Z-1J 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. VII.] OCTOBEE, 1883. [No. 82. 



AN AUTUMN VISIT TO SPITZBERGEN. 



By Alfred Heneage Cocks, M.A., F.Z.S. 



In the autumn of last year (1882) I paid a second visit to 

 Spitzbergen. The contrast, not only between the midnight sun 

 of the first voyage and the dark nights of the second, but more 

 especially between the teeming millions of birds seen during the 

 first and the few isolated stragglers which had ventured to brave 

 for a few weeks longer than the mass of their congeners the 

 inclement climate of a Spitzbergen autumn, seen during the 

 second, was so striking, that I may perhaps supplement my 

 former paper (Zool. 1882, pp. 321, 378, 404) on a summer voyage 

 to Spitzbergen, by giving some account of what was to be found 

 in that country towards the close of the season. 



M. Charles Rabot, a French gentleman,* and I chartered the 

 walrus-hunting smack (or, to be strictly accurate, "jagt"), the 

 ' Cecilie Malene' (gross tonnage 40, length between uprights 

 58 feet), Captain M. E. Arnesen, of Tromso, and weighed thence 

 in tow of a steamer, as it was dead calm, late on the evening of 

 August 26th. 



August 27. Temperature,t 8.30 p.m., atmospheric pressure 

 750"2, air 53°42'F., surface water 51*8 F. — During the morning, 

 as we were towed and afterwards sailed out of the sounds, saw a 



* Charge d'une Mission Scientifique par le Ministre de l'lnstruction 

 publique de France. 



f The temperature was taken by M. Rabot. I have left the readings of 

 the atmospheric pressure in metres and decimals, as he recorded it ; the tem- 

 perature of the air and water I have reduced from centigrade to Fahrenheit. 



2f 



