The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . of Spitzbergen, once the busy resort of whole fleetsof whalers, and now but rarely visited by man, none has been more accuratelydescribed by modern Arctic voyagers than the magnificent harbor of Magda-lena Bay. Here the Dorothea and the Trent anchored in 1818, on their wayto the North Pole; here also the French naturalists, who had been sent out inthe corvette La Recherche (1835-36) to explore the high northern latitudes,sojourned for several Aveeks. The number of the sea-birds is
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . of Spitzbergen, once the busy resort of whole fleetsof whalers, and now but rarely visited by man, none has been more accuratelydescribed by modern Arctic voyagers than the magnificent harbor of Magda-lena Bay. Here the Dorothea and the Trent anchored in 1818, on their wayto the North Pole; here also the French naturalists, who had been sent out inthe corvette La Recherche (1835-36) to explore the high northern latitudes,sojourned for several Aveeks. The number of the sea-birds is trulv astonishiiifr. On the ledges of a \\\<x\\rock at the head of the bay Beechey saw the little auks {Arctica alle) extendin an uninterrupted line full three miles in length, and so closely congregatedthat about thirty fell at a single shot. He estimated their numbers at about 134 THE PULAK WORLD. 4,000,000. When they took fliijjht they darkened the air ; and at the distanceof four miles tlieir cliorus could distinctly be heard. On a fine summers day, tl»e bellowing of the walruses and the hoarse bark. o H n o ?<a of the seals are mingled -with the shi-ill notes of the auks, divers, and gulls,Although all these tones produce a by no means harmonious concert, yet theyhave a pleasing effect, as denoting the happy feelings of so many creatures. « I SPITZBERGEN—BEAR ISLAND—JAN MEYEN. 135 When the sxin verges to the pole, every animal becomes mute, and a silencebroken only by the bursting of a glacier reigns over the whole bay—a remark-able contrast to the tropical regions, where Nature enjoys her repose duringthe noonday heat, and it is only after sunset that life awakens the forestand the field. Four glaciers reach down this noble inlet: one, called tlie Wagon Way, is7000 feet across at its terminal cliff, which is 300 feet high, presenting a mag-nificent wall of ice. But the whole scene is constructed on so colossal a scalethat it is only on a near approach that
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