SriTZBERGEX. — EXCURSION ON SHORE. 131 



fancy to a cake of white lead, with which the sur- 

 geon was finishing a drawing, he was poisoned- 

 The nests were all watched by the respective birds 

 they belonged to ; which, with loud screams and bold 

 attacks, defended them from the arctic gulls and 

 other predatory birds that hovered about the place. 

 They even descended within a yard or two of some 

 of the sailors, who were so cruel as to take their 

 eggs or young, and followed them for a considerable 

 time, screaming most violently. Several of these 

 eggs were afterwards hatched in warm saw-dust, but 

 the young birds generally died soon after they left 

 the shell. 



The only insect I saw was a small gi'een fly, 

 which swarmed upon the shingle about the beach. 

 The sea along the coast teemed with a species of 

 helix, with the clio borealis, and with small shrimps. 

 But no animal of the class Vermes was seen on the 

 shore. The birds seen were the puffin, tern, little 

 auk, guillemot, black guillemot or tyste, kittiwake, 

 fulmar, burgomaster, arctic gull, brent-goose, eider- 

 duck, crimson-headed sparrow (Fringilla flammea), 

 sandpiper, &c. ; but no living quadruped was ob- 

 served. 



Drift-wood was seen in some abundance ; but all 

 of it seemed to have lain long on the beach, being 

 much battered and bleached, and some of it was 

 worm-eaten. 



A strong north-west wind having recently pre- 

 vailed, the shore was in many places covered with 



