424 Zoological Society : — 



lowed, and, overhauling her consort in the narrow seas, in the course 

 of the afternoon lost sight both of her and the land of Norway, On 

 the afternoon of the 6th July we made the South Cape of Spitsbergen, 

 bearing N.E. 



Our first rendezvous having been appointed about halfway up the 

 deep bay marked on English charts as Wibelan's Water, and known 

 to Norsk walrus-hunters as Stor Fjord, which indents the archipe- 

 lago of islands forming Spitsbergen, our course was altered accord- 

 ingly ; but we were soon brought up, after passing a good deal of 

 drift ice, by the appearance of very closely packed ice, stretching 

 across as far as the state of the atmosphere would allow us to see it. 

 This to our pilot, a man whose knowledge of Spitsbergen is scarcely 

 surpassed by any one's, was a manifest indication of the fjord being 

 completely blocked up, and he did not hesitate to order us to pro- 

 ceed to our second rendezvous in Ice Sound, on the west coast. 

 Thither we made sail, trying as we passed northward successively to 

 enter Horn and Bell Sounds, both of which we found to be imprac- 

 ticable from the same cause as had been the Stor Fjord. On nearing 

 Ice Sound, on the afternoon of the 8th July, we found a good deal 

 of ice drifting out of its mouth ; but it was of such a kind as to cause 

 no risk to the ship, with our careful captain and pilot. While we 

 were watching with interest the novel scene presented to us by the 

 varied shapes of the frozen masses th)-ough which we were naviga- 

 ting, there was a cry of "White Whales ! " and a " school" of Be- 

 luga catodon passed across our bows. Though there were the vivid 

 hues of drifting ice-blocks with which to contrast them, I was agree- 

 ably pleased to see that their colour stood this high trial. When, 

 some years ago, I saw the so-called "White Porpoises" of the river 

 St. Lawrence, identified by Dr. Gray (Cat. Brit. Mus. Cetacea, 

 pp. 78, 79) with this species, they had a very tallowy appearance; 

 now the worst that could be said of these beasts is that they looked 

 the colour and consistency of a good spermaceti candle. There were 

 at least six or eight of them swimming at very short distances from 

 one another, and they glided rapidly through the water with an easy 

 and almost graceful roll, now and then emerging from the surface 

 sufficiently to show the whole of their bodies. 



It is not my intention now to say much concerning the birds of 

 Spitsbergen ; but I must mention that the Sound we were entering 

 presents one of the most wonderful sights to the eye of the ornitho- 

 logist that can possibly be conceived. The species which frequent 

 Spitsbergen are few in number, much fewer than had been thought 

 prior to the publication of A. J. Malmgren's admirably critical 

 papers*; but the number of individuals is past all computation. It 

 will be sufficient here to name the species I observed at this time, 

 and this I shall do somewhat in the order of their comparative abun- 

 dance. First Mergulus Alle, TJria Arra, and Cepphus Grylle ; then 

 Rissa tridactyla, Somateria mollissimai ProceUaria glacialis, Frater- 

 cula glacialis, Larus glaucus, and, lastly, an Anser which I shall 

 specify hereafter. All these, excepting Larus glaucus, we found 

 * Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Forhandlingar, 11 Febr. 1863. 



