chap, x THE TRIDENT 155 



to this point, and probably the old glacier then entered the 

 sea here. 



"The next point of interest was finding a Turnstone 

 (Strepsilas interpret), which has been twice before seen in 

 Spitsbergen (by Dr. Malmgren and Professor A. Newton), 

 but so far as I know has never yet been collected here. 

 I had no gun, and so could not secure the specimen, 

 which was irritating. I had now seen twenty-four of 

 the twenty-seven reliably recorded species of birds ; all 

 but the Turnstone were of little interest. Finding this 

 bird so early in the year shows that it probably breeds in 

 Spitsbergen. 



" After this I had six rivers to wade, one from each of the 

 valleys that come down from the plateau between Ice Fjord 

 and Bell Sound. The smallest of the six rivers had twenty- 

 two channels, excluding those which I could jump. Twice 

 I was nearly knocked over by the force of the current, for 

 the streams were powerful, and I was getting tired. So far 

 I had taken very little food, and only rested twice, but now 

 it became necessary to take a rest of ten minutes once an 

 hour, and eat some chocolate at every rest. But Advent 

 Bay lay below me, and the tents of Yambuya were in sight. 

 At 5.45 a.m. my hulloo woke Studley, and frightened away 

 an Arctic fox, which was stealing reindeer meat from the 

 rack beside the camp. Studley at once made me some tea, 

 and while sipping this he told me news of the rearguard, and 

 I told him the story of our traverse to the Sassen Valley, 

 and of my walk back. This had taken me twelve and a half 

 hours in all, including one hour and forty minutes' rest. 

 The weather had been so glorious, the scenery so fine and 

 the geology so interesting, now that the mists had cleared 

 away and I could get more than glimpses of the country, 

 that the walk had been delightful. The only thing that 



