884 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the likelihood of losing my foothold. These voracious young birds 
vomited a quantity of half-digested remains of Little Auks, and 
cried piteously. In the young Glaucous Gull the iris is dark blue, 
gape pink; colour of the bill ashy grey, with horn-coloured tip; 
legs and feet livid flesh-colour. In the adult the iris is straw- 
colour; eyelid thick and fleshy, and a bright gamboge-yellow ; 
bill gamboge-yellow; spot on lower mandible deep orange, 
inclining to vermilion; size of spot varying greatly amongst 
different examples, as does the size of bill. The feet of adults 
vary in colour from dull flesh to yellowish pink. Many egg-shells 
of Uria grylle were lying amongst the offal at the breeding place 
of the Gulls: these must have been originally deposited in 
exposed situations, otherwise the Gulls could not have secured 
them. The gneiss rock, of which the island is formed, was covered 
in many places with lichens of great luxuriance. Flowering plants 
were not numerous. I saw a few tufts of scurvy-grass, but it did 
not grow in sufficient quantities to gather for use. A considerable 
breeding place of Briinnich’s Guillemot exists on the north- 
western island of the group; and in August, 1851, a party from 
H.M.S. ‘ Assistance’ obtained there a bag of nine hundred looms, 
dovekies, and rotches. During this visit Mr. Clements Markham, 
then a midshipman in H.M.S. ‘ Assistance,’ observed several 
ancient remains of Eskimo, consisting of stone huts, cachés, 
graves, and a fox-trap built of stones. The occupation of these 
islands by the Eskimo is a matter of considerable interest; for unless 
these ancient inhabitants used the “kayak” and “oomiak” it is 
difficult to imagine how they arrived there, the Cary Islands being 
situated at a considerable distance from land in the great Polynia, 
usually called the “ North Water” of Baffin Bay, and which is 
probably never completely frozen over, even in the spring or 
winter. I observed traces of foxes on the south-eastern island; 
and that, taken in connection with the ancient fox-trap, noticed by 
Mr. Clements Markham, raises the question how those animals 
can possibly exist on small rocky islands through the long winter, 
during which time the migratory birds are absent. The Glaucous 
Gulls having selected their breeding place on the steepest cliff, 
doubtless arose from fear of depredations by foxes. The Cary 
Islands show traces of recent elevation, for, on the summit of the 
one we visited, rounded and drifted fragments of sandstone and 
other erratics are abundant. 
(To be continued.) 
