AN AUTUMN VISIT TO SPITZBERGEN. 399 



September 8. Lat. at noon, 77° 12', long. E. G. 14° 50'. Tem- 

 perature, noon, press. 736*2, air 35'6, water 35-24; 8 p.m., press. 

 737, air 35'6, water 35'6. — This morning found us slowly working 

 our way north, with a light S.S.W. wind. We were opposite the 

 south side of the entrance to Bell Sound about 1 p.m. Light rain 

 and fog all day. About 8 p.m., while I was below, a bird was 

 observed swimming, and presently dived out of sight, which our 

 harpooner pronounced to be an "Imber" (i.e. a Great Northern 

 Diver), a new bird to the Spitsbergen list. He was quite confident 

 it was not a "Lorn" [i.e. the Black-throated or Bed-throated 

 species), being so much bigger, and adding, as it were in self- 

 defence, that he knew the bird well from seeing them so often in 

 Norway. The Bed-throated is the only species of Colymbus 

 hitherto recorded from Spitzbergen. M. Babot saw the bird, and 

 confirmed the harpooner's description of it. Saw during the 

 day a single example of each of Richardson's Skua, Brunnich's 

 Guillemot, and Puffin, and a few Kittiwakes and Fulmars, but not 

 many. No Little Auks. 



September 9. — Entered Is Fjord early in the morning, and 

 anchored in Green Harbour 8.30 a.m., and found about seventeen 

 Norwegian smacks, sloops, &c, anchored there, engaged in cod- 

 fishing. A Skua which I saw at this time looked like S. longi- 

 caudus, but I could not be sure. I went off with Arnesen and two 

 men, by boat, to look for Johan Dreyer, of Tromso, who had 

 established himself with two other men in a hut constructed of a 

 boat reversed, at a point called Busse Kjceler, near the entrance 

 to the Fjord; he was not there, however, and we heard afterwards 

 that he had been taken off by a vessel a few days before our arrival. 

 On our way we passed a great many boats from the various smacks 

 busily engaged cod-fishing. Arnesen had charge of numerous 

 letters to members of their crews, and we visited some of the 

 smacks to deliver them ; others were given to the men in the 

 boats ; one skipper gave Arnesen four large codfish, just caught, 

 in exchange for a letter from his wife. Soon after starting 

 I caught sight of a pair of Loms (Colymbus) close in to the west 

 shore; they allowed us to get tolerably close, and I believe 

 I wounded one, but before I could fire the second barrel the bird 

 flew off in a straight line from the bow of the boat, and as I was 

 rowing three I could not fire without killing the man rowing bow, 

 and by the time the boat's head was turned a little to one side it 



