A Collection of Documents of Spitzbergen & Greenland (Volume 18) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855. Excerpt: ... colour of a partridge. The hindmost claw is broad and short, with a short nail; the tail is bobb'd, like that of other ducks. I could find nothing in their maws or gizzards that could make me certain of their food, but only sand-stones. They fly a great many of them in flocks like other wild ducks; when they do see any men, they hold up their heads and make a very long neck. They make their nests upon the low islands; they make them of the feathers of their bellies, which they mix with moss; but these are not the same feathers which are called the edder-down. We found their nests with two, three, or four eggs in them, the most whereof were rotten when we came to Spitzbergen, but some of them were good to eat; they are of a pale green, somewhat bigger than our duck-eggs; the seamen made an hole at each end, and so blew the white and the yolk out, and strung the shells upon a packthread. I would have brought some of them to Hamburgh, but they began to stink, so that I was forced to fling them away, although the shells were entire. These ducks have a very good flesh; we boyl'd and roasted them as we did the other birds, but the fat of them we flung away, for it tasted of train-oyl, and made us vomit. The ships that arrived at Spitzbergen before us got a great many of them. These mountain ducks are not at all shy or afraid of men when we first arrive there, but afterwards they grow quite wild, so that you can hardly come near enough to shoot them. That which I have drawn here was shot in the South Bay (in Spitzbergen), on the 18th of June. 10. Of the Kirmew.1 The kirmew hath a thin sharp-pointed bill, as red as blood; she shews very large, especially when she stands upright, 1 The Arctic Tern Sterna macroura, or Arctica). because of her long wings and feather...