DR, DE JONGH. 17 



seal and walrus blubber, and of fisli-liver-oil, 

 and I am sure that, if the numerous fair 

 sufferers in Europe and America, who swallow 

 their daily drams of " Pale-brown cod-liver-oil," 

 were only to see the enormous vats full of 

 rotting seythe livers, and to smell the horrific 

 exhalations from these boiling-houses, it would 

 sadly diminish the profits of the far-famed Dr. 

 De Jongh. 



We took several walks in the mountains, and 

 shot a few ducks, ptarmigans, and ripas for the 

 table. I have shot many hundreds of these 

 two last-named birds throughout Norway, and 

 I have not the smallest doubt on my own mind 

 that they are both identical in species with 

 our Scottish ptarmigan and red-grouse, being 

 merely, as Mr. Darwin would say, " strongly 

 marked varieties," altered by geographical con- 

 ditions, such as the greater cold and the neces- 

 sity for the protection of a plumage more re- 

 sembling the country they frequent.* I have 

 very little doubt that, if the dal-ripas were 

 taken to Scotland, or the red-grouse to Norway, 

 a few generations would be sufficient to cause 

 them to resemble exactly the variety existing 



* The ptarmigan is called in Scandinavia the "Pield- 

 Eipa " or hill-grouse ; and the grouse the " Dal-ripa," 



C 



