OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 283 



boat in to sound about the heavy ice near it, made fast in six fathoms, at ^^^^^ 



Julv. 



the distance of one mile from the shore, to which a party was then de 



spatchcd to examine this little spot. They found it occupied by innumerable 

 tern, and the eggs and young of that bird were met widi at every step. On 

 the following day, a number of officers and men landed from each ship to Sat. 27. 

 procure some of these birds, which, after skinning and purging them in 

 salt water, were considered a very acceptable addition to our sea-pies. 

 Flying about in vast numbers, they became an easy prey to our sports- 

 men by the boldness with which they came down in defence of their eggs 

 and young. A little Scotch terrier belonging to Lieutenant Reid was the 

 object of their particular attack, and they fearlessly pounced upon him two 

 or three at a time, and pecked his back before he was aware of it. The nest 

 in which the eggs were deposited, and each of Avhich generally contained 

 two, consisted merely of a small indentation in the ground without any 

 down, feathers, or other materials. The colour of the eggs is a brownish- 

 green, witli dark brown irregular spots all over them, but in the same nest 

 one is sometimes much more green than the other, so that it might be taken 

 for the egg of a different bird. Three eggs were rarely met with in the 

 same nest. Besides these we found a great many ducks' eggs, supposed to 

 be those of the eider from the down which formed the nest, and which was 

 usually laid between two stones. These eggs had been still more numerous 

 than at present ; for tlie Esquimaux, knowing the season in which they would 

 be in perfection, had already been before us on the island, and on one spot 

 on the beach above a hundred of these egg-shells were lying, as a memorial 

 of a recent feast. In some of the ducks' nests we found springes or snares 

 for catching the old bird, consisting of thin flexible strips of whale-bone, 

 with a running eye at one end and the other fastened to a stone. Some of 

 these were double, the nooses being laid near each other in the middle of 

 the nest. The usual number of eggs in one duck's nest was two or three ; 

 but four were found in a single instance. We had taken it into our heads 

 tliat this island would be found the grand breeding-place of the Lams Sitbini, 

 but though these were in consequence eagerly looked after, only a single 

 individual of that species was seen and killed by Mr. Elder ; it was flying 

 in company with innumerable tern. 



Tern Island is about three quaiters of a mile in length from N.W. to S.E. ; 

 it is extremely narrow, and in no part more than twenty or five and twenty 



feet above the level of the sea. Through the middle of it runs a lagoon 



202 



