II 



The nearest relation of the last-named species is the Brent 

 (Bernicla brent a). This goose never nests on the continent of 

 Europe, although the young birds now and then spend the 

 summer with us, and it is a well-known visitor to the country 

 at migration times. 



In the spring Brent Geese push in under the Naze (Lindesnaes) 

 on a fixed day, towards the end of May, in large skeins, and 

 more follow on the succeeding days ; in rows as straight as a line 

 they sweep compactly over the surface of the sea along the whole 

 coast until they reach the outermost north-westerly skerries. 

 Then the crowds sweep further afield, so as to fetch their nesting- 

 places in Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya ; and the sealers and 

 Arctic travellers who have stood upon the northern point of 

 Spitzbergen have seen them wandering yet further over the snowy 

 sea, seeking still more northerly archipelagoes, which as yet no 

 human being has trodden. 



Tromso offers a good opportunity for observing bird-life as 

 it exists on the islands which fringe the Arctic coast, being one 

 of the lower and more thickly inhabited of them, situated nearly 

 in the yoth deg., N. Lat., and bearing Finmarken's capital city 

 of the same name. In that town there exists a veritable Arctic 

 Museum, whose industrious scientists have for fifteen years pub- 

 lished their "Tromso Museum's Annual," the most northerly 

 scientific journal in the world. 



This pretty little island, which extends like a green knoll 

 within a circle of snow-clad mountains, is thickly over-grown 

 with birch-wood, alternating with tracts of marsh and some 

 cultivated fields. Although the former richly varied animal, 

 life has of late years somewhat decreased on account of the in. 

 creased area under cultivation, still a stroll along the gardens,"' 

 with which nearly every house outside the town is provided, and 

 in the surrounding birch-groves, will in a short time make us 

 acquainted with several very characteristic birds, which have 

 their place of summer resort here. 



* Where in particular the stately Heracleum panacesw\\h its unusual luxuriance 

 excites the traveller's admiration. 



