NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. 21 
the direction of Cape Joseph Henry, came across eleven Hider 
Ducks in a small patch of water near the entrance of Dumbell 
Bay. ‘Three were old birds, the others about three-parts grown. 
They shot five of them with their rifles, but finding that the ice 
around the pool was too thin to support them they had to leave 
the dead birds. A Turnstone kept flying around, and when the 
firing ceased alighted on one of the dead ducks which had been 
shot through the head, and greedily devoured the brains and 
exposed flesh. This shows to what straits the birds visiting the 
Polar zone are sometimes reduced to at times, for I have already 
noticed the finding of a Turnstone with its stomach filled with 
the seeds of Draba alpina. 
During the whole of the month of September and up to the 
middle of October, when the sun disappeared, sledge-parties were 
absent from the ship. All engaged in these operations suffered 
more or less from the dangers and discomforts inseparable from 
autumn-sledging. Three men on returning to the ship had to 
submit to amputation of part of their feet on account of frost-bite, 
and several others were laid up and disabled foralong time. They 
had the satisfaction, however, of knowing that the work they had 
been engaged on was admirably performed, and that a large depot of 
provisions had been placed in advance on the northern coast-line, 
in readiness for next year’s sledging.. 
The result of our zoological observations during these 
journeys was very meagre. Aldrich, and Frederic our Green- 
lander, saw a seal, Phoca hispida, in a pool of water not far from 
Cape Joseph Henry, in lat. 82° 47’ N.; another was killed at 
Dumbell Harbour, lat. 82° 30’ N., by Dr. Moss; a few Hares 
were seen and secured; the tracks of Foxes, Lemmings, and 
Ermine were seen, but not the animals themselves; and I found 
the skeleton of a Musk-ox in lat. 82° 33’ N. Only a few birds 
were met with; a pair of Long-tailed Ducks were shot on 
September 16th; a Snow Bunting was seen on the 14th of the 
same month, in lat. 82° 35’ N. Markham came across four 
Ptarmigan, Lagopus rupestris, in lat 82° 40’ N., on September 29th; 
and the last bird seen in the autumn of 1875 was a Snowy Owl, 
on October 2nd. When returning on that date to the ship 
I noticed a large white bird perched on the top of a hummock. 
On going to the cabin for a gun I found my companions seated 
at dinner, so, being unwilling to disturb them, foolishly went in 
