MULTITUDES OF SEA-FOWL. 91 



peared as if we should have to bivouac for a day or 

 two on the island. The fat grease of Ursus mari- 

 timus had not looked particularly appetizing, so I 

 began to inspect the culinary resources of our in- 

 sular prison : the island actually swarmed with 

 birds, and there were thousands of eggs of the 

 eider-duck, the fulmar, several kinds of gulls, and 

 the little awk (Alca alle), particularly the latter. 

 Bruin's ravages were quite perceptible, as freshly- 

 broken shells and split eggs were strewed about 

 in numbers, but, unfortunately, every one which I 

 opened contained a well-developed and odoriferous 

 chick, and, although this may have suited the palate 

 of U. Maritimus, we were not quite so hungry as 

 that yet. Lord David came ashore, having been 

 unsuccessful with the walruses, and we began to 

 prepare for passing some time on the island : first 

 we dragged the two boats into a sheltered little 

 creek, and anchored them securely to the rocks; 

 then we killed a lot of eider-ducks and fulmars by 

 knocking them off their nests with sticks and stones, 

 which they were actually tame and foolish enough 

 to allow. 



We next gathered a quantity of dry drift-wood, 

 which is strewed in prodigious quantities on all the 

 coasts and outlying islands of Spitzbergen. While 

 gathering wood, I found a very good walrus har- 

 poon lying among the sand near some old bones of 

 sea-horses. It had evidently been deeply implant- 

 ed in some poor walrus who had come here to die 



