BAFFIN S ISLANDS. 
4^3 
not remain long. Our Aheideen friends had transfer- 
red to us a full supply of newspapers which they had 
brought for Penny: so, after prescribing for the gov- 
ernor's child, and receiving a dog-skin jumper for my 
fee, we returned on board to review the annals of the 
outer world for the past year. 
We now pursued our way very smoothly. We had 
delightful weather ; not the best, indeed, for men whose 
errand lay ahead, but still very welcome to those who 
had roughed it of late sO severely. Summer was con- 
centrating all its strength and beauty in the long, sun- 
encircled day, and the sky looked as if its blue and 
gold sunshine could never cloud over or end. 
It was surprising how beautifully the sea revived 
the colors of the atmosphere. Wherever we looked 
down into it, it showed deep, like an inverted sky. It 
was of the most pellucid clearness too. We could see 
the perfect jungle of sea- weed that was growing under 
us. Actinia, painted with gaudy colors, went stream- 
ing by on the tides ; Entomostraca and LimaciucB 
grouped themselves among the branches ; and Clios, 
the ideals of zoophytio otium cum dignitate, were 
flashing colored light in shady places from their ciliary 
vibrions, or lazily turning their crimsoned disks to the 
sunshine. Every now and then some exploring crab 
would rise from the tree-tops, and waddle down again 
into the protecting umbrage. 
As we went on the bergs became numerous. We 
sailed through a town of them, grouped together as if 
on purpose for stage effect. There were two hundred 
and five, all in view at a time. 
The whalers call Baffin's Islands the Duck Islands, 
on account of the number of these birds that breed 
there, and many of their precipitous headlands Loon- 
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