eleton of whales, are found in most parts where we landed on this
coast. The shores of the strait, like all the rest in Spitzbergen, are
lined with immense quantities of driftwood, wherever the nature of the
coast will allow it to land.

The animals met with here during the Hecla's stay were principally
reindeer, bears, foxes, kittiwakes, glaucus and ivory gulls, tern,
eider-ducks, and a few grouse. Looms and rotges were numerous in the
offing. Seventy reindeer were killed, chiefly very small, and, until
the middle of August, not in good condition. They were usually met with
in herds of from six or eight to twenty, and were most abundant on the
west and north sides of the bay. Three bears were killed, one of which
was somewhat above the ordinary dimensions, measuring eight feet four
inches from the snout to the insertion of the tail. The vegetation was
tolerably abundant, especially on the western side of the bay, where the
soil is good; a considerable collection of plants, as well as minerals,
was made by Mr. Halse, and of birds by Mr. M'Cormick.

The neighbourhood of this bay, like most of the northern shores of
Spitzbergen, appears to have been much visited by the Dutch at a very
early period; of which circumstance records are furnished on almost
every spot where we landed, by the numerous graves which we met with.
There are thirty of these on a point of land on the north side of the
bay.[023] The bodies are usually deposited in an oblong wooden coffin,
which, on account of the difficulty of digging the ground, is not
buried, but merely covered by large stones; and a board is generally
placed near the head, having, either cut or painted upon it, the name of
the deceased, with those of his ship and commander, and the month and
year of his burial. Several of these were fifty or sixty years old; one
bore the date of 1738; and another, which I found on the beach to the
eastward of Hecla Cove, that of 1690; the inscription distinctly
appearing in prominent relief, occasioned by the preservation of the
wood by the paint, while the unpainted part had decayed around it.

The officers who remained on board the Hecla during the summer described
the weather as the most beautiful, and the climate altogether the most
agreeable, they had ever experienced in the Polar Regions. Indeed, the
Meteorological Journal shows a temperature, both of the air and of the
sea water, to which we had before been altogether strangers within the
A