(As Mr.
Kingsley would say) in right good earnest this time!
LETTER XI.
WE SAIL FOR BEAR ISLAND, AND SPITZBERGEN - CHERIE ISLAND -
BARENTZ-SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY - PARRY'S ATTEMPT TO REACH
THE NORTH POLE - AGAIN AMONGST THE ICE - ICEBLINK - FIRST
SIGHT OF SPITZBERGEN - WILSON - DECAY OF OUR HOPES - CONSTANT
STRUGGLE WITH THE ICE - WE REACH THE 80 DEGREES N. LAT. - A
FREER SEA - WE LAND IN SPITZBERGEN - ENGLISH BAY - LADY
EDITH'S GLACIER - A MIDNIGHT PHOTOGRAPH - NO REINDEER TO
BE SEEN - ET EGO IN ARCTIS - WINTER IN SPITZBERGEN -
PTARMIGAN - THE BEAR-SAGA - THE "FOAM" MONUMENT -
SOUTHWARDS - SIGHT THE GREENLAND ICE - A GALE - WILSON ON
THE MAELSTROM - BREAKERS AHEAD - ROOST - TAKING A SIGHT -
THRONDHJEM.
Throndhjem, Aug. 22nd, 1856.
We have won our laurels, after all! We have landed in
Spitzbergen - almost at its most northern extremity; and
the little "Foam" has sailed to within 630 miles of the
Pole; that is to say, within 100 miles as far north as
any ship has ever succeeded in getting.
I think my last letter left us enjoying the pleasant
hospitalities of Kaafiord.
The genial quiet of that last evening in Norway was
certainly a strange preface to the scenes we have since
witnessed. So warm was it, that when dinner was over, we
all went out into the garden, and had tea in the open
air; the ladies without either bonnets or shawls, merely
plucking a little branch of willow to brush away the
mosquitoes; and so the evening wore away in alternate
intervals of chat and song.
