Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 215 



very slow progress, and the following day found us much in the 

 same place. This time we had not as yet met with any ice, and 

 were fully expecting to get up as far as Walter Thymen's Strait, 

 through which we hoped our friends in the sloop might make their 

 way from the eastward to join us. But again our expectations were 

 frustrated. When we had ascended the Fjord about ten miles, 

 we came to a large quantity of drift-ice, and after passing through 

 some of it, we found to our extreme disgust that nothing but ^ 

 field of "packed " ice could be seen ahead, even from aloft. As we 

 were still some twenty miles from our rendezvous, it was certain 

 that at least half the distance would be made up of " fast " ice, 

 and probable that little of it would be broken up during the 

 short remainder of the season. Sorrowfully, therefore, the order 

 was given to turn back ; and it was but a small consolation to 

 our disappointment to be attended in the afternoon by a good 

 many Ivory-Gulls. At one time there must have been nearly 

 twenty in sight at once, and thirteen fell to our guns in a very 

 short time. One of these, which I shot from the vessel, was 

 attacked, while floating wounded on the water, by a Burgomaster, 

 and, before the boat could reach it, was killed and its head par- 

 tially divested of feathers by its big relative. 



The evening of the 8th of August found us within two or 

 three miles of the most western of the Thousand Islands, which 

 is named by the Norwegians Russo. We sent ofi" a boat to pro- 

 cure drift-wood, as we were getting short of fuel, and Ludwig 

 went with her. He returned the next morning with two cock 

 "North-east Birds,^^ and reported that he had seen another, 

 which he thought had a nest. I lost no time in going to land 

 myself, and soon flushed the Phalarope from exactly the same 

 spot — by the margin of a small lake — as he had done ; but the 

 bird, after a little while, flew off", and never again came in sight. 

 We searched diligently for about a couple of hours, but nothing- 

 like a nest or a young one rewarded us. There were plenty of 

 Eiders (but no drakes among them) and Arctic Terns breeding 

 on the islet, which might be nearly a mile in length, and was of 

 very varying breadth. On the south shore were stranded, in wild 

 confusion, large blocks of ice, bones of whales, and enough drift- 

 timber to build a ship. I also saw a family-party of Snow- 



N. S. — VOL. I. Q 



