18 NORWEGIAN GROUSE. 



in the country to wMch they were trans- 

 ferred. 



On the evening of the 28th, we got the new 

 boats on board the yacht, having first deposited 

 her frail Cowes gigs in a warehouse ashore ; 

 and at 1 a.m., on the 29th, I turned the hands 

 up to make sail for Spitzbergen. The wind 

 was very light, and it was long before we got 

 out of sight of the island of Soroen. 



On the 30th we passed a small vessel engaged 

 in the shark-fishery. This singular pursuit is 

 carried on extensively in the seas lying between 

 Finmarken and Bear Island, where the sound- 

 ings vary from 100 to 150 fathoms, and the 

 modus operandi is to anchor by long light 

 hempen cables at about that depth, and then 



literally " valley-grouse." The first frequents the high 

 rocky hiUs, and is nowhere very ahundant : it seems to me 

 exactly the same as the ptarmigan, or white grouse of the 

 Scottish mountains. The dal-ripa inhabits the rocky islands 

 and birch-covered hiU-sides in great numbers, and although 

 nearly as grey as the ptarmigan, I have not the slightest 

 doubt of his being the same bird as our Scottish red-grouse, 

 which he exactly resembles in his size, his voice, his flight, 

 his habits, and everything except his colour. 



A species of grouse or ptarmigan is also well known to 

 ijahabit Spit2sbergen, but I never was fortunate enough to 

 see one, although very anxious to procure a skin, as I 

 believe a specimen does not exist in any of the museums of 

 Europe. 



