NO. 2 BIRDS OF ALASKA AND SIBERIA HERSEY 5 



here. Chamisso Island, and Puffin Island near by, contained the 

 largest breeding" colonies of Horned Puffins that I saw anywhere in 

 Alaska. On Puffin Island they were crowded together on the rocks 

 and cliffs, and for every bird thus seen there was (presumably) a 

 mate hidden away among the rocks or in the nesting burrows. Those 

 that could not find room on Puffin Island had settled on Chamisso. 

 Here there were about three thousand pairs of birds, but it was 

 impossible to even guess how many were on Puffin Island. Besides 

 the Puffins were many Pallas's Murres and about four hundred 

 Pacific Kittiwakes. 



One of the most interesting localities north of Kotzebue Sound 

 was Point Hope. Behind a long gravel spit was a large lagoon, 

 bordered by an extent of level tundra. At the farther end of the 

 spit was a native village with a smaller lagoon. Birds of many kinds 

 were seen everywhere. In the large lagoon were Old-squaws and 

 various ducks; on the end of the spit rested a large flock of gulls, 

 while Pallas's Murres were flying by outside. In the village, Snow 

 Buntings, (Ruddy ?) Turnstones, Red-backed Sandpipers, and Alaska 

 Longspur.s were much in evidence, and in the small lagoon Northern 

 Phalaropes and a small flock of Sabine's Gulls were swimming, while 

 many small sandpipers waded about the shore. 



About Cape Dyer and Cape Lisburne the shore is more or less 

 rocky, but north of this latter point it again becomes level tundra but 

 little higher than sea level. North of Point Franklin it rises grad- 

 ually, although still level, and in places attains an elevation of 

 probably 30 or 40 feet. 



The first ice was encountered on this northern trip as we passed 

 Icy Cape, and when Wainwright Inlet was reached we were forced 

 to stop. Here 10 days were spent, sometimes going ahead a few 

 miles as an apparent " lead " opened through the ice, only to be com- 

 pelled to retreat later. At last, on August 20, a favorable wind 

 allowed us to go forward with some prospect of successfully reach- 

 ing our destination, and the following evening we made Barrow. 

 With the ice conditions so bad, it was unsafe to stay here any longer 

 than necessary, so having landed the mail, and taken aboard several 

 men who had been caught by the ice the previous season and obliged 

 to winter there, we turned south. Among the men who came aboard 

 at Barrow was Mr. W. S. Brooks, a member of the Polar Bear party. 

 Mr. Brooks had been collecting for the JMuseum of Comparative 

 Zoology. He had reached Barrow but a few days previous to our 



