6j\. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



On the way home we followed the coast of Ellesmere and Baffin 

 Land. Off Talbot Inlet we got eight ivory gulls. This is a bird of the 

 high latitudes and so is very rarely collected. The Museum has never 

 had skeletal material of this gull, and the scientists there were pleas- 

 antly surprised to receive a series of specimens such as they hardly 

 ever expected to see. We were also able to get some other desirable 

 birds : purple sandpipers, dovekies, and Mandt's guillemots. 



Strong easterly gales in the early spring cleared the ice out of 

 Melville Bay, leaving large stretches of open water. These were 

 followed by southerly gales, raising big swells, which, in turn, broke 

 up the shore ice along the Canadian shore. Under these conditions, we 

 were enabled to go close in to the shore and, entering Makinson Inlet, 

 found it as free of ice as the Potomac in August, except, of course, 

 for the bergs from the glaciers that adorn the shores of this seldom- 

 seen fiord. I believe that the Morrisscy's keel is the first that has 

 graced these waters. The scenery, rivaling the fiords of Greenland, 

 held us spellbound. We steamed for five hours in this grand fiord 

 before returning to the mouth of it and continuing on south. 



The only landing made on Canadian soil was in a snug, deep-water 

 cove inside the point that makes Isabella Bay, where in a strong wind 

 and snowstorm we anchored in 24 fathoms of water on a soft bottom. 

 Some of the lads went collecting, while the others helped with the 

 watering. At dawn next day we hove up the anchor and for an hour or 

 two steamed down the bay. There is nothing like a sunrise in this 

 north country. It was an unforgettable sight, with the sun spreading 

 its golden rays across the snow-clad mountains made whiter by the 

 new-fallen snow. As the morning wore on, a pearly mist arose from 

 the valleys toward the blue sky above, and the haze assumed a purple 

 tint away to the northeast. It reminded one of a vale in Kashmir. 



For several days we cruised along the coast, stopping to take note 

 of anything interesting. I had hoped to visit Totness Roads in Exeter 

 Bay, but the opportunity of getting south in good weather was too 

 good to miss. There was a great deal of ice on the outside, and any 

 wind from the northeast would block our way to the south. 



\\ est of Cape Sable Island we got a male porpoise and a little later 

 picked up our second one. a female from south of Xova Scotia. The 

 National Museum is as anxious to obtain porpoises as any other 

 animals that 1 got, because so little is known about their distribution 

 and so tew are ever collected. 



At length we reached New York ahead of the disastrous New 

 England hurricane with all the boys in good health and no accidents 

 to them or to the schooner. 



