408 FARTHEST NORTH 



ness was unquestionably the worst work of the whole 

 expedition, and had it not been a sheer necessity we 

 should have let the animals lie where they were ; but we 

 needed fuel for the winter, even if we could have done 

 without the meat. When at last the task was completed, 

 and we had two great heaps of blubber and meat on 

 shore, well covered by the thick walrus hides, we were 

 not a little pleased. 



During this time the gulls were living in luxury. 

 There was abundance of refuse, blubber, entrails, and 

 other internal organs. They gathered in large flocks 

 from all quarters, both ivory and glaucus gulls, and kept 

 up a perpetual screaming and noise both night and day. 

 When they had eaten as much as they could manage 

 they generally sat out on the ice -hummocks and chat- 

 tered together. When we came down to skin they with- 

 drew only a very little way from the carcasses, and sat 

 waiting patiently in long rows on the ice beside us, or, 

 led on by a few bold oflficers, drew continually nearer. 

 No sooner did a little scrap of blubber fall than two or 

 three ivory-gulls would pounce upon it, often at our very 

 feet, and fight over it until the feathers tiew. Outside 

 the fulmars were sailing in their silent, ghost-like flight 

 to and fro over the surface of the water. Up and down 

 the edge of the shore flocks of kittiwakes moved inces- 

 santly, darting like an arrow, with a dull splash, towards 

 the surface of the water, whenever a little crustacean ap- 

 peared there. We were particular!)- fond of these birds. 



