HI.] 



THE LOOM. 



«7 



tlie ice iu the north part of Hiuloopen Strait. When cooked 

 the rotge tastes exceedingly well, and in consequence of the 

 great development of the breast muscles it affords more food 

 than could be expected from its small size. 



Along with the rotge we find among the ice far out at sea 

 flocks of alkor (looms, or Briinnich's guillemots), and the nearer 

 we come to the coast, the more do these increase in number, 

 especially if the cliffs along the shore offer to this species of sea- 

 fowl — the most common of the Polar lands — convenient hatching 

 places. For this purpose are chosen the faces of cliffs which rise 

 perpendirularl}- out of the sea, but yet b}^ ledges and uneven 



THE LOOM OR BRUNNICH S GUILLEMOT. 



Swedish, Alka. {Uria Briinnichii, Sabine.) 



places afford room for the hatching fowl. On the guillemot- 

 fells proper, eggs lie beside eggs in close rows from the crown of 

 the cliff" to near the sea level, and the whole fell is also closely 

 covered with seafowl, which besides in flocks of thousands and 

 thousands fly to and from the cliffs, filling the air with their 

 exceedingly unpleasant scream. The eggs are laid, without trace 

 of a nest, on the rock, which is either bare or only covered with 

 old birds' dung, so closely packed together, that in 1 858 from a 

 ledge of small extent, which I reached by means of a rope from 

 the top of the fell, I collected more than half a barrel-full 

 of eggs. Each bird has but one very large agg, grey pricked 



