first navigated these seas. The walrus is considerably larger than the seal, being sometimes found eighteen feet long, and twelve round, where thickest[20]. Their characteristic difference, however, consists in the walrus having two very large tusks, or horns, like the elephant’s, projecting from his upper jaw. These are sometimes found of an extraordinary size, from two to three feet in length, and weighing twenty pounds. The tusks of the Spitzbergen walrus seldom attain this size, because there the animal is generally killed before attaining its full growth. It is only on the northern coast of Asiatic Russia, or where they are not molested by hunters, that such tusks are found.

[20] The largest we caught was only thirteen feet long and seven round.

With the exception of the tusks, the form of the walrus does not differ materially from that of the seal. Head round, with a short nose; mouth small, with strong bristles; small red eyes; short neck; colour variable; rest of the body similar to the seal; but its toes, especially in the hind feet, are much stronger.

The walrus is monogamous but in other respects its habits are nearly the same with those of the seal. It brings forth its young in the same manner, preys on the same kinds of fish, and, like the seal, ascends the ice, (more rarely the land,) to bask in the sun.

The walrus is a very valuable animal, yielding frequently half a tun of oil, equally valuable with that of the whale. The tusks are said to be more valuable than those of the elephant, as being more compact and hard, and consequently taking a finer polish: the skin, which is nearly an inch thick, is used to cover the masts or yards of ships, where they cross each other, to prevent their being injured by the friction. It was formerly cut into ropes; and Buffon mentions its being used at Paris in the springs of carriages.

The walrus becomes very furious when attacked, and the whole herd join to revenge any injury an individual may have received. If wounded in the water, they will sometimes surround the boat, and attempt to sink her, by striking their tusks against her sides and bottom. Their combats with the bear, their most dangerous enemy among the lower animals, have been already described.[21]

[21] This account is conformable to that given by the greatest number of writers, but Fabricius seems to be of a different opinion as to the ferocity of the walrus. “_Improviso vulneratus infeslat; venatore autem præviso fugit._” Faun. Groenl. p. 5.

The water and air round Spitzbergen abound more with inhabitants than the land; the fish are perhaps not more numerous than the birds, which are there seen in thousands: of these I shall only describe a few of the most curious species.

The _Procellaria glacialis_ or _Mallemukke_ of the Dutch, is found in very great abundance in the seas of Spitzbergen, especially in the whale-fishing season.--Bill yellow and strong; neck, tail, and under part of the body, white; back, and coverts of the wings, ash; primaries dusky; legs straw-colour.

The bird is carnivorous, and feeds on the blubber of cetaceous fish, and on other dead carcasses floating in the sea. They are often seen following whales, especially wounded ones, on whom they pounce at every time of their rising to breathe, and tear the blubber from their back. As soon as the carcass of a whale is sent adrift after the blubber is taken off, it is covered over with these voracious birds, who then make a loud worrying noise. When a fish is alongside the ship, they surround it in vast numbers, and are so eager of their prey, that they suffer themselves to be caught with the hand, and may be knocked down easily by those on the whale, or in the boats.

Though extremely fetid, the Greenlanders account the flesh of the Mallemukke good food, and eat it either raw or dressed. The fat they burn in lamps.

When caught, the Mallemukke not only attacks with its bill, but spurts the blubber out of its mouth and nostrils in the face of its captor. Their flight is a kind of race along the surface of the water. They build their nests on rugged precipices, and at other times seldom come to land.

_Larus parasiticus_, or Artic Gull. Bill dusky, and much curved at the end; crown black; back, wings, and tail, dusky; the rest white. The two middle feathers of the tail are three or four inches longer than the rest. The female is altogether brown. Length about fourteen inches.

The Artic gull lives almost solely on the fish taken by other birds; to obtain which, it follows and harasses them till they either drop their prey, or vomit with fear; it then devours the residue before it falls into the sea.[22] The Artic gull is frequently taken sleeping on the water.

[22] _Faun. Groenl._ p. 104.

_Anas mollissima_, or Eider Duck, is sometimes found on the coast of Spitzbergen in vast numbers, especially in winter. Bill black, and somewhat elevated; from the forehead, which is a glossy black, extends a dark purple stripe beyond each eye: neck, body, and tail, a mixture of black and white; legs green. The body of the female is mostly of an iron colour, striped with black; tail of an ash hue.

This species is about twice the size of the common domesticated duck, and its body is covered over with a thick coat of valuable down.

_Colymbus glacialis_, or Great Northern Diver.

Head and neck black; throat and hind part of the neck marked with a semilunar spot of white, and with white streaks, varied with white spots; upper part of the body and wings black, varied with white spots; tail duskish; legs black. Some of them are found three feet five inches long, and weigh sixteen lbs.

It makes its nest in the most remote parts of the North, in the islets of fresh water lakes. Each pair possesses a lake. Its sight is keen, flies well, and, darting obliquely, drops safely into its nest. When pursued, it saves itself by diving; but when it has young ones, it does not make its escape, but strives to beat off its enemy with its bill.

_Emberiza nivalis_, or Snow Bunting, is found in vast numbers at Spitzbergen, and as it is graminivorous, its frequenting a country so ill provided with vegetables, has justly been regarded as a very surprising phenomenon. It is not a large bird, and its colour varies with the season of the year.

As it does not seem necessary to notice the few insects which belong to Spitzbergen, some short account of its discovery is all that now remains for us to treat of regarding it.

The progress of discovery towards the North has been extremely slow. The ancients possessed no accurate knowledge of the countries north of the Rhine, though they made voyages a considerable way beyond that barrier. The accounts of the Hyperborei, as given by Pomponius Mela and Pliny, two geographical writers of great reputation, are perfectly fabulous, and afford an incontrovertible proof of the total ignorance they were in respecting the country they pretended to describe. During the long period of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, the desire of discovering foreign countries, like other liberal pursuits, had totally subsided. In the fifteenth century, however, men awakened from their lethargy, and the voyages of _Columbus_ and _Vasco de Gama_ constitute one of the most important epochs in the history of the human race. The spirit of adventure was aroused, and voyagers boldly ventured into hitherto unexplored seas. The English and Dutch navigators of the sixteenth century, envying the glory and wealth acquired by the Portuguese in their voyages to India by the Cape of Good Hope, were seized with the same spirit of adventure, and were fired with the hopes of opening a new route to those regions, by sailing round the north of Europe and Asia. Though these expectations were disappointed, yet to this stimulus the great discoveries made in the North are to be principally ascribed.