8o TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



these expected treats the whales alone turned up to 

 give us greeting. They were belugas, or white 

 whales, and of various sizes, the largest probably 

 about twenty-five feet long. The big ones were very 

 white in colour, and the small ones slate-grey. They 

 appeared and disappeared with clockwork regularity, 

 until we ran into a belt of fog, and so lost sight of 

 them. 



From out the enveloping mist a wonderful bird 

 gyrated, curving in and out of our rigging with un- 

 swerving rigid wings. Again and again it uttered a 

 mournful cry, low and penetrating, the voice of the 

 Arctic. " The wilderness has a mysterious tongue," 

 and it seemed to call to us insidiously through the 

 medium of this seafaring bird. I knew it must be 

 a shearwater, because I saw the similarity to the 

 shearwater (Pufjinus anglorum) which at one time 

 frequented the more remote parts of the Isle of Man. 

 Since that once delightful spot has become tripper- 

 ridden, and every cave and cranny of its most 'distant 

 rocks given over to the rampant love-making of the 

 lower orders, the shearwater has sought islands new. 

 It chooses the lonely, storm-swept countries, unfre- 

 quented by man. This agile bird would never seek 

 terra firma at all save for the need of somewhere to lay 

 its solitary egg upon. The nest is built in a hole, in 

 some half-inaccessible part of the chosen island, and 

 only the one egg is laid. The shell is remarkable for 

 a strong scent of musk, and exceedingly fine texture. 

 Most aptly named, this shearwater, for often it sails 

 right through the crested breakers. 



