NOTES OF A NATURALIST ON SPITZBERGEN. 381 



attached to the ring-bolt, but no Skua at the other end. After 

 some enquiry, the Stewardess confessed that she had seen a drop 

 of blood on the bird, and thought it very cruel to keep it alive, and 

 had therefore incited some one else to wring its neck and throw it 

 overboard, though more probably it found its way into one of the 

 salted-bird casks. Not far from the spot where I picked up the 

 Wbimbrel were a pair of (probably) Gray Geese. On the main 

 island Chapman saw a brood of young Snow Buntings. On the way 

 back to the ship I obtained a Northern Puffin, and although I shot 

 four or five others afterwards, and most of the sportsmen likewise 

 obtained a few, yet the total was quite a small number, and included 

 shooting at nearly every individual that gave one a chance, in 

 marked distinction to the Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Eiders, Little 

 Auks, &c, in about that order. As we passed, in the evening, 

 what appeared from the boat to be the mouth of a small river (not 

 marked on the chart), near the north point of the Middle Hook, a 

 school of White Whales rushed past us, heading northwards, in 

 the muddy water between us and the shore. The other boats this 

 day secured two more Kinged Seals; others were killed, but sunk 

 and were lost. We brought back with us in the boat a quantity of 

 Eider Ducks, Brunnick's Guillemots, &c, shot by the Norwegian 

 sailors during the day for the salted-bird casks. 



• August 1st. Chapman and I started early in the morning with 

 Kjeldsen (one of our ice-pilots) and his boat's crew, in his "Fangst- 

 baad," up Van Keulen Bay ; stormy all day, half-gale from west, 

 making a lumpy sea ; snow showers during first few hours ; tem- 

 perature of sea-water at surface, about 8 a.m., 32° Fahr. At 

 about a short hour's row from the ship we saw four old Pink- 

 footed Geese, which Kjeldsen, who was ashore, put up before we 

 could land in pursuit. A little farther on we saw a pair of Brent 

 Geese, accompanied by two or three goslings, running along 

 shore, and rather farther inland were a good many more, perhaps 

 twenty or thirty, adults and young, of the same species. We 

 landed and gave chase at once ; not one of them could fly, 

 the goslings being too young, while the geese had all moulted 

 their quills ; but we might just as well have tried to run down 

 hares, without dogs, as Brent Geese on this rough ground. They 

 easily distanced us, goslings and all, and a long run taking them 

 over a brow, they apparently squatted down somewhere amonff 

 the stones, for when we arrived at the top of the brow not a bird 



