lling had failed to produce any impression upon the
boy whatever, and I felt sure that he was going to die. Without exactly
knowing what I did, or what I was doing it for, I now ran to the right
over the green grass, and then over rough stones up to a considerable
elevation, and commenced hallooing again, when, much to my astonishment,
I heard a great fluttering and loud sounds right below and within
thirty feet of me. I sprang back as if some terrible enemy had attacked
me; but I recovered myself in an instant, when I observed that the
fluttering came from a number of birds which rose from among the rocks.
The birds were brown and quite large, and I knew at once that they were
eider-ducks, for I had seen them frequently before, while in the ship,
and the sailors had told me their name.

"Without having any distinct motive in doing so, I went down to where
the birds had risen, when still others rose before me in great numbers.
The rapidity of their flight, and the loud noise which they made,
startled others still farther away, and thus flock after flock kept on
rising from among the rocks, screaming, and flapping their wings in a
very loud manner. Several hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, must have
thus got upon their wings and commenced sailing overhead.

"You must know that the eider-duck, in order to protect its eggs from
the air when it goes off to get for food the little fish that it catches
in the sea, plucks from its breast the fine feathers called _down_, in
which it buries its eggs very carefully. In each of the nests I found
there was a good handful of this down, and the thought at once occurred
to me to gather a quantity of it, and cover the boy with it. I went to
work immediately, and collected a great armful of it, and, hastening to
where the boy was, I deposited it, and then hurried back for more. In a
very short time I had accumulated a great pile, and, spreading a thick
layer of it out close beside the boy, I drew him over upon it, and then
covered him completely, and spread my overcoat as I had done before.

"The value of putting this discovery to prompt use was soon seen. The
boy, from being cold almost as a corpse, began to show some symptoms of
returning warmth. His breathing seemed to be more rapid and free, and
his eyelids began to move a little, though they did not fully open for
some time; but it was then only for an instant, and I was not certain
whether he recognized me or not. I called to