IN FOULKE FJORD. 27 



we saw some hares. Of course we never imagined that it was 

 hares Peeler had seen through the glass, and we wandered 

 about all night without seeing any sign of reindeer, though we 

 saw numbers of hares almost everywhere. When at last we 

 were convinced that he must have been mistaken, we turned our 

 attention to the hares, and shot seven brace that night. 



We then thought of returning to the ship, but we had not 

 taken the tide into our reckoning, and the boat lay high and dry 

 upon a steep, rocky crag, with sticky blue clay below it. We 

 had to wait patiently for an hour, but found this no great hardship, 

 for it was a bright, sunny morning, and there was plenty to look 

 at while we sat on the shore and waited. At the mouth of a 

 stream a number of eider-duck lay chattering comfortably while 

 they made their morning toilet. The whole fjord swarmed with 

 little auks, swimming and diving and paddling round and round 

 incessantly, like a whirlpool, while the water bubbled and boiled 

 as in a caldron. From time to time, nights of them passed out of, 

 and in to, the fjord ; and as they flew whirring away, they were like 

 great, black clouds, and almost darkened the sun. There was a 

 confusion and crowd of many kinds of birds, which reminded us 

 of the varied bird-life on the northern coasts of Norway. The 

 breeding-places of these thousands upon thousands of birds were 

 up in the perpendicular mountain-side around us. 



The other party had been no more fortunate than ourselves. 

 Tired of their vain search for walrus, they at length put in to 

 shore on the south side of the fjord. The first thing they saw 

 was a flock of white animals; these Peder examined through 

 the glass, and as soon as he had brought them into his field 

 of vision, exclaimed with great decision, 'They are swans.' But 

 Peder's swans had to share the fate of his reindeer ; for they, too, 

 turned into hares. However, hares are not to be despised, and 

 during our short stay we must have shot at least fifty. 



We now steered for Littleton Island (in Eskimo, Etah), where 

 we deposited records of the expedition, and found the cairn that 

 Allan Young erected in 1877, when he was searching for the 

 ' Alert ' with Nares' expedition on board. 



From the top of this island, we had a good view northwards, 



