402 BIRDS ON THE ISLAND. 



divers, and were at that time busied in tending 

 their young broods, which they defended with 

 great courage against the attacks of a half-terrier 

 dog that swam after them for some time, but was 

 at last fairly beaten off. The birds here men- 

 tioned, with black and white snow-birds, boat- 

 swains, gulls, tern, brown cranes, and loons or 

 northern divers, were the only birds which we 

 saw. The temperature of a duck just killed 

 was 108°, and that of the ground, which was 

 gravelly and frozen at twenty two inches below 

 the surface, 37°. 



August 5th. — The weather was gloomy, with 

 continued rain ; and the gale kept up a heavy 

 surf, which threw several pieces of sea-weed on 

 the beach. I returned to my station on the hill, 

 and was something cheered by seeing a larger 

 space of open water than before, though the 

 same white line of ice extended across the ho- 

 rizon from shore to shore at a part where the 

 distance was estimated at five-and-twenty or 

 thirty miles. But the beneficial effect of the 

 wind was more clearly shown in the channel 

 between Montreal Island and the main, which 

 was now perfectly free ; and I waited only for 

 the first moderating of the weather to take advan- 

 tage of it, as every mile, under circumstances 

 like ours, was an acquisition of no trifling im- 

 portance. The moss and a sort of fern that we 



