NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. 407 
The difficulty in preserving specimens of the Soft-shelled Turtle 
sufficiently long is a great drawback to anatomical investigation. 
Even arsenite of potassa fails to exert the preservative effect for 
which it is so justly celebrated in connection with morbid speci- 
mens in general. The vascular and nervous systems present many 
points of interest and novelty, which, however, demand a little 
more attention than I have yet been able to give, and are well 
worthy of separate consideration. 
—o— 
NOES, FROM AN. ARCTIC JOURNAL. 
By H. W. Ferrpen, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 
(Continued from p. 384.) 
Our course from the Cary Islands to the northward took us 
through the channel lying between Hakluyt and Northumberland 
Islands. There is a large breeding place of Looms on the north- 
eastern face of Hakluyt Island, and myriads of Little Auks were 
flying up and down to their nesting haunts in the talus of the cliffs. 
The breeding places of the sea-fowl along the shores of this region 
appear to be continuous, and are occupied by incredible numbers 
of Looms and Little Auks. Dr. Kane, in those pathetic chapters 
of his charming work,* which relate how he and his worn-out 
companions escaped from Smith Sound, and traversed Melville 
Bay in frail open boats during the summer of 1855, tells us how 
his party subsisted almost entirely on the spoils of these aukeries 
and loomeries. The official narrative of the ‘ Polaris’ Expeditiont 
records similar experiences. On the 8th June, 1873, the party 
from the ‘ Polaris, retreating south in the track of Dr. Kane, and 
under very similar circumstances, found Little Auks extremely 
numerous in their aukeries on Northumberland Island. The 
narrative relates that on the following day after a heavy south-west 
wind, which closed the pack on the land, every auk disappeared. 
It is evident from this that they were not incubating at that date. 
A chain of immense icebergs stretched on our port-side from 
Hakluyt Island to the entrance of Smith Sound. One of them 
was of remarkable shape: from a square base, and at right angles 
* Kane’s ‘ Arctic Explorations,’ vol. ii. 
+ ‘Narrative of the Polaris Expedition,’ Washington, 1876. 
