1852.] INFLECTIONS ON GAME KILLED. 69 



were added to the larder, and a very fine burgomaster 

 (Lams glaucus) was winged, but he fluttered so far to 

 1 1 'i 'ward that pursuit was not warrantable. 



Cape Dudley Digges is a high beetling bluff, elevated 

 about eight hundred feet above the sea, and of a por- 

 phyritic character. About five miles north-west from 

 it is a high-peaked unnamed island, termed by some of 

 our men not inaptly Desolation Island. Off this I 

 rejoined the ship, which, by the reckoning, would place 

 this island north-west five miles from Cape Dudley 

 Digges. I cannot imagine that our consorts have passed, 

 or some sign would have been left. 



Before taking leave of this region of birds, I would 

 wish to record my observations upon the probability of 

 Sir John Franklin seriously thinking of laying in any 

 supply. It is not improbable that they did so for pri- 

 vate purposes, or for the use of the sick. But any man 

 traversing latitudes within the Arctic Circle, will be per- 

 fectly aware that no salting process would be necessary, 

 where nature takes much more efficacious means, by rea- 

 son of low temperature. 



They are not so easily killed, or taken when wounded, 

 as some may be led to -believe; and with four double- 

 barrelled guns, in one hour, but a hundred and fifty were 

 captured, and yet they swarmed. But I very much 

 doubt any one killing them with peas, certainly not with 

 " split peas," with which I think Sir John Franklin's and 

 other Arctic vessels were supplied. Nor would any ra- 

 tional person so wilfully throw away " pearls after swine," 

 when abundance of shot was provided by the Government. 



But wishing to determine, in the distribution of birds 



