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



Buntings, a few Dovekies, which seemed to have young in a very 

 low cliff, and a pair of Red-throated Divers. Some of the Terns^ 

 eggs we found were fresh — possibly their earlier layings had 

 been taken by Walrus-hunters, who often visit this islet — but 

 there were also a few young ones ; one of which, after having 

 been handled by me, on being liberated, swam bravely across a 

 pool, a distance perhaps of fifty yards, encouraged all the voyage 

 by the noisy flock of old birds overhead, which kept successively 

 stooping in their flight to within a few inches of it. A Skua 

 threatened it, but, seeing me prepared with my gun, let it alone. 

 On this islet were a good many gnats, some of which seemed 

 half inclined to bite; and on opening the stomachs of the Pha- 

 laropes Ludwig had shot, I found them crammed with these 

 insects and their cases, mixed with a few bits of moss. 



Early in the morning of the 10th of August, the sloop returned 

 with Mr. Birkbeck and his division of our party. They had been 

 very unfortunate with regard to the main object of their voyage, 

 owing to the state of the ice. They had reached the Ryk-iis 

 Islands — lying off Disco, the most eastern point of Spitsbergen 

 proper — and landed upon them. But it was impossible to get 

 beyond them, the ice extending in a solid " pack '^ far away to 

 the eastward. Seeking a channel through it, they sailed along 

 its edge until they arrived in sight of the lofty and rounded hills 

 of the mysterious Commander Giles' or Gillie's land — a land so 

 little known, that its very existence is ignored by some of the 

 best authorities; while the only modern chart on which I have 

 seen its outline traced, places it at least a degree too far north*. 



* In a map prefixed to Pellham's account of eight English sailors who 

 wintered in Spitsbergen in 1630-31 (Churchill's ' Voyages,' vol. iv. p. 808) 

 a large tract of land is laid down as extending about from lat. 7&^ to 78°, in 

 long. 28° E. It is there called " Wiche's Lande ", but corresponds very 

 fairly with what I believe to be the real position of Giles' Land, which, under 

 the latter name, has replaced it on old Dutch charts. The English Admi- 

 ralty Chart of Spitsbergen, dated 1860, does not include it ; nor is it alluded 

 to anywhere in Sir John Richardson's ' Polar Regions ' (Edinburgh : 1861). 

 Norie's 'Chart of the Northern Seas' (1834, with additions to 1852) has 

 it marked as extending northward from lat. 80°, in long. 28° to 30° E. 

 Commander Giles seems to have flourished in the beginning of the last 

 century, and Scoresby gives 1707 as the date of his voyage. 



