“Seals,” replied the Norseman laconically.
An hour later they were out in the sunshine once again, with the magnificent glacier which filled up the northern end of the fiord looking more lovely than when they saw it first, a fact due; perhaps, to their having been threading a gloomy passage which at times was like a huge cavern.
Then came a long row past the valleys which ran inland, and down one of which the doctor declared that he saw a reindeer; and in due time the fiord contracted, the rocks on either side towered up with their ledges displaying row after row of sea-birds ready to take flight and utter their wild clamour, as in the distance they resembled a snowstorm of which the great flakes were parti-coloured.
At last the Hvalross was seen floating on the clear water, looking welcome and bright in the sunshine; and so clear was everything that as they neared her she looked doubled, one vessel keel to keel with another, whose funnel and masts lay low in the depths of the fiord.
“Dinner’s quite ready, gentlemen,” said the cook as they reached the deck; and that night, in spite of the soft glow of the sun, Steve slept as soundly as if it were as dark as any that he had ever known at home.
Chapter Twenty Six.
The Doctor’s Shot.
Captain Marsham had given his orders over-night, and hence the steam was up by breakfast time, and directly after that meal the vessel was gliding northward with her propeller churning up the deep water into a silvery foam, while two ever-extending waves ran toward the sides of the fiord, and broke upon the perpendicular rocks which ran down into deep water.