diff --git a/gtk/gtksearchenginequartz.c b/gtk/gtksearchenginequartz.c
index 7e9d5dd721..f408c415a8 100644
--- a/gtk/gtksearchenginequartz.c
+++ b/gtk/gtksearchenginequartz.c
@@ -73,12 +73,14 @@ G_DEFINE_TYPE_WITH_PRIVATE (GtkSearchEngineQuartz, _gtk_search_engine_quartz, GT
 {
   int i;
   GList *hits = NULL;
-  /* The max was originally set to 1000 to mimic the Beagle backend. */
-  const unsigned int max_hits = 1000;
-  const unsigned int max_iter = submitted_hits + [ns_query resultCount];
+  /* The max was originally set to 1000 to mimic something called "the
+   * boogie backend". submitted_hits contains the number of hits we've
+   * processed in previous calls to this function.
+   */
+  const unsigned int max_hits = 1000 - submitted_hits;
+  const unsigned int max_iter = [ns_query resultCount];
 
-  /* Here we submit hits "submitted_hits" to "resultCount" */
-  for (i = submitted_hits; i < max_iter && i < max_hits; ++i)
+  for (i = 0; i < max_iter && i < max_hits; ++i)
     {
       id result = [ns_query resultAtIndex:i];
       const char *result_path;
@@ -101,7 +103,7 @@ G_DEFINE_TYPE_WITH_PRIVATE (GtkSearchEngineQuartz, _gtk_search_engine_quartz, GT
   if (max_iter >= max_hits)
     [ns_query stopQuery];
 
-  submitted_hits = max_iter;
+  submitted_hits += max_iter;
 }
 
 - (void) queryUpdate:(id)sender