the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 295 



Petchora gulf, or lagoon of the Petchora, or to go to the far- 

 out islands called the Golaievskai Banks, which stretch from 

 Cape Kuskoi Zavarod across the north side of the same sheet 

 of "water. The former of these plans was considered im- 

 practicable, owing to the unsatisfactory state of the only- 

 compass, and the danger of certain sand-banks or sunken 

 rocks lying near the course, upon which, on a former occasion. 

 Captain Engel had lost his vessel. The latter plan was more 

 easily accomplished, as it is part of the annual duty of the 

 Captain to visit these far-out islands, and to erect beacons 

 upon two of them, to guide vessels from the sea into the 

 only safe channel. 



At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 13th July we were 

 awakened by M, Arendt ; and shortly afterwards we were on 

 board the steamer, which was bound for the Golaievskai Banks. 

 At the river-bar, about thirty-four miles from Alexievka, we 

 took the cutter in tow alongside, and after a tiresome navi- 

 gation of an intricate channel through the Shallow Sea (Soo- 

 khoy'e More of the Russians), we landed about midnight 

 upon the island upon the east side of the channel, which is 

 marked in the Admiralty Chart as " No. 4.'' While the 

 men were engaged in erecting a wooden beacon, the old one 

 having been carried away by the ice when it broke up in 

 spring, we had an hour or two's shooting upon the low sand- 

 bank, and, amongst other things, obtained the old and young 

 in down of the Glaucous Gull and our first Sanderlings. 

 Leaving No. 4, the steamer was obliged to lie-to in the midst 

 of a dense fog, after a vain search for the island known as 

 " No. 3," which is upon the western side of the navigable 

 channel, and upon which another beacon had to be erected. 

 About 4 o'clock A.M. on the 14th July the fog lifted, and we 

 soon after landed. Here the last year's beacon having been 

 only upset, and not, as is usually the case, carried away, we 

 had only a short run upon the sand-bank, and were soon ob- 

 liged to Hurry again on board. As ships from the sea might 

 arrive at any time now, it was of the utmost importance that 

 a third beacon should be erected without loss of time upon 

 the mainland on the south-east shore of the lagoon of the 



