36 VISIT TO ICELAND 



On the 21st we set out and came on here, but by a 

 long round as we wished to see a priest who Hves close to 

 Skagen, and some other people who were supposed to 

 know about Great Auk. They were duly examined and 

 their depositions taken. On our way we saw a great 

 many Turnstones, a few Dunlins and Sanderlings (of the 

 latter I shot a 9> the ovary backward, and in a very 

 moderate state of plumage) and some Red-necked Phala- 

 ropes. We passed some ponds whereon Faber says he 

 found Grey Phalarope breeding, though he did not get 

 their eggs. We got two fellows to dig at a rubbish heap, 

 where an old man said he remembered seeing Great Auks' 

 bones, but we found nothing but fishes' remains. We 

 finally arrived here late in the evening and saw a beautiful 

 sight on the shore ; three Iceland Gulls, young, of course, 

 sitting on the water close to the landing-place, as tame 

 as possible ; as many Red-necked Phalaropes swimming 

 about in a little bay of their own, hardly larger than a 

 hip-bath ; Purple Sandpipers creeping about on the rocks 

 like rats, and a vast number of Turnstones ; some of 

 these, too, were running about among the houses on the 

 short warren-like turf with Golden Plover, just as you 

 see Blackbirds and Thrushes on a lawn in England. Since 

 we have been here we have done but little in the bird way. 

 We have not yet had a sufficiently calm day to admit of 

 our going to sea, though one morning we were on the 

 point of starting when our leader, who has been the 

 foreman of most of the later expeditions to the rocks, 

 decided, and wisely as it turned out, that it would not 

 do. Our arrangements are completed ; we are to have 

 two 10-oar boats for greater security, and 16 men in 

 each, so that some may rest ; thus with ourselves and 

 Zoega there will be 35 souls embarked on the enterprise. 

 With these precautions, I think the risk is reduced to a 

 minimum. The information which WoUey has acquired 

 amounts to about this. In old times the true Geirfug- 

 lasker was the place visited, and no one thought of going 

 to the Meal Sack (Eldey) until a boat was seen to 

 land there from a *' yacht " (i.e. cutter), and then an enter- 



