IN SCHAROK CAMP 195 
In a pool I also shot three long-tailed ducks, so we 
were secure for supper. 
A nest of four little stints I found this day is worthy 
of mention, because it was the first of those instances of 
young birds being kicked out of the'nest by the parent 
of which I propose to write later on in the book. The 
old bird as she jumped and crept about squeaked just 
like a house mouse. 
When we cleaned the willow-grouse for the cooking, 
we threw the insides on to the grass about ten yards 
from the tent, and these the Arctic skuas came and 
carried off. 
The pink sea-glaux was now coming out and the pretty 
blue Jacob’s-ladder. And everywhere cuckoo-pint was 
in full flower; but its flowers were white and not lilac. 
On the mud-flats I noticed a new wader among the 
dunlins. It proved to be a Temminck’s stint. The 
glaucous gulls, who were our very intimate friends, used 
to carry their bivalves from the creek away on to the 
swamp behind the tent. They had quite a collection of 
shells there. 
This evening there was rain and fog, and it was pretty 
dismal. 
The wind chopped from south-west to north-west and 
back again ; and with every change the ice, as it separated, 
went off like great guns. 
The ice was never still. It set up or down with each 
tide, and thé blocks took often most fantastic shapes. 
Most bitterly did I repent having come down here, which 
