No. III. ORNITHOLOGY. 207 



sanguine persons who may still cling to a belief in the 

 existence of an ' open Polar Sea,' I think it is impossible to 

 doubt that, both specifically and numerically, bird-life must 

 rapidly decrease with every degree of northern latitude after 

 passing the eighty-second parallel. If, however, there be an 

 extension of land to the northernmost part of our globe, 

 I see no reason why a few species of birds should not re- 

 sort there to breed ; and those most likely to proceed there 

 are Plectrophanes nivalis, Strepsilas inte'rpres, Calidris 

 arenaria, Tringa canutus, and Sterna macrura. There 

 would still be sufficient summer, if such a term may be used, 

 for the period of incubation ; and from what I have seen of 

 the transporting powers of the wind in drifting seeds over 

 the frozen expanse of the Polar Sea, I cannot doubt that a 

 scanty flora exists at the Pole itself, if there be any land 

 there, and that the abundance of insect-life which exists as 

 high as the eighty-third degree will be present at the ninetieth, 

 sufficient to provide for a few knots, sanderlings, and turn- 

 stones. The Arctic Sea at the most northern point reached 

 abounds with Amphipoda, such as Anonyx nugax, which 

 doubtless extend all through the Polar Basin ; and these 

 crustaceans supply the Arctic tern with food in those parts 

 where the continual presence of ice prevents fish coming to 

 the surface ; for wherever there is land not cased in peren- 

 nial ice, there must be tidal ice-cracks, which allow these 

 minute animals to work their way up between the floes. The 

 range of the brent-goose is probably coincident with the 

 growth of Saxifraga oppositifolia ; and this plant also 

 supplies subsistence to the knot, the turnstone, and the 

 sanderling, before the long Arctic day has awakened the insect- 

 life. 



Dr. Homer, of the yacht c Pandora,' kindly informed me 

 that in July 1876 he saw an example of Saxlcola cenanthe 

 at Port Foulke, a iar more northern range of this species 

 than had previously been recorded. 



I was much struck with the extreme shyness of all the 

 birds we met with in the far north ; and until they had 



