veral
facts connected with this discovery that go far to prove that this ocean
is perpetually open.

Further south, where Dr Kane's brig lay in ice that seemed never to
melt, there were few signs of animal life--only a seal or two now and
then; but here, on the margin of this far northern sea, were myriads of
water-fowl of various kinds.

"The Brent goose," writes the Doctor, "had not been seen before since
entering Smith's Strait. It is well known to the polar traveller as a
migratory bird of the American continent. Like the others of the same
family, it feeds upon vegetable matter, generally on marine plants, with
their adherent molluscan life. It is rarely or never seen in the
interior; and from its habits may be regarded as singularly indicative
of open water. The flocks of this bird, easily distinguished by their
wedge-shaped line of flight, now crossed the water obliquely, and
disappeared over the land to the north-east.

"The rocks on shore were crowded with sea-swallows, birds whose habits
require open water; and they were already breeding. The gulls were
represented by no less than four species. The kittiwakes--reminding
Morton of `old times in Baffin's Bay'--were again stealing fish from the
water (probably the small whiting), and their grim cousins, the
burgomasters, enjoying the dinner thus provided at so little cost to
themselves. It was a picture of life all round.

"Here, for the first time, Morton noticed the arctic petrel,--a fact
which shows the accuracy of his observation, though he had not been
aware of its importance. This bird had not been met with since we left
the north water of the English whalers, more than two hundred miles
south of the position on which he stood. Its food is essentially
marine; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the highways of open
water frequented by the whale and the larger representatives of ocean
life. They were in numbers flitting and hovering over the crests of the
waves, like their relatives of kinder climates,--the Cape of Good Hope
pigeons, Mother Carey's chickens, and the petrels everywhere else.

"It must have been an imposing sight, as Morton stood at this
termination of his journey, looking out upon the great waste of waters
before him. Not a speck of ice could be seen. There, from a height of
480 feet, which commanded a horizon of almost forty miles, his ears were
gladdened with the novel music of dashing waves; and a surf, breaking in