340 - APPEARANCE OF BIRDS. 



great a distance of ice between ns and Port Fonlke, 

 Jensen, whose experience in the rapid dissolution of 

 ice about Upernavik, at the same season of the year, 

 had brought him into many serious difficulties, kept 

 a sharp eye open upon our line of retreat. But dan- 

 ger from a general break-up I did not consider as 

 likely to come for at least a month. Yet the spring 

 (if such it might be called) was approaching rapid- 

 ly, as was shown by the appearance of birds. As 

 I stood upon the hill-side some little snow-buntings 

 came chirping about me, and a burgomaster-gull flew 

 over our heads wheelincr his flig^ht northward. He 

 seemed to have cauo;ht the sound of tumblino: seas. 

 and was leading his mate, who came sailing along 

 after him with modest mien, to a nuptial retreat on 

 some wave-licked island ; and he screamed as if he 

 would inquire, were we too bound on the same 

 errand. A raven, too, came and perched himself 

 upon a cliff above our camp, and croaked a dismal 

 welcome, or a warning. One of these birds had 

 kept us company through the winter, and this one 

 looked very much as if he was bent upon adhering 

 to my fortunes ; though, I suppose, in truth, he was 

 only looking for crumbs. He stuck by us for several 

 days, and always dropped down into our abandoned 

 camp as soon as we were on our way. 



The coast along which we were now traveling pos- 

 sessed much interest. It presented a line of very 

 lofty cliffs of Silurian rocks ^ — sandstone and lime- 



1 At Capes Leidy, Frazer, and other points of the coast I subsequently 

 obtained a considerable collection of fossils, — all of which were forwarded 

 to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, soon after my return home- 

 Unhappily, the finest of them were lost after having been sent from 

 Philadelphia ; but a sufficient number of specimens were found among the 

 geological collections to enable Prof. F. B. Meek, to whom I intrusted 

 them, to establish some interesting points of comparison. In a short paper 



