10 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



on the mellow bog, and began to feast on the 

 berries. A lively picture they made, and a pleas- 

 ant one, as they frightened the whirring ptarmi- 

 gans, and surprised their oily stomachs with the 

 beautiful acid berries of many kinds, and filled 

 sealskin bags with them to carry away for festive 

 days in winter. 



Nowhere else on my travels have I seen so 

 much warm-blooded, rejoicing life as in this 

 grand Arctic reservation, by so many regarded 

 as desolate. Not only are there whales in abun- 

 dance along the shores, and innumerable seals, 

 walruses, and white bears, but on the tundras 

 great herds of fat reindeer and wild sheep, foxes, 

 hares, mice, piping marmots, and birds. Perhaps 

 more birds are born here than in any other re- 

 gion of equal extent on the continent. Not only 

 do strong-winged hawks, eagles, and water-fowl, 

 to whom the length of the continent is merely a 

 pleasant excursion, come up here every summer 

 in great numbers, but also many short-winged 

 warblers, thrushes, and finches, repairing hither 

 to rear their young in safety, reinforce the plant 

 bloom with their plumage, and sweeten the wil- 

 derness with song ; flying all the way, some of 

 them, from Florida, Mexico, and Central Amer- 

 ica. In coming north they are coming home, 

 for they were born here, and they go south only 

 to spend the winter months, as New Englanders 

 go to Florida. Sweet-voiced troubadours, they 



