BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 93 



in Mr. Beechey's opinion, a full compensation for the 

 cloudy and misty weather, when the hills are clothed 

 with new-fallen snow, and all appears dreary and deso- 

 late. The radiation of the sun, he observes, in some 

 sheltered situations, is so powerful, during two hours ou 

 either side of noon, that they frequently observed the 

 thermometer upon the ice in the offing at 58, 62, 67 ; 

 and once at midnight it rose to 73, although in the 

 shade at the same time it was only 36. Hence are 

 found varieties of Alpine plants, grasses, and lichens, 

 such as in the more southern aspects flourish in great 

 luxuriance ; they are here found ascending to a consid- 

 erable height, " so that," says Beechey, " we have fre- 

 quently seen the reindeer browsing at an elevation of 

 fifteen hundred feet." 



On account of the mildness of the temperature, the 

 shores of Spitzbergen are frequented by multitudes of 

 animals of various descriptions. " From an early hour 

 in the morning until the period of rest returned, the 

 shores around us reverberated with the merry cry of the 

 little auk, willocks, divers, cormorants, gulls, and other 

 aquatic birds ; and, wherever we went, groups of wal- 

 ruses, basking in the sun, mingled their playful roar 

 with the husky bark of the seal." The little auks or 

 rotges (the Alca alle] are stated to be so numerous, that 

 " we have frequently seen an uninterrupted line of them 

 extending full half-way over the bay, or to a distance 

 of more than three miles, and so close together that 

 thirty have fallen at one shot. This living column 

 might be about six yards broad and as many deep ; so 

 that, allowing sixteen birds to a cubic yard, there would 

 be four millions of these creatures on the wing at one 

 time." This number, he adds, appears very large ; 

 yet, when it is told that the little rotges rise in such 

 multitudes as to darken the air, and that their chorus ia 



