54 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



were coated with white by the excrement of the cormorants which 

 regularly spent a portion- of each day there in rest. Arranged in 

 rows, like soldiers drawn up, they sat in tens, twenties, or hun- 

 dreds, in the most extraordinary positions, their necks stretched, 

 their wings spread out so that every part of their bodies might 

 have full benefit of the sunshine, waving their wings also as if to 

 fan each other, and all the while casting watchful glances in every 

 direction. On our approach, they threw themselves heavily with 

 hollow cries into the sea, and then, swimming and diving, defied 

 all our attempts to get near them. Other reefs were covered with 

 gulls, hundreds and thousands of the same species; or with male 

 eiders, which had probably come from some eider-holm or other, 

 to amuse themselves after the fashion of their sex while their 

 mates were busied with maternal cares. Around other rocky 

 islands the dazzling eider-birds, perhaps newly-plucked males, had 

 congregated and arranged themselves in a circle, suggestive of the 

 great white water-lilies of our quiet freshwater lakes. In the 

 sounds that were not too deep one could see the fishing mergansers 

 and divers, one or other of which would every now and then 

 give full vent to its shrill, far-reaching cry — a cry so long-drawn- 

 out and so varied in tone that one might call it a song, were it 

 not rather a wild melody such as can only be executed by a child 

 of the North Sea who has listened to the howling and blustering 

 of winter storms, and has echoed the roar of the surging waves. 

 Proud as a prince upon his throne sat here and there a sea-eagle, 

 the terror of all the feathered creatures of the sea; sometimes we 

 saw a whole company of these robbers gorged with prey; the 

 jerfalcon, who had his eyrie on one of the steep precipices, 

 flew through his wide domain with the swiftness of an arrow; 

 fluttering gulls and kittiwakes and fishing terns darted up and 

 down; oyster-catchers greeted us with their trilling cries; razor- 

 bills and guillemots appeared and disappeared all about us as they 

 rose to the surface or dived underneath. 



In such company we proceeded on our way. When we had 

 traversed about ten nautical miles we came within range of the 

 Nyke. In whatever direction we looked we saw some of the 



