166 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
can be formed of it, as gneiss is found to assume forms equally 
rugged and acute. The cliffs however near the shore presented 
characters which can scarcely belong to the former rock, and it 
is therefore most probable that they consist of gneiss, which 
appears to be the prevailing substance in those parts of Baffin’s 
Bay, which have been explored by former navigators. 
The banking of the ship outside was now nearly completed, 
although from the extreme severity of the wind, which blew 
chiefly from the N. N. E., the crew were very often obliged 
to suspend their labours, not being able to endure the intensity 
of the cold. 
The rigour of the climate however did not deter the officers 
from pursuing the sports of the field, if such a term may be 
allowed, when speaking of a desolate country covered with 
snow, and where scarcely any signs of vegetation were to be 
seen. Commander James killed several grouse, and two ptar¬ 
migan, in some respects resembling the species which inhabit 
the highest mountains of Scotland. The male bird was per¬ 
fectly white, with large scarlet naked eyebrows, which in the 
female w T as scarcely perceptible; the plumage of the latter 
was variegated black and rusty-rufus; the legs and feet of both 
were thickly clothed with long white feathers down to the claws, 
giving them the exact resemblance of a hare’s foot. Commander 
Ross also shot a gull, known by the name of the Kittiwake gull, 
one of the most elegant birds of the species. In the full aged bird 
the bill is of a beautiful lemon yellow; the orbits and the inside 
of the mouth, of a beautiful saffron red, inside straw colour ; legs 
of a livid colour; the top of the head, the nape back, wings of 
a fine ash colour, tips of the wing-coverts black, the rest of the 
bird, white. 
In several young birds, the bill and orbits were of a deep 
livid, in some the yellow was making its appearance ; the plum¬ 
age differed from the old ones, in the ash colour being deeper, 
and more generally in the upper parts of the bird ; many of the 
wing, the wing covert, and tail feathers being tipped, otherwise 
marked with black; the lower parts like the old birds were 
white,, 
i 
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