FETCH OR A 437 



Between these sand-hills and the inlet is a level 

 grassy expanse of ground studded over with small pools 

 of brackish water and intersected by narrow winding 

 lanes of the same, from w^hich an offensive odour was 

 wafted to our nostrils by the still strong breeze. At the 

 bottom of these stagnant pools is a deep layer of black 

 tenacious mud, and on most of them there was a great 

 quantity of a dark green water-plant, of which we intend 

 to gather specimens. 



Upon one of these shallow ponds, large enough to be 

 called a lake, and the largest of them all, I shot four 

 young Pintails. 



A few flocks of Dunlins were careering over the 

 meadows and alighting on the edges of the pools, and we 

 several times saw Stints dashing overhead in a flock. 

 These were very wild, and scarcely ever offered a fair 

 shot. Seebohm got one shot, and after he fired the flock 

 wheeled once back, made a small circle in the air over 

 the place as if looking for a lost companion, and then 

 dashed away on their former course. 



A pair of Black-throated Divers were swimming about 

 on the same sheet of water where I shot the young Pin- 

 tails. 



At the far or east side of the inlet along the mark of a 

 higher level of the water we found two or three deep 

 circular holes, one of which was sparingly lined with 

 Long-tailed Duck's down. The others had also every 

 appearance of having been shortly before used as nests. 



The inlet in general appearance, as far as we have yet 

 seen, may be said to resemble in shape a chemist's retort. 

 The neck, or narrow entrance, is at the northern side, 

 and the wider part sweeps round forming a peninsula — 

 between it and the open sea — of the sand-hills, and the 

 green meadow with its many pools and lanes of water. 



On the seaward side of the peninsula I picked up the 



VOL. II. 30 



