THE WORLD OF ICE. 108

aged to put several fine specimens of gulls and an
auk into his bag. The last bird amused him much,
being a creature with a dumpy little body and a beak
of preposterously large size and comical aspect. There
were also a great number of eider-ducks flying about,
but they failed to procure a specimen,

Singleton was equally successful in his scientific re-
searches. He found several beautifully green mosses,
one species of which was studded with pale yellow
flowers, and in one place, where a stream trickled down
the steep sides of the cliffs, he discovered a flower-
growth which was rich in variety of colouring. Amid
several kinds of tufted grasses were scen growing
a small purple flower and the white star of the
chickweed. The sight of all this richness of vegeta-
tion growing in a little spot close beside the snow,
and amid such cold Arctic scenery, would have de-
lighted a much less enthusiastic spirit than that of
our young surgeon. He went quite into raptures
with it, and stuffed his botanical box with mosses and
rocks until it could hold no more, and became a bur-
den that cost him a few sighs before he got back to
the ship.

The rocks were found to consist chiefly of red
sandstone. There was also a good deal of ercen-stone
and gneiss, and some of the spires of these that shot
up to a considerable height were particularly striking
and picturesque objects.

But the creat sight of the day’s excursion was that
Which unexpectedly greeted their eyes on rounding a