CHAP. III.] THE LITTLE AUK. 55 



Long before one enters the region of the Polar Sea proper, the 

 vessel is surrounded by flocks of large grey birds which fly, or 

 rather hover without moving their wings, close to the surface of 

 the sea, rising and sinking with the swelling of the billows, 

 eagerly searching for some eatable object on the surface of the 

 water, or swim in the wake of the vessel in order to snap up 

 any scraps that may be thrown overboaixl. It is the Arctic 

 stormfofjcl^ (Fulmar, "Mallemuck," "Hafhaest," Procellaria 

 [jlacialis, L.). The fulmar is bold and voracious, and smells 

 vilianously, on wliich account it is only eaten in cases of 

 necessity, altliough its flesh, if the bird has not recently devoured 

 too much rotten blubber, is by no means without relish, at least 

 for those who have become accustomed to the flavour of train 

 oil, when not too strong. It is more conimon on Bear Island 

 and Spitzbergen than on Novaya Zemlya, and scarcely appears 

 to breed in any considerable numbers on the last-named place. 

 I know three places north of Scandinavia where the fulmar 

 breeds in large numbers : tlie first on Bear Island, on the 

 slopes of some not very steep cliffs near the so-called south 

 harbour of the island,- the secou'i on the southern shore of 

 Brandy wine Bay on North-East Land, the third on ledges of the 

 perpendicular rock-waJls in the interior of Ice Fjord. At the 

 two latter places the nests are inaccessible. On Bear Island, on 

 the other hand, one can without very great difficulty plunder the 

 whole colony of the dirty grey, short eggs, 'which are equally 

 rounded at both ends. The eggs taste exceedingly well. The 

 nest is very inconsiderable, smelling badly like the bird itself. 



When the navigator has gone a little further north and come 

 to an ice-bestrewed sea, the swell ceases at once, the wind is 

 hushed and the sea becomes bright as a mirror, rising and 

 sinking with a slow gentle heaving. Flocks of little auks 

 {Mcrguliis alle, L.) Brimnich's guillemots {Uria Brunnicliii, 

 Sabine), and black guillemots {Uria (jrylle, L.) no w^ swarm in the 

 air and swim among the ice floes. The cdke-kung (little auk), also 

 called the "sea king," or rotge, occurs only sparingly off tlie 

 southern part of Novaya Zemlya, and does not, so far as I know, 

 breed there. The situation of the land is too southerly, the 

 accumulations of stones along the sides of the mountains too 



^ The name stormfogel is also used for the Stormy Petrel (Thalassidroma 

 pelayk-a, Vig.). This bird does nut occur in the portions of the Polar Sea 

 with which we are now concerned. 



- At Bear Island, Tobiesen, on the 28th May, 1866, saw fulmars' eggs 

 laid immediately on the ice which still covered the rock. At one place a 

 bird sitting on its eggs was even frozen fast by one leg to the ice on the 

 'i\ August, 1596. liarents found on the north part of Novaya Zemlya 

 that some fulmars had chosen as a hatching-place a piece of ice covered 

 with a little earth. In both these cases the under part of the egg during 

 hatching could never be warmed above the freezing-point. 



