The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . alize onedarling dream of my boyhood. Des])ite the wind, which here blew violentlyand bitterly cold, I sat down, and wrapping my cloak around me, long contem-plated the spectacle of Nature in one of her sublimest aspects. I was trulyalone. Not a living object was ni sight; beneath my feet was the boundlessexpanse of ocean, with a sail or two on its bosom at an immense distance;above me was the canopy of heaven, flecked with fleecy cloudlets; the sun wasluridly gleaming over a broa
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . alize onedarling dream of my boyhood. Des])ite the wind, which here blew violentlyand bitterly cold, I sat down, and wrapping my cloak around me, long contem-plated the spectacle of Nature in one of her sublimest aspects. I was trulyalone. Not a living object was ni sight; beneath my feet was the boundlessexpanse of ocean, with a sail or two on its bosom at an immense distance;above me was the canopy of heaven, flecked with fleecy cloudlets; the sun wasluridly gleaming over a broad belt of blood-red mist; the only sounds were thewhistling of the wandering winds and the occasional plaintive scream of thehovering sea-fowl. The only living creature which came near me was a bee,which hummed merrily by. What did the busy insect seek there? Not ablade of grass grew, and the only vegetable matter on this point was a clusterof withered moss at the very edge of the awful precipice, and this I gathered, atconsiderable risk, as a memorial of the visit. SPITZBERGEN—BEAR ISLAND—JAN IHEYEN. 131. MlKMGHr SUN Off SPITZBERGEN. CHAPTER X. SPITZBERGEN—BEAR ISLAND—JAN MEYEN. The west Coast of Sjiitzborgen.—Asccn«ion of a Mountain by Dr. Scoresbj.—His Excursion along theCoast.—A stranded Whale.—Magdaleiia Bay.—Multitudes of Sea-biids.—Animal Life.—MidnightSilence.— Gl;iciers.— A dangerous Neighborhood.— Interior Plateau.—Flora of Spitzbergen.—ItsSimilarity witli tiiat of tlie Alps above the Snow-line.—Reindeer.—The liyperborean Ptarmigan.—Fishes.—Coal.—Drift-wood.—Discovery of Spitzbergen by Barentz, Heemsiierk, and Ryp.—BrilliantPeriod of tlie Whale-tisliery.—Coffins.—Ei^ht English Sailors winter in Spitzbergen, 1630.—Melan-choly Death of some Dutch Volunteers.—Russian Hunters.—Their Mode of wintering in Spitzber-gen.—Scharos in.—Walrus-ships Hammerfest and Tromso.—Bear or Clierie Island—Bennet.—Enor
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