Seasons with the Sea-Horses; or, Sporting adventures in the Northern Seas

Front matter

SEASONS WITH THE SEA-HOESES. LONDON" PB T NTED ET SPOTTI5WOODE AND CO. NE^S^nTfi^-S^UABB CHASE OP THE WALKTJS- (Page SEASONS WITH THE SEAHOKSES; OK, SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. BY JAMES LAMONT, ESQ., F.G.S, " There we hunted the walrus, the narwal, and the seal. Aha ! 'twas a noble game, And like the lightning's name Flew our harpoonB ot steel."— Loxgfrllow. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARYBOROUGH STREET. 1861. The right of Translation ia reserved. D equation TO SIR CHARLES LYEEL, F.R.S. F.G.S. &c. Mt deae Sib Chaeles, A copy of your delightful Principles of Geology has been my unvarying and instructive companion during ten years of adventurous wanderings, during which everything I have seen seems to me entirely confirmatory of your Geological views.

I therefore dedicate this little book to you ; and I shall esteem myself fortunate if any of the observations contained in it shall be the means of rivetting or strengthening a link in the beautiful chain of evidence by which you have in such a masterly manner demonstrated the perfect adequacy of present causes to remodel the surface of the earth. And with sincere respect, I remain, My dear Sir Chaeles, Yours very truly, JAMES LAMONT, F.G.S. K2TOCKDOW, AbSTLESHIBE CONTENTS.

Chapter I

First Trip to Spitzbergen in 1858. — Find Schooner Yacht and light Gigs unsuitable. — Determine to go again in 1859. — Hire a suitable Vessel and Crew, and build two Boats. — Lord David Kennedy agrees to acconrpany me. — Contested Election delays our starting. — Result of Poll unfortunate alike for Walruses and Constituency. — Preliminary Trip to Guernsey. — Sail from Leith. — Steamer a little out in her Reckoning. — Dreadful Famine in Lerwick. — Gale. — Namsen Fiord and River. — Salmon Fishing. — Terry's Breech-loading Rifles . . Page 1 CHAP. II. Hammerfest. — The " Anna Louisa." — Dr. de Jongh. — Norwegian Grouse. — Sail for Spitzbergen. — Shark Fishery. — Bear or Cherie Island. — Multitudes of Sea-fowl. — Sight Spitzbergen. — Post Office. — Wybe Jan's Water. — Meet the Ice. — Brig Nordby. — Captain Ericson. — Disastrous Spring-fishing. — Empress of India. — Loss of a Telescope, and a Man's Life — Boy-walrus. — Thick Ice. — Meet the Sloop, and sail in company to the East. — Shift our Flag, and send the Yacht to Bell Sound . . .12 CHAP. III.

Preparations. — Description of a Walrus-boat, and Implements used. — Harpoons. — Lances. — The Haak- CONTENTS. VIII pick, or Seal-hook. — Axes. — Knives. — Ice-anchors. — Compass Page 31 CHAP. rv. Crow's-nest. — Look-out. — First "Walrus seen. — Find them very shy. — Great Ice-pack. — Two Walruses shot. — Lay-to in a dense Fog. — Wreck of a Sloop in the Ice. — Cure for frost-bitten Feet. — Sketch of the Spitzbergen "Walrus Hunter. — Profits of the Trade. — Truck System. — Cold. — Chilblains. — Seal-shooting on the Ice. — Method of hunting the Great Seal. — Dimensions of Great Seal. — Seal-shooting in the Water . . . . .42 CHAP. V. Hunting the Walrus. — Windfall. — Maternal Affection of Walrus. — Seal's Dinner. — Molluscæ. — Whale's Food. — Herd of Walruses. — Four killed. — Escape of a fine Bull. — Cutting up the Blubber. — Walrus Hide and Blubber. — Accommodations of " Anna Louisa." — " "Whittling " a great Resource. — Vast Herds of Sea-horses. — " Jaging " them. — Exciting Sport. — Man killed by a Walrus. — Spitzbergen Gazette of June 16th. — W'alrus Veal or Foal 61 CHAP. VI.

Sabbath Observance. — Rewarded for ditto. — Our first Bear seen. — Kill him. — Lose the Sloop. — Quantities of Eggs. — Driftwood. — Comes from Siberia. — Cannot be in situ. — Geology of Thousand Islands. — Red Snow. — Caused by Mute of Alca Alle. — Bear Battue — and its Consequences. — Deplorable Effects of smelling Brandy . . .82 CHAP. VII. North-east Gale. — Bears' -grease. — Errors in the Charts. — Geology. — Limestone. — Coal. — Creation of subalpine CONTENTS. IX Flats. — Deeva Bay "Fast" Ice. — Bear's Mode of catching Seals. — Whale's Bones. — Glen-Turritt. — Large Extent of fixed Ice. — Many Seals shot. — Become my own Harpooner. — Glacier with detached Moraine . Page 98 CHAP. VIII. Large Bear shot. — Adventures of an Opera-glass. — Size and "Weight of Polar Bear. — Stories of Bears. — She Bear and Cubs. — Break up of the Fast-Ice. — Kill the old Bear, — and catch the Cubs alive. — Shocking Case of filial Ingratitude . . . . . . .117 CHAP. IX.

