BIRDS. 



By Ludwig Kumlien. 



The following list is of necessity fragmentary and very incomplete 

 from various reasons. In the first place, the expedition did not arrive 

 at the proposed winter-quarters until October, when the weather had 

 become so inclement that most of the birds had gone southward. Dui-- 

 iug the brief stojjs that were made at different harbors in the autumn of 

 1877, I was often obliged to remain on shipboard for want of a boat, 

 instead of cruising about, as I would otherwise have done. Of course 

 I often went out with the Eskimo 5 but as they were looking for whales 

 and seals, I got only such bkds as accidentally came in our way. In the 

 spring, the schooner was under weigh before the birds had fairly begun 

 nesting. The last three weeks of our sojourn in the winter harbor I was 

 prevented from making any explorations, except in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of the harbor, on account of the ice, which was driven northward by 

 the long;Continued southerly gales. This ice formed so perfect a barrier 

 about us that we could not get out of the harbor, and to have ventured 

 among it with a boat when the strong currents were whirling and crash- 

 ing it in everj^ direction would have been a piece of foolhardiness that 

 could but have resulted disastrously. 



There is no point on either side of Cumberland Gulf or Sound that 

 is less suitable for a naturalist than was Annanactook Harbor. It is 

 formed by a cluster of small rocky islands, the outermost of a large 

 group lying between the Greater and Lesser Kiugwah Fjords. The 

 nearest point to the mainland from the harbor was about nine miles. 

 There were extensive valleys, with large grassy flats and sandy beaches, 

 much frequented by diiierent kinds of birds, both for feeding and breed- 

 ing grounds. 



When the season was so far advanced that these places became the 

 resorts of birds, I seldom got an opportunity to go on a cruise, for with 

 the inclemency of the weather, the uncertainty of procuring a boat, and 

 tlie treacherous condition of tlic ice, it was almost sure that one or the 



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