Sept. 1858. FALCONS GOOD ARCTIC FARE. 169 



Once firmly frozen in, our autumn travelling will com- 

 mence, and afford welcome occupation. Almost all on 

 board have guns ; ammunition is supplied, and a sailor with 

 a musket is a very contented and zealous sportsman, if not 

 always a successful one ; it is a powerful incentive to exer- 

 cise. To-day the ramblers saw only two hares, an ermine, 

 and an owl. Some peregrine falcons have lately been shot ; 

 Petersen declares they are " the best beef in the country, and 

 the young birds tender and white as chicken /" 



A few days ago a large cask of biscuit was opened, and a 

 living mouse discovered therein • it was small, but mature in 

 years. The cask, a strong watertight one, was packed on 

 shore at Aberdeen in June, 1857, and remained ever since 

 unopened; there was no hole by which the mouse could 

 have got in or out, besides it is the only one ever seen 

 on board. Ship's biscuit is certainly dry feeding; but who 

 dares assert, after the experience of our mouse, that it is not 

 wonderfully nutritious ? 



15///. — Two nights ago a comet was observed just beneath 

 the constellation of the Great Bear; a series of measure- 

 ments was commenced for determining its path. Yesterday 

 I walked for eight hours through the most promising valleys, 

 but did not see a living creature; yet there is a very fair 

 show of vegetation, much more so than at Melville Island, 

 where game is abundant. To the east there is not a speck 

 of ice, excepting only a huge iceberg, probably the same we 

 saw off Fury Point, a very unusual visitor from Baffin's Bay, 

 whence it must have been driven by those long-continued 

 east winds of painful memory in June and July. Eight 

 year's experience in these seas gives this day's date as the 

 average for the limit of the navigable season. 



Hobson and two men encamped out for three days in 

 order to scour the country ; they have seen only one hare 

 and one lemming. Walker geologises; amongst other 



