70 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. III. 



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." — p. 46. 



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 is distinctly audible at a distance of four 

 miles, the estimate will not appear to be exag- 

 gerated. In fact, their numbers dwindle into a 

 small figure when compared with Audubon's pas- 

 senger-pigeon, on the banks of the Ohio, which, 

 estimated on the wing at one time, he makes 

 1,115,000,000 and upwards. Too much confidence 

 ought not to be placed on calculations such as these. 



At Vogel Sang and Cloven Cliff, between which 

 is Fair Haven, wherein the ships anchored, the sur- 

 rounding islands are described as clothed with 

 lichens and other rich pasturage for rein-deer, 

 which creatures are here so abundant (upon Vogel 

 Sang in particular), that this island alone supplied 

 the expedition with forty carcasses, in high condi- 

 tion, the fat on the loins being from four to six 

 inches thick, and a carcass prepared for dressing- 

 weighing two hundred and eighty-five pounds. 

 These fine creatures showed evident marks of affec- 

 tion for each other. " They were at this time in 

 pairs, and when one was shot the other would hang 

 over it, and occasionally lick it, apparently be- 

 moaning its fate; and if not immediately killed, 



