THE RED GROUSE. 57 



this process the birch scrub is rendered very thick ; and unless a bird is shot dead 

 you often lose it. When the cover is higher than your head, as it sometimes is, 

 shooting grouse among it is sharp work. I lost several birds at Tromsoe in this sort 

 of stuff. Occasionally, I had three or four down at the same time in different direc- 

 tions, and as I went to get them, at every few yards, others were springing up on 

 all sides. I was obliged to part with nearly all my scanty dress (the weather was 

 intensely hot), hanging it on bushes to mark the different spots where the birds fell. 

 My dog being very staimch and steady, I managed charmingly. I shot very well that 

 day, and regretted not having more time and ammunition, as I could have gone on 

 bagging at the same rate for hours." 



Sept. Island of Loppen. — " We had a couple of hours' daylight ; went ashore, 

 found grouse plenty, and returned before dark with good bags. The mainland is 

 nearly all covered with snow, while the islands, especially those to seaward, are almost 

 entirely free from it. When covered with birch and other dwarf bushes, together 

 with the different lichens growing on the rocks, the variety of the tints renders their 

 appearance beautiful and brilliant. The grouse come down in large numbers to these 

 islands from the mainland. They are nearly all white now ; those which are not 

 entirely so, are very pretty. We landed after breakfast next morning, prepared for 

 work, and as the island rose on the land side in a steep incline from the water to a 

 very great height, while it descended sheer and abrupt seaward, we could mark 



almost every bird. K n and B e went in one direction, L e and I in 



another, in order to try which party could kill most game. L e and I were vic- 

 torious, having bagged some two-and-twenty brace of grouse before mid-day, when 

 we were driven off the mountain by a most terrific squall, the precursor of a long- 

 continued storm. 



" Ptarmigan we saw in numbers in the Arctic Circle, in September and October. 

 They are just the same as ours, but differ from the grouse of Norway in their claws 

 and beaks, which are black (those of the grouse white) ; they turn white in winter 

 as well as the grouse. They get into immense flocks and are difficult to approach, 

 especially before a change of weather ; a remark which applies to the grouse also. 

 Sometimes during a very severe winter they suffer much from want of food, and 

 become so weak that numbers are killed with sticks They, as well as the grouse, are 

 very migratory. We have found their traces all along the coast and islands ; in 

 many places feathers and immense deposits of their droppings among the mountains, 

 but in the neighbourhood not a single grouse or ptarmigan ; we imagined that they 

 moved about as food became scarce or plenty. 



" Brunoe Sound, Nov. 1843. — When we left our last anchorage, Bergsfiord, we 

 determined to go to an island called Karlsoe, as we had heard that grouse were very 

 plentiful on it. Two or three years before, Sir Hyde Parker killed eighty brace in 

 two days there. We encountered broken weather, day after day, and were obliged 

 to bring up in all sorts of creeks and places ; among others, we came to an island, 

 called Arnoe, and had to beat through a long, narrow channel between it and another 

 island. These islands are very steep and mountainous. While beating through the 

 channel, we landed and shot along the mountain side, keeping pace with the sloop. 



