THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND. 53 



own powerlessness, and encouraging them to a defence which, though 

 not dangerous, is certainly embarrassing to the explorers. 



Essentially different from the life — after all very inoffensive — 

 on an eider-holm is the picture presented by an island peopled by 

 silver, herring, or great black-backed gulls. These also congregate 

 on certain islands for the breeding season in hundreds and hundreds 

 of pairs, one such island being sometimes inhabited by from three to 

 five thousand pairs. The island presents quite as beautiful and 

 noble a spectacle as the eider-holm. The large, dazzling white, and 

 light or dark gray forms contrast wonderfully with the whole sur- 

 roundings, and their movements possess much of the grace which 

 characterizes all gulls. But these strong, powerful, rapacious gulls, 

 though gregarious, are not peaceable neighbours. No member of 

 such a colony trusts any other. Each pair lives by itself, marks 

 out a definite brooding-ground, however small its diameter, allows 

 no other pair within its boundaries, and both birds never leave 

 the nest at the same time. If they have been disturbed by a power- 

 ful common enemy they hasten back as quickly as possible to 

 the nest to protect it from others of their own species. 



Less noisy, but certainly not less impressive, is the life on the 

 real bird-bergs, the breeding-grounds of razor-bills, guillemots, and 

 puffins, with at most here and there one or other of the gulls or 

 of the cormorants. It will suffice if I attempt to describe one such 

 berg in narrative form. 



To the north of the large island belonging to the Lof oden group, 

 and about three hundred yards from its shore, lie three bell-shaped 

 rocky islands (the Nyken), rising rugged and steep for about three 

 hundred feet above the surface of the sea, and closely surrounded 

 by a circle of little reefs. One of these rocky cones is a bird-berg, 

 and one can hardly imagine a finer of its kind. 



We prepared to visit the island on a beautiful summer day 

 when the sea was unusually smooth and calm, the sky clear and 

 blue, the air warm and pleasant. Powerful Norsemen rowed our 

 hght boat in and out among innumerable skerries. Look where 

 we would, we saw birds. Almost every rock which rose above the 

 surface of the water was peopled with them. Some of the reefs 



