the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 297 



search for the nest of the Little Stint, and possibly also that 

 of the Curlew-Sandpiper. We left Alexievka at 10 a.m. on 

 the 22nd July, and landed at the wreck about 4 p.m. After 

 hurriedly bearing the baggage, provisions, &c. on board the 

 wreck, which was in a habitable condition, and which was 

 to be our home for the next week, we started off along the 

 shore in the direction of the inland sea where Seebohm had 

 first discovered the flocks of Little Stints. 



We will now endeavