76 Arctic Natural History. 



peared to have been reduced to three or four smaller mas- 

 ses, on the smooth parts of which muddy spots were dis- 

 tinctly visible. 



When such immense quantities of ice are floating about 

 in and on the sea in Baffin's Bay, one need not wonder at 

 the low temperature of the water. We very rarely had it 

 above 32°, and at that degree it would hardly effect a per- 

 ceptible change upon the icebergs, although certainly it 

 might dissolve the floating ice of the sea water. The tower- 

 ing ice-bergs, over which the water exercises so little control 

 in this latitude, are the store- houses of cold, carrying it into 

 the depths of the ocean, and there concealing it from the 

 searching rays of the sun. — (Sutherland's Journal.) 



7. The Droppings of Eider Ducks. 



The droppings of so many large birds accumulating for 

 thousands of years would soon raise an island to a consider- 

 able height above its original level. This happened on several 

 islands on the coasts of Africa and South America ; but I do 

 not believe it has ever been found extending to any great 

 distance into the temperate zones, especially the zones of con- 

 stant precipitation of rain, although sea-fowl are sufficiently 

 abundant in those parts to produce it in very large quantities. 

 There is little doubt this is owing to its being washed away 

 by rains or melting snow, or it may be owing to vegetation, 

 by which it becomes dissipated into the atmosphere, or con- 

 verted into a thin coating of brown mould on the rock, in 

 which grasses and other plants take root and flourish luxuri- 

 antly, affording shelter to myriads of flies and their enemies, 

 the spiders, even on and beyond the 74° of north latitude. At 

 the distance we were from the island with the ships the luxu- 

 riant vegetation could be clearly discerned, and in that re- 

 spect it was in the most striking contrast with the rugged and 

 bleak-looking land on both sides of the bay. — (Sutherland's 

 Journal.) 



8. Arctic Minute Animal and Vegetable Forms and 

 Colour of the Sea. 

 Wherever the ice had been very much decayed a dirty 



