l8o A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



two, and by entering the fissure we could effect a land- 

 ing, and climb up to the heights above. The rock and 

 all its belongings, with the sea-fowls flying about or sit- 

 ting by thousands on the projecting shelves, reminded 

 us of the pictures, so familiar in childhood, of similar 

 scenes in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The 

 tinkers and murres breeding here were in immense 

 numbers, the females on the rock shelves, and their con- 

 sorts resting on the waves, or flying overhead to the 

 leeward. This island was situated several miles from 



TINKER ISLAND, BEARING TWO TO THREE MILES WEST. 



land, remote from other islands, and consisted of a hard, 

 coarse-grained granite, the feldspar predominating and 

 of two kinds — one flesh-colored orthoclase, the other 

 smoky labradorite ; it vvas weathered into regular steps 

 and shelves, and huge blocks had been detached by the 

 frost, the angles having been rounded by the weather; 

 near the water's edge the waves had worn it into smooth 

 declivities. The east wind blew chill from the direction 

 of the ice-pack, which could be seen a few miles off en- 

 closing a number of large bergs. The pools of water 

 on the higher portions of the island were inhabited by 

 case-worms, and it was evident, by the feathers at the 

 bottom, that the murres used them as wash-basins. In a 

 deep, narrow chink between the rocks I found a murre's 

 egg, while the tunnels made by the puffins wound 

 through the scanty soil. I started up a blue fox, which 

 was running toward me with a murre's egg in his mouth ; 



