BIRDS. 57 



Inner island and the land is very small, and has received the name 

 of "little rigoulette ;" between Inner and Long islands is a passage 

 leading into the sea ; between Long island and the mainland is a 

 passage which really is a continuation of "little rigoulette," but there 

 is no passage for vessels at this extremity which lies opposite the 

 mouth of Kekarpwei river. I mention this as you will see that 

 upon our return trip we passed the opening to the sea and ascended 

 this narrowest part of the rigoulette nearly to the mouth of the 

 river, in an early foggy morning, before finding that we must retrace 

 our steps ; but that, with a description of the scenery, which was 

 something very lovely, will occur in its place. Between Inner and 

 Outer islands, occurs "big rigoulette," the general passage for 

 coasting vessels into the channel seaward, just ahead of the open- 

 ing of St. Augustine river and River island. As we did not remain 

 long at St. Augustine, and did not go ashore at this time, there 

 was no opportunity to examine the region carefully. 



There were plenty of birds flying about in all directions over our 

 heads, and others swimming in the waters around us. The her- 

 ring gull {La?'us argentatus), and great black-backed gull (Z. 

 mariniis), were very abundant but very wild, especially the latter. 

 The eider ducks {^Somateria mollissima) were frequently to be 

 seen with their broods of young just ready to fly sporting in the 

 water all around us, or flying from point to point of land at our left, 

 while numerous "pigeons," or black guillemots {Uria grylle), 

 swam about us on both sides. We amused ourselves by firing 

 at these latter birds, and watching them dive almost at the flash of 

 the gun. We soon sailed by them all into the open water again, 

 where, looking over the side or prow of the vessel, the many shaped 

 and colored acalephs or jelly fishes lay swimming along with the lazy 

 flappings of their gelatinous-Hke disks. Although not an expert in 

 the subject, I am sure I detected several species here apparently 

 common that I have not seen in our home waters, though I may 

 mistake. What surprised me the most was finding these delicate 

 and apparently easily destroyed animals in these cold northern 

 waters at this time of the year in such abundance. 



