Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/475

Rh small depth of water, the icebergs shed from it are comparatively small. We put the dredge over in front of the glacier, in a depth of seven fathoms and a half, with a bottom temperature of 28° F. The bottom consisted of rounded limestone pebbles dropped by the bergs. Very little living material was brought up; two examples of Trochus umbilicalis, and an Astarte, two annelids, and a star-fish being the result of the haul. Dovekies were nesting in the cliffs, and several Eider Ducks, one with a brood of downy young ones, were seen. I' landed with Lieutenant Parr on the north side of Bessels Bay ; the cliffs rise perpendicularly from the shore, but in some spots a talus stretches to a height of 300 feet; we scrambled up this, and looked out over Hall Basin. To the northward and towards Polaris Bay, the ice was tightly packed ; but a lead showed to the westward in the direction of Lady Franklin Sound. A southerly wind blew strong and very cold, though the thermometer marked 27° F. We returned to the ship with a small collection of plants and fossils.

— A. friend of mine, Mr. William Trousdale, on whose veracity I can implicitly rely, lately supplied me with the following anecdote : — During the time he occupied a farm at Ryton, in the North Riding, in the spring of a certain year, he had a hen sitting, and noticed that one of her eggs disappeared daily. He was quite unable to account for this, until one day he saw a Weasel come out of a cart-shed, where the hen was sitting, with an egg in front of him. He immediately gave chase, when the animal made for a hedge-bank some forty yards distant from the shed. My friend overtook it just as it was trying to get the egg into a hole, into which, on his near approach, the animal disappeared. My informaut, who on taking up the egg saw the Weasel look out from its hiding- place, states that the egg was rolled along the ground in front of the animal, and he was surprised at the rapidity with which it moved. — (Highfield, Oswaldkirk, York).

— In reply to the Editorial query (p. 427), I may state that I have no direct evidence to offer agaiust the Starlings, so far as Larks' eggs are concerned ; and in saying that the