Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 205 



returned from Coal Bay, where they had obtained two Deer, 

 and seen several "North-east Birds" {Phalaropus fulicarius),oi 

 which they shot a pair. On the 10th, being Sunday, we were 

 contented with visiting a small rock lying close to, but detached 

 from, the south-eastern point of Safe Haven. Here we found 

 numbers of Eiders breeding. In a very short time we collected 

 from sixty to seventy eggs, all of them fresh-laid ; and as a proof 

 of the fecundity of this species, I may mention that, though 

 we cleared every nest we saw, some of our men (whose appetites 

 were whetted by our success), going later in the day, obtained 

 over a dozen others that had been laid in the short interval since 

 our visit ; and again, about midnight, Ludwig returned and took 

 several more. While we were upon this rock, which henceforth 

 became known to us as the " Eiderstone," the Skuas were ex- 

 tremely bold, robbing two nests within a few yards of us ; and 

 one bird was not even deterred by my companions pelting him 

 with stones, but continued sucking the egg he had got, and 

 merely shrugging his shoulders when the missiles (not large 

 ones certainly) hit him. On the top of this rock are the remains 

 of an old hut, the stone walls of which were still standing to the 

 height of a couple of feet, and in each corner of the enclosure 

 was an Eider's nest comfortably ensconced. On this same day 

 a couple of Dovekie's eggs were brought to me by one of the 

 crew, with the bird, which had been knocked down by an oar on 

 the east side of the Haven. The eggs were said to have been 

 lying exposed on the rock, and not placed in a hole. 



On the morning of the 11th of July, the whole party started 

 in two boats (one of which was hired, with her crew, from a 

 Norwegian sloop that had come in the previous day) for the 

 south side of the Sound, which we found rather closely beset by 

 ice, and through this we had to work our way. We made for a 

 little valley, higher up than Coal Bay, from which it is divided 

 by a range of lofty cliffs. These, 1 learned, were what are 

 called, by the Norwegians who visit Spitsbergen, the Alkefjeld 

 or Alkenfels, and not the cliffs terminating in the Alkenhorn, 

 on the west side of Safe Haven, as Messrs. Evans and Sturge 

 were told (Ibis, 1859, p. 169). The precipices on either side 

 of this valley appear to be swarming with even more Guillemots 



