lOG 



THE NATURALIST. 



[N'early all tlie polar niglits are enlivened by more or less brilliant 

 auroras ; but after tbe middle of January tbe twilight of midday becomes 

 more sensible ; the aurora announcing the return of the sun increases and 

 mounts towards the zenith, until on the 16th of Eebruary a segment of the 

 solar disc like a luminous point, glitters for a moment and is immec^tely 

 extinguished ; but each midday the segment increases until the whole orb 

 appears above the sea ; this is the end of the long night of winter ; alterna- 

 tions of day and night succeed each other during the sixty-five days before 

 the 21st of April, when commences the long day of four months, during 

 which the sun circulates above the horizon without ever disappearing below 

 it. We will now pass to the physical description of Spitzbergen. 



II. PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION AND GEOLOGY OF SPITZBERGEN. 



Spitzbergen — pointed mountains, — such is the name the Dutch naviga- 

 tors bestowed upon it when they discovered it, and indeed from the sea 

 nothing but pointed summits can be seen as far as the eye can reach : these 

 mountains are not of any very great height, their altitudes varying from 500 to 

 1200 metres (164:0 to 3940 feet) ; every where they advance to the 

 edge of the sea, and in general there is but a narrow band of coast line. At 

 the IST. and S. extremities of the island, the ground is less broken, the valleys 

 are wider, and the country assumes the aspect of a plain. Three of those 

 profound and ramified bays, called Fjord.s by the Norwegians, cut the 

 western coast of Spitzbergen ; they are, from N. to S. Horn Sound, Bell 

 Sound, Ice Sound, Cross Bay, and King's Bay ; Hamburg Bay, and the Bay 

 de la Madeleine, are shorter and less ramified. 



( To he Continued. ) 



NOTES ON THE OENITHOLOGY OF NORFOLK. 



By T. E. Gunn. 



Hobby Hawk. A splendid mature female was killed on the 8th of J une, 

 at Witchingham. This species is rarely met with now, the above being 

 the only instance of its occurrence I have noticed for several years past. 

 During the year 1857 or 1858, I cannot now remember which, my friend Mr. 

 Geo. Cooke killed a magnificent adult pair of these birds and also took the 

 nest of four eggs, in a wood at Ketteringham, which is about six miles dis- 



