THE ROTGE. 
303 
on the Argonauta arctica, which swarmed in myriads'^. 
Dr. Sutherland, when with Captain Penny in 1850, search- 
ing for Sir John Franklin, often alludes to this pretty little 
arctic bird, which he and his party sometimes found in 
myriads in Baffin^s Bay. In the beginning of August, 1850, 
when in Melville Bay, he says that immense flocks of 
rotges were continually seen, flying north or south according 
to the direction of the wind. They generally fly against the 
wind, where they are sure to find open water. Their flight 
is invariably high over a tract of ice presenting no lanes 
or pools of water to receive them. In consequence of the 
closeness of the ice around the ships, our sport among 
them was not very extensive. Captain Stewart, on one oc- 
casion, travelled a few miles to a large angular opening, 
where they were very abundant, and succeeded in shooting 
a great number : he brought down twenty to thirty at every 
shot. The rotge is excellent eating, and is highly prized 
by every taste. I have heard the eider duck, and the long- 
tailed duck, and even the loon, denounced by persons whose 
tastes were really fastidious, but I never heard a word 
against the little auk. Its flesh, and that of sea-fowl gene- 
rally in the Arctic regions, improves very much by keeping 
* Narrative, etc., p. 119. 
