Jew's-harps, belonging to one of the ship's
company.

[25] It will be observed that there is some slip of memory here--it
was the evening before.

[26] It was, in fact, the day after.

[27] I do not believe that Christofersen ever in his life had anything
to do with a London newspaper.

[28] There is a white reflection from white ice, so that the sky above
fields of ice has a light or whitish appearance; wherever there is
open water it is blue or dark. In this way the Arctic navigator can
judge by the appearance of the sky what is the state of the sea at
a considerable distance.

[29] It is true that in his account of the voyage he expressly states
that the continued very thick fog "prevented us from doing more than
mapping out most vaguely the islands among and past which the Vega
sought her way."

[30] Later, when I had investigated the state of matters outside
Nordenskioeld's Taimur Island, it seemed to me that the same remark
applied here with even better reason, as no sledge expedition could
go round the coast of this island without seeing Almquist's Islands,
which lie so near, for instance, to Cape Lapteff, that they ought
to be seen even in very thick weather. It would be less excusable
to omit marking these islands, which are much larger, than to omit
the small ones lying off the coast of the large island (or as I now
consider it, group of large islands) we were at present skirting.

[31] In his account of his voyage Nordenskioeld writes as follows of
the condition of this channel: "We were met by only small quantities
of that sort of ice which has a layer of fresh-water ice on the top
of the salt, and we noticed that it was all melting fjord or river
ice. I hardly think that we came all day on a single piece of ice
big enough to have cut up a seal upon."

[32] Peter Henriksen.

[33] This silk bag-net is intended to be dragged after a boat or ship
to catch the living animals or plant organisms at various depths. We
used them constantly during our drifting, sinking them to different
depths under the ice, and they often brought up rich spoils.

[34] This phosphorescence is principally due to small luminous
crustacea (Copepoda).

[35] Markham's account gives us to understand that on the north side
of Grinnell Land he came across hummocks which measured 43 feet. I
do not feel at all certain that these were not in reality icebergs;
but it is no doubt possible that such hummocks might be formed by
vio