﻿262 XEMA SABINII. August, 



utmost speed of our boats, or about six geographical 

 miles an hour. To those that came up we made 

 presents, and put the usual questions. 



In the evening we anchored the boats under the 

 westernmost of two islands lying immediately off 

 Cape Dalhousie, and, having landed, pitched our 

 tents on the beach. The islands here, and the Cape 

 itself, consist of loam or sand, and present steep 

 cliffs towards the sea forty or fifty feet high. The 

 surface is level, except where ravines, occasioned by 

 the melting of the snow in the beginning of summer, 

 intersect it ; and all the islands are so surrounded 

 by sandy flats that a boat cannot come near the 

 beach. On the present occasion we anchored three 

 or four hundred yards from the shore. 



The island on which we encamped is a breeding- 

 place of the Xema sabinii^ the handsomest of all the 

 gulls. Many of the parents were flying about accom- 

 panied by their spotted young, also on the wing. 

 This is the most westerly ascertained breeding sta- 

 tion of the species, which has been found at Spitz- 

 bergen, Greenland, and Melville Peninsula. Mr. Rae 

 shot some fine male specimens, Avhose plumage and 

 dimensions agreed exactly with the description in 

 the Fauna B or eali- Americana. The eggs are de- 

 posited in hollows of the short and scanty mossy 

 turf which clothes the ground. 



August 9th. — Through the carelessness of the 



