Birds of Western Spitzbergen. 167 



a south-east wind, which would have been the most favourable 

 for speeding our voyage ; and in the last three days we had to 

 make another circuit of nearly two hundred miles. It was 

 therefore with no small satisfaction, that, on the 20th of Sixth 

 month (June), about nine in the morning, being the ninth day 

 of our voyage, the land we had been so anxiously looking out 

 for was seen lying about sixty miles to the eastward. The 

 coast appeared very wild and inhospitable ; the rugged moun- 

 tains were capped with dense masses of cloud ; the valleys and 

 level ground were one sheet of snow, and the shore was guarded 

 by an extensive field of ice, which again was surrounded by a 

 belt of flat barren islands and jagged ice-covered rocks, known 

 as Syd Cap (Eerne, or the South Cape Islands. Almost precisely 

 at the midnight following we first set foot on Spitzbergen, on the 

 low shingly beach of one of these islets, where the snow had 

 thawed for the space of a few acres. It was, of course, broad 

 daylight, but not a very cheerful scene ; for a wintry wind drove 

 the snow into our faces, while the waves splashed against the 

 shore or thundered into the deep-blue hollows of the ice. 



We found on this spot Brent Geese [Bernicla brenta, Steph.), 

 Eider Ducks {Soinatma mollissima, Leach), and Glaucous Gulls 

 {Larus glaucus, Briinn.), in immense numbers, and the ground 

 was covered with their nests. A few Arctic Terns {Sterna ma- 

 croura, Naum.) were flying overhead, but did not appear to be 

 as yet breeding ; at least, common as we afterwards found the 

 bird to be, we never obtained any eggs of it. The nests of the 

 Eider Ducks were hollows scooped in the pebbly ground, very 

 scantily lined with down mixed with sea-weed, forming in this 

 respect a striking contrast to those of the Brent Goose, whose 

 three or four eggs were buried in a perfect mass of down and 

 feathers, built on the beach. The large untidy nests of the 

 Glaucous Gull, formed of sea-weed, and each containing usually 

 three eggs, were to be found also on the shore, or more often 

 on the low rocks, and in one or two instances even built on the 

 masses of ice. These Gulls tyrannize much over the weaker 

 birds in their vicinity ; so dense too is their plumage, that shot 

 will hardly penetrate their feathers ; and those specimens we 

 procured were mostly killed with the rifle. Their eggs seem 



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