424 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



leave them unexplored. Oh for a clever, smart sailing- 

 craft, or a steam launch — to be so near perhaps, and yet 

 as hopelessly distant as ever ! 



Nay ; but at least we have a clue, which is half the 

 battle, though the other half is still no easy one to fight 

 without more modern and efficient munitions than a 

 clumsy, Jddeous lump of a Petchora old wives' loashing-tuh. 

 (Feelings so deep must be expressed.) 



Obliged to take advantage of the weather — the beacons 

 must be erected immediately — the steamer hurriedly 

 moved off again to No. 4, got into the proper channel, 

 and steamed south for Constantinovka Cape. About 

 4 p.m. she came to anchor opposite Dvoinik Cape (the 

 Twin Capes), on the shore east of the Boluanski Bucht. 



Not expecting much from the appearance of the coast, 

 we landed with the men who were to erect a beacon in 

 place of one which last year had been torn down for 

 firewood by the Samoyedes. 



I felt unwell and very sick for a quarter of an hour, 

 and generally unhinged by irregular meals, want of sleep, 

 and badly-cooked food, and I only penetrated about a verst 

 into the tundra. The long level tundra before described 

 stretched away far, far inland, and the Pytkoff mountains 

 looked hazy in the distance. 



Grey Plovers were not uncommon, and the nature of 

 the ground seemed to be admirably adapted for their 

 breeding habits. I saw both Richardson's (Arctic) and 

 Buffon's Skuas, and picked up a quill from the wing of a 

 Snowy Owl. I watched a pair of Grey Plovers, but the 

 heat and mosquitoes completely upset me, and I returned 

 to the steamer as the last man descended from the beacon. 



Seebohm had grand success, returning shortly after 

 me, and with a triumphant thump laid on the table, 

 first a Grey Plover, then a Snow Bunting, the first 

 since Ust Zylma, and then a Curlew Sandpiper ; lastly. 



