THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND. 55 



temporary dwellers on the berg, fishing and diving in the sea, or, 

 startled by our boat, flying along so close to the surface of the 

 water that their bright red webbed feet struck spray from the 

 waves. We saw swarms of from thirty to fifty or a hundred birds 

 streaming from or towards the berg, and we could not doubt that 

 we were approaching a very populous breeding-colony. But we 

 had been told of millions of brooding birds, and as yet we could 

 see nothing of such numbers. At length, after we had rowed round 

 a projecting ridge, the Nyke lay before us. In the sea, all around, 

 were black points, at the foot of the hill white ones. The former 

 were without order or regularity, the latter generally in rows, or 

 sharply defined troops; the one set consisted of razor-bills swim- 

 ming, with head, throat, and neck above the water, the others were 

 the same birds sitting on the hill with their white breasts turned 

 towards the sea. There were certainly many thousands, but not 

 millions. 



After we had landed at the opposite island and refreshed our- 

 selves in the house of the proprietor of the Nyke, we crossed over 

 to it, and choosing a place round which the seething waves did 

 not surge too violently, we sprang out on the rock and climbed 

 quickly up to the turf which covers the whole Nyke, with the 

 exception of a few protruding peaks, ledges, and angles. There 

 we found that the whole turf was so pierced with nest-hollows 

 something like rabbit holes, that on the whole hill not a single 

 place the size of a table could be found free from such openings. 

 We made our way upwards in a spiral, clambering rather than 

 walking to the top of the berg. The undermined turf trembled 

 under our feet, and from every hole there peeped, crept, glided, 

 or flew out birds rather larger than pigeons, slate-coloured on the 

 upper part of the body, dazzlingly white on breast and belly, with 

 fantastic bills and faces, short, narrow, pointed wings, and stumpy 

 tails. Out of every hole they appeared and even out of the fissures 

 and clefts in the rocks. Whichever way we turned we saw only 

 birds, heard only the low droning noise of their combined weak 

 cries. Every step onwards brought new flocks out of the bowels 

 of the earth. From the berg down to the sea, from the sea up to 



