Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 317 



This they were unable to approach, and then there was nothing 

 to be done but to regain the yacht. Worst of all, they had not 

 come across a recent trace of either Bear or Walrus. On some 

 of the Thousand Islands at which they touched they found great 

 numbers of young Burgomasters, and brought a couple away 

 with them alive, as also a young R,ed-throated Diver. The poor 

 wretches did not last very long. Soon after the return of the 

 sloop, some of us paid a parting visit to Eusso and its neighbour, 

 Round Island; on which, among other birds, a young Brent- 

 Goose, nearly able to fly, but with bits of down still sticking to 

 the ends of its neck-feathers, was procured. Here also were 

 Dovekies breeding; and from the nest of one was obtained a 

 small fish, the only ichthyological specimen we had fallen in with 

 in the Spitsbergen seas*. 



About noon we weighed anchor again, and made the best of 

 our way back to Ice Sound, where, after being several times put 

 off our course by long tongues of drift-ice extending far out to 

 sea, we arrived on the afternoon of the 14th. Standing in for 

 the Sound, I was at once struck with the change that bird-life 

 had undergone in the last three weeks. We met with large 

 flocks of Bruennich's Guillemots and many Rotches a long way 

 from the land, the latter often accompanied by their half-grown 

 young. There was also visible a corresponding thinning of the 

 living clouds around the mighty Alkenhorn. As we passed to 

 our old anchorage, I had a good view of a Long-tailed Skua fly- 

 ing along the shore, the first living one I had seen in the country. 

 It was in the dark-brown and whole-coloured plumage ; but, 

 judging from the length of tail, was, I think, an adult bird. 



On landing, we found the snow had very much disappeared, 

 leaving exposed all manner of things — human skeletons and the 

 foundations of an old settlement among the number — of whose 

 existence we had been entirely ignorant at the time of our former 

 visit. All the plants we gathered were fast perfecting their 

 seed-vessels. We lost the sun behind the hills for an hour or 

 two at midnight, and everything betokened that the polar sum- 

 mer was drawing to its close. It was quite melancholy to walk 



* This fish was unfortunately lost during a subsequent gale of wind, 

 when the bottle in which it was placed got broken. 



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