On The Third Day We Began To See
Some Land Birds, And A Few Hours Afterwards, The Loom Of
The Island Itself; But It Had Already Begun To Get
Fearfully Cold, And Our Thermometer, Which I Consulted
Every Two Hours, Plainly Indicated That We Were Approaching
Ice.
My only hope was that, at all events, the southern
extremity of the island might be disengaged; for I was
very anxious to land, in order to examine some coal-beds
which are said to exist in the upper strata of the
sandstone formation.
This expectation was doomed to
complete disappointment. Before we had got within six
miles of the shore, it became evident that the report of
the Hammerfest Sea-horseman was too true.
Between us and the land there extended an impenetrable
barrier of packed ice, running due east and west, as far
as the eye could reach.
[Figure: fig-p162.gif]
What was now to be done? If a continuous field of ice
lay 150 miles off the southern coast of Spitzbergen, what
would be the chance of getting to the land by going
further north? Now that we had received ocular proof of
the veracity of the Hammerfest skipper in this first
particular, was it likely that we should have the luck
to find the remainder of his story untrue? According to
the track he had jotted down for me on the chart, the
ice in front stretched right away west in an unbroken
line, to the wall of ice which we had seen running to
the north, from the upper end of Jan Mayen.
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