VI.] WINGED RABBITS. 41 



At one in the morning, our danseuse retiring to rest, the 

 ball necessarily terminated ; but the Governor's dinner still 

 forbidding bed, we determined on a sail in the cutter to 

 some islands about three-quarters of a mile out to sea ; and 

 I do not think I shall ever forget the delicious sensation of 

 lying down lazily in the stern-sheets, and listening to the 

 rippling of the water against the bows of the boat, as she 

 glided away towards them. The dreamy, misty landscape, 

 — each headland silently sleeping in the unearthly light, — 

 Sncefell, from whose far-off peaks the midnight sun, though 

 lost to us, had never faded, — the Plutonic crags that stood 

 around, so gaunt and weird, — the quaint fresh life I had been 

 lately leading, — all combined to promise such an existence 

 of novelty and excitement in that strange Arctic region on 

 the threshold of which we were now pausing, that I could not 

 sufficiently congratulate myself on our good fortune. Soon, 

 however, the grating of our keel upon the strand disturbed 

 my reflections, and by the time I had unaccountably stepped 

 up to my knees in the water, I was thoroughly awake, and 

 in a condition to explore the island. It seemed to be about 

 three-quarters of a mile long, not very broad, and. a complete 

 rabbit-warren \ in fact, I could not walk a dozen yards with- 

 out tripping up in the numerous burrows by which the ground 

 was honeycombed : at last, on turning a corner, we suddenly 

 came on a dozen rabbits, gravely sitting at the mouths of 

 their holes. They were quite white, without ears, and with 

 scarlet noses. I made several desperate attempts to catch 

 some of these singular animals, but though one or two allowed 

 me to come pretty near, just as I thought my prize was secure, 

 in some unaccountable manner — it made unto itself wings, 

 and literally flew away ! Moreover, if my eyesight did not 

 share the peculiar development which affected that of the 

 Doctor's, I should say that these rabbits flew in pairs. Red- 

 nosed, winged rabbits ! I had never heard or read of the 

 species ; and I naturally grew enthusiastic in the chase, hop- 

 ing to bring home a choice specimen to astonish our English 

 naturalists. With some difficulty we managed to catch one 



