Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/431

Rh The difficulty in preserving specimens of the Soft-shelled Turtle sufficiently loug is a great drawback to anatomical investigation. Even arsenite of potassa fails to exert the preservative effect for which it is so justly celebrated in connection with morbid speci- mens in general. The vascular and nervous systems present many points of interest and novelty, which, however, demand a little more attention than I have yet been able to give, and are well worthy of separate consideration.

Our course from the Cary Islands to the northward took us through the channel lying between Haklnyt and Northumberland Islands. There is a large breeding place of Looms on the north- eastern face of Hakluyt Island, and myriads of Little Auks were flying up and down to their nesting haunts in the talus of the cliffs. The breeding places of the sea-fowl along the shores of this region appear to be continuous, and are occupied by incredible numbers of Looms and Little Auks. Dr. Kane, in those pathetic chapters of his charming work,* which relate how he and his worn-out companions escaped from Smith Sound, and traversed Melville Bay in frail open boats during the summer of 1855, tells us how his party subsisted almost entirely on the spoils of these aukeries and loomeries. The official narrative of the 'Polaris' Expedition f records similar experiences. On the 8th June, 1873, the party from the 'Polaris,' retreating south in the track of Dr. Kane, and under very similar circumstances, found Little Auks extremely numerous in their aukeries on Northumberland Island. The narrative relates that on the following day after a heavy south-west w r ind, which closed the pack on the land, every auk disappeared. It is evident from this that they were not incubating at that date.

A chain of immense icebergs stretched on our port-side from Hakluyt Island to the entrance of Smith Sound. One of them was of remarkable shape : from a square base, and at right angles

Kane's 'Arctic Explorations,' vol. ii.

'Narrative of the Polaris Expedition,' Washington, 1876.