CORDEAUX : ADDRESS TO YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS. 205 
was marvellous, running to and fro, and picking up some small 
object which they found amongst the newly-mown grass ; when put 
up they rose in a body, but only to circle round near the ground, 
alight again, and instantly renew their search for food. A pretty 
little stream or beck ran through this meadow, fringed with willow 
scrub and Comarum palustre in flower; the scrub abounded with 
‘Lapp buntings, red-throated pipits, and blue-throats—it was a charm- 
ing spot. Another interesting sight was the numerous flocks of » 
phalarope in Vardé and Vadsé harbour, and in the Jar f jord ; they 
sat on the water like small butter-bowls, each little head, as they 
paddled to and fro, nodding incessantly; they also showed great 
tameness, even keeping the water when only a few yards beyond the 
sweep of oars of passing boats or surrounded by shipping. All these 
congregated birds, about to leave their nesting quarters, were not 
driven south by lowering temperature or lack of food; they left 
because the duties of incubation were over, and their time for 
moving had arrived. 
Certain writers on ornithology in recent years have indu in 
speculations on the possible origin of life, as we now see it on the 
globe, on some great and at present submerged Polar continent, 
and in this way have endeavoured to account for the dispersion and 
differentiation of birds along the various coasts of the Old and New 
World, by ages of excessive cold—that is, glacial epochs—alternating 
with mild periods. The most recent discoveries in the Arctic ares 
entirely fail to support these theories. The Jackson-Harmsworth 
expeditions, the long ice-wanderings of Dr. Nansen and his colleague 
the drift of the Fram, all point to one conclusion: that north of 
Franz Joseph Land stretches towards the Pole a vast ocean—the 
abode of great cuttle fish—the Queen Victoria Sea, of almost 
immeasurable depth, which fact alone is entirely against any former 
Polar continent. 
Drayton, in the Polyolbion, song 28, says of Yorkshire : “A 
Kingdom that doth seem.’ this is no exaggeration when we 
consider that Yorkshire contains 3,882,851 acres, OF nearly two 
millions more than the next largest county, Lincolnshire. I need 
scarcely say there is no other county which can show such a diversity 
scenery, or so magnificent a seaboard. In fact Yorkshire, if cut 
off from all the rest of the world, would practically be selfsupporting 
—a kingdom in itself—containing within her bounds everything that 
can contribute to the comfort, welfare, and even luxury of mankind. 
Not less remarkable are the glorious relics of a past history— 
Toads, camps, and battlefields, ‘howes,’ barrows and entrenchments, 
: ong noble ruins of great religious houses—those poems 
