114 THE LENA DELTA 



ducks and divers particularly the divers and, among 

 the birds of prey, the falcons and the rough -legged 

 buzzards, which, with the owls, find such abundant 

 provision in the lemmings that migrate in myriads 

 compared with which the reindeer troops are in- 

 significant. 



" The groundwork of all this variegated scenery," 

 says Seebohm, " is more beautiful and varied still 

 lichens and mosses of almost every conceivable colour, 

 from the cream-coloured reindeer-moss to the scarlet- 

 cupped trumpet-moss, interspersed with a brilliant 

 alpine flora, gentians, anemones, saxifrages, and hun- 

 dreds of plants, each a picture in itself, the tall aconites, 

 both the blue and yellow species, the beautiful cloud- 

 berry, with its gay white blossom and amber fruit, 

 the fragrant Ledum palustre and the delicate pink 

 Andromeda polifolia. In the sheltered valleys and 

 deep water-courses a few stunted birches, and some- 

 times large patches of w r illow scrub, survive the long 

 severe winter, and serve as cover for willow-grouse or 

 ptarmigan. The Lapland bunting and red-throated 

 pipit are everywhere to be seen, and certain favoured 

 places are the breeding-grounds of plovers and sand- 

 pipers of many species. So far from meriting the name 

 of Barren Ground, the tundra is for the most part a 

 veritable paradise in summer. But it has one almost 

 fatal drawback it swarms with mosquitoes." 



The beauty of the tundra is, however, transient and 

 skin deep ; it is only such plants as can live in the soil 

 that thaws that survive. Wherever the ground is dug 

 into, ice is sure to be reached ; in fact, it may be said 

 that ice is one of the rocks of the subsoil, and in some 



