212 
GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
goes away in September or October, on the first fall of snow.’^ 
It is also found at Nootka Sound f and Kamtscliatka. 
The Barabinzians, a nation situated between tbe river Ob 
and tbe Irtiscb, in tbe Russian dominions, tan tbe breasts of 
this and other water-fowl, whose skins they prepare in such a 
manner as to preserve tbe down upon them, and, sewing a 
number of these together, they sell them to make pelisses, 
caps, &c. Garments made of these are very warm, never im- 
bibing the least moisture, and are more lasting than could be 
imagined.^ 
The natives of Greenland use the skins for clothing, and the 
Indians about Hudson’s Bay adorn their heads with circlets of 
their feathers. § 
Lewis and Clark’s party, at the mouth of the Columbia, 
saw robes made of the skins of loons, |1 and abundance of these 
birds during the time that they wintered at Fort Clatsop, on 
that river.H 
The Laplanders, according to Regnard, cover their heads 
with a cap made of the skin of a loom, (loon,) which word sig- 
nifies, in their language, lame, because the bird cannot walk 
well. They place it on their head in such a manner, that the 
bird’s head falls over their brow, and its wings cover their ears. 
Northern divers,” says Hearne, “ though common in 
Hudson’s Bay, are by no means plentiful; they are seldom 
found near the coast, but more frequently in fresh water lakes, 
and usually in pairs. They build their nests at the edge of 
small islands, or the margins of lakes or ponds ; they lay only 
two eggs, and it is very common to find only one pair and their 
young in one sheet of water ; a great proof of their aversion to 
society. They are known in Hudson’s Bay by the name of 
loons.”* ** ^ 
The great northern diver measures two feet ten inches from 
* Pennant. f Cook’s Last Voyage^ ii. p. 237, Am. ed. 
f Latham. § Arctic Zoology. || Gass’s Journal. 
^ History of the Expedition, vol. ii. p. 189. 
** Hearne’s Journey, p. 4*29, quarto. 
