June 22d 
tance. 
Thousands of fulmars had gathered, feeding on the refuse 
of the whales. 
Burgomeister gulls (Laurus glaucus) and auk ( Uria lom- 
via) were on the rocks; the Doctor, Learmonth, and I soon 
bringing down a hundred of the latter, and the ship’s boat 
picking them up, as they fell. They were very fair eating. 
Later we men had an exciting climb of it, up the steep, 
rugged rocks of a small island, at the harbor entrance, in 
search of fresh eggs. On this the view of sea and ice from 
the lesser peaks held us by its beauty. 
Force was necessary to get 
the birds from their nests; 
the gulls refusing to fly, and 
showing their anger or fright 
by expectorating a thick 
green fluid for quite a dis- 
Thirty-six eggs were 
taken, only four of 
them fresh enough 
to eat. 
Two birds were 
secured as s p e c i- 
mens as well. 
Foxes, it seems, 
are also to be found 
on Bear Island, 
while early this 
summer, for the first 
time in years at this 
season, a b e a r had 
been killed, the animals being numerous in the winter only. 
Two in the morning of June 22d, when, finally, we sailed 
from Bear Island, the midnight sun—a ball of fire just over 
the sky line, all its radial lines cut by the fog,—created a scene 
which baffled the pen for its beauty. Distant icebergs near 
the sky line glinted and glimmered, while the drift ice, on 
which two seal appeared, was heavier than is usually found 
here. 
Back in 1871 an Austrian expedition, under Lieutenants 
Weyprecht and Payer, was beset ten days in just such ice. 
[34] 
CUTTING BLUBBER FROM WHALE 
