328 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



1882, 1883, 1884. Mild seasons with very few geese; 

 those which came, arrived in driblets in January. 



1885. About a thousand arrived at Christmas, 1884; 

 none came afterwards. 



1886. Very few till the great snowstorm of March 1, 

 when they arrived in unprecedented numbers, leaving 

 again at end of month, as hereinafter described. 



1888. About 250 geese arrived off the coast December 

 7th, 1887, but up to the 1 8th, none entered the slakes. 

 They subsisted entirely on the drift sea-grass of which 

 each ebb-tide took them out a sufficient supply. 



1892. In successive bands throughout January. 



1893. January 13th; arrival in bulk. 



1897. Driblets arrived during January: the bulk, all 

 together, on February 8th, as undermentioned. 



1897-8. Three geese arrived in October, nine in 

 November, and twenty-eight in December. After that no 

 more appeared, and gunners feared that none were coming 

 at all ; but on January 28th, about a thousand showed up 

 together. 



Were the above score of dates examined in co-relation 

 with climatic conditions prevailing at the respective times 

 in the Baltic, Denmark, etc., it would be found in each case 

 that the appearance of the geese here precisely coincided 

 with an intensifying of cold and frost on the other side. 



On Monday, February 8th, 1897, I read in the morning 

 papers that the Baltic ports of Reval, Aalborg, Copenhagen 

 and others had been closed by ice on the Saturday pre- 

 ceding, while the Sound was only navigable by the aid of 

 ice-breakers. I entered in my note-book : "we shall have 

 the geese over by to-morrow, and will probably hear of 

 swans to-day." That afternoon a single hooper was shot 

 within a few miles, and a herd of eleven was reported at a 



