Dan Meinertzhagen's Diary. 83 



June 14th. — We had arranged with a Finn 

 who knew of a Rough-legged Buzzard's nest 

 with young, to meet him to-day at Upper 

 Muonioniska. We left 'Niska at 8.30, and after 

 a pleasant row up the river of 8 miles, we 

 arrived at his house. We saw several nice 

 birds on the way, such as Rough-legged 

 Buzzards, Ospreys, Scoters, Mergansers, etc. 

 At his house we had coffee, and so we 

 did at every house we came to on the 

 v/ay, two cups, making twelve each in all. 

 After a walk of 5 miles over a hill, we arrived 

 at the edge of a lake, perfectly mad with the 

 mosquitoes, which seemed much worse to-day 

 than they had been before, and, finding a boat, 

 we rowed across. The scenery was beautiful, 

 undulating country all around, covered with 

 pines, the tops of the mountains alone being 

 bare of trees, and down by the lake and along 

 the river courses, birch trees. Pallastunturi, an 

 enormous mountain some 25 miles away from 

 'Niska, looked grand in the distance, with the 

 sun on it. Over the lake were flying all sorts of 

 Ducks, particularly Golden Eyes, the males 

 looking very bright in the sunshine, and over 

 us screamed two or three pairs of those charm- 

 ing birds, which seem distributed all over this 

 valley — the Arctic Tern. 



