June 2nd. Monday. The day fine, and we were still tied up at the island. I took a gun and went on shore after breakfast, but there was not much to shoot. In a little valley I saw a quantity of dead grass sticking out of the ice. On going over and examining, I found a number of human skeletons. Wherever there was a big bunch of grass, there I found an ice-covered skeleton. Probably they were Eskimos. When I returned to the ship there were a number of natives on board. They came from Tassuisak and had some seal skins to trade.
Some of our men had visited the Arctic. She had been in Godhaven, so had much trade and our men procured some of it. Afterwards I bought a kayak model from one of these. It was very beautifully made. The skin tobacco pouches and slippers made by natives in Godhaven looked nicer than any I saw from other settlements.
The southern Greenland towns were better than those further north, but the whalers seldom called at any further south than Holstenborg. I went on board the Bear for awhile during the evening with Dr. Crawford and met Lieutenant Emory. During the day I saw several very beautiful glaucous gulls. They are called burgomasters by the sailors.
June 3rd. Tuesday. Immediately to the north of where we lay there were a great many icebergs. They presented a very fine appearance with the sun shining on them. The Thetis and Bear started off amongst these bergs. We tried to move out to the west, but did not accomplish much; for when evening came we were no further north than when we started. In the distance and to the west of us we saw a berg on the top of which there was a black spot. What could it be? From the crow's nest the telescope revealed nothing but a black spot on the icy slope.
There was a narrow lead going in this direction, so the mate and myself went with a boat's crew to solve the mystery. We were able to take a whale boat a long distance through the lead, and then we walked the rest of the way. I had brought a rifle in case there should be a chance of a shot. On getting up to the berg we found that it was not fast, but that owing to its great depth in the water it had a motion independent of its floe. On one side there had been a great slide, and up this we proposed going.
Just at this place the motion of the berg had ground up a lot of ice at its base, and also some of the floe, so that one had very unstable footing to jump to and from in crossing the surrounding fissure.
However, we all managed without mishap and ascended the slide to within six or eight feet of the top. I was then pushed up this little cliff and found that, with the exception of the place we had come up, the sides were sheer precipices. It was necessary to traverse a snowy undulation before the black object came into view. The mate joined me with some of the others and it was exciting for a few minutes, but disappointing when we found only a big black stone which the berg had picked up probably during its glacial days.
The islands of ice often turn over owing to the frost splitting them when the weather is cold. This frequent alteration of their centre of gravity makes them very undesirable neighbors, especially in the autumn. While it was disappointing finding only a stone when we expected something wonderful, yet the view from the summit was magnificent.
Immediately around little but ice could be seen, with here and there some black threads of water and many great bergs scattered about.
In the distance the coast of Greenland looked bold. It had been rather high all the way up from Upernivik, but Cape Shackleton, rising to a height of thirteen hundred feet, looked very imposing, being precipitous. There was a great loomery on its cliffs, which was probably the home of the thousands of those birds which we saw every day flying along the cracks, or about the pools of open water. There was much less trouble getting down the berg than getting up, but we were all tired when we reached the ship as we were not accustomed to long walks.