The Ice disperses. — Lose a Bear and Cub. — Pot 600 lbs. of Bears' -grease. — Skins. — Slow going. — Seals attracted by Whistling. — Glaciers on the Coast. — Noises from them. — Submarine Bank. — Shooting Walruses. — Walruses fighting. — Walrus Tusks. — Awkward Customer. — Ivory. — Story of Mermaids. — Osteological Peculiarity. — Cook loses his Watch. — Shoot a Bear. — Cold Bath 132 CHAP. X. Boat-race. — Visit. — Ingenious Harpoon. — Hippopotamus. — Phoca Vitulina, or little Seal. — Phoca Hispida, or Jan Mayen Seal. — Dreadful Smell of Cargo. — Ferocity of young Bear. — Drift-ice. — Stones and Clay on Icebergs. — Warm Day. — Beautiful Caverns in the Ice. — Upset of an Iceberg. — Young Ice. — Noises from Glacier. — Crimping a Walrus. — Ivory Gulls. — See a Bear. — Curious Delusion. — Gulf-stream and Arctic Current. — Danger of getting embayed. — Narrow Escape . . . 150 CHAP. XL Dense and sudden Fog. — Our Hours and Habits. — Supplies run short. — Meet the Yacht. — Their bad CONTENTS.

X Success in Sport. — Novel Bullet-mould. — Geological Specimens. — Part Company again. — Medical Treatment of Sick Men. — Water up. — News. — Old Acquaintance. — Gradual Extinction of the Walrus. — They are receding further North. — Nova Zembla. — Illness of young Bear. — Attempt to escape. — Aged Bull- Walrus. — His pro bable Reminiscences. — Coal and Fossils. — Commander Gillies' Land. — North-east Spitzbergen. — Bear shot from the Deck of the Sloop Page 167 CHAP. XII. Walruses leave the Banks, and go upon Land. — Vast Herds ashore. — Frightful Massacre. — Just Retribution. — Cargo of Bones. — Beautiful Day and Sudden Change. — Early Northern Voyagers. — Scoresby's Opinion. — Open Polar Basin a mere Chimera. — Dr. Kane. — North Pole. — Scheme for reaching the Pole. — Parry's Sledge Expedition ; and why it failed. — Alexei Markhoff's Expedition ; and his diificult Return . . . . . .184 CHAP. XIII.

Whales' Bones. — Rapid Elevation of the Land. — Early "Whale Fishery . — Shallowing of the Sea. — Trench ploughed by an Iceberg. — Last Day at the Sea-horses. — Successful Stalk and double Shot. — Lose two Harpoons. — Very bad Luck. — Difficulty of shooting Walruses. — Gale. — Wrecks in Spitzbergen. — Insurance. — Kill a White Whale. — Description of the same. — Sail to the Rendezvous . 199 CHAP. XIV. Smeerenberg, or Blubber Town. — Agrements of ditto. Discovery of Spitzbergen. — Barentz. — Whale Fishery — Attempts to colonise the Country, and to make a penal Settlement. — They fail. — The West Indies versus Spitzbergen. — Russian Robinson Crusoes Wintering Establishment. — How conducted. — Awful Mortality. CONTENTS. XI Final Tragedy. — Death of eighteen Men from Scurvy and Hunger. — Ingenious Counter-irritant. — Russian Bath. — Cricket. — Boats sewed together. — Post Office. — Signs of Deer. — Kill three Geese with Ball. — Find the "Ginevra," and change into her Nautical Nimrods. — Amusing Walrus-hunt. — Gun bursts . .

Page 217 CHAP. XV. Bitter Cold. — Reindeer-shooting. — Three right and left Shots. — Delight of the Sailors. — Black Fox. — Ponche b. la Spitzberg. — Description of the Reindeer. — High Condition he attains. — Excellence of his Flesh. — His Ignorance of Man. — Anecdotes. — Fine Valley. — Unexplored Channel. — Near Heinlopen Straits. — Unjust Attack. — Marrow-Bones. — Ice-borne Boulders. — Good " Bag." — Two Singular Mountains. — Thymen's Straits. — Meritorious Deer. — Receipt for Kabobs. — Splendid Deer Forest. — Rejoin the Sloop ...... 237 CHAP. XVI. Dead Walrus found. — Bears nearly escape, but are caught. — Gale and Ice. — Mynherr Holmengreen. — Presents more Kaffirorum. — Send home the Sloop. — Result of Ericson's eight Months' Voyage. — South Cape. — Sugar-loaf Mountain. — " Right Whales." — Parasitical Gulls.

Practical Joke. — Arctic Fauna. — Chain of Subsistence. — Divergence of White Bear from original Stock. — Origin of the Walrus ; — and of the Seal. — Of the Cetaceans. — Changes in the South African Antelopes, caused by Desiccation of that country 260 CHAP. XVH. Horn and Bell Sounds. —Ice Fiord. — Pickled Reindeers' Tongues. — Arctic Foxes. — Geology. — Raised Beaches. Fossil Cannon-balls. — Awful Avalanche. — Begins to get * a CONTENTS. XII dark at Night. — Reach Hammerfest. — Sell our Cargo. — Take Leave of our Crew. — Sail Home Equinoctial Gales. — Leith. — Glut of Bears in the British Market. — Conclusion Game List Page 286