NO. 4.] THE SLEDGE-JOURNEY z\ND FRANZ JOSEF LAND. 41 



Alle (die seems, on the whole, to reign ahnost supreme among the 

 Alcidce on the north-west coast of Franz Josef Land, but always together 

 with a minority of C. mandti; and only soutli of Cape Fisher, in 81 ^ N. 

 Lat., did Uria lomvia become the more numerous of the two. 



At the winter hut, they were seen for the last time in the autumn (1895), 

 towards the end of September. After the winter, they had ah-eady made 

 their appearance by February 25th (1896), and must thus have spent the 

 winter not very far away to the south. In the afternoon of the above-mentioned 

 day, first a flock, about ten in number, was seen coming from the inner 

 part of the fjord, and flying close past the hut, along the cliffs westwards; 

 and a little later, a flock of four came the same way. Later in the afternoon 

 their cheerful twittering was heard again, and then they were evidently 

 perched on the cliffs above the hut, but it was too dark to see them. The 

 sea was still covered with ice as far as the eye could see, and the sun could 

 not appear above the horizon until the following day. They may possibly 

 have been on the cliff previously, without having been observed on account 

 of the darkness. 



In the beginning of March they were seen very frequently. At some 

 part of the day, the cliff above the hut was full of them; at other times 

 they were totally absent, having evidently gone out to the sea. Their 

 flight to and from the cliff above the hut, and the nest-rocks farther up the 

 fjord, seemed to be very regular in the beginning of March. Immense flocks 

 of thousands upon thousands of them came often Hying in early in the 

 morning from the sea across the ice-covered fjord to their resting-places (nest- 

 rocks) on the cliffs, although the distance from the open sea to the hut was 

 at least forty kilometres, and much more to the cliffs farther up the fjords. In 

 the afternoon, at about 2 o'clock, they would once more set off toward the 

 sea, the flight often lasting until late in the afternoon. They often flew 

 very high, when the air would be quite filled with the flying legions. And 

 they seemed to steer direct west, or on some days more north-west, wliere 

 the dark sky indicated that there was open sea in the distance, which was 

 possibly seen by them from their heights; they always seemed to have a 

 distinct object, for which they made a straight course without any uncer- 

 tainty. 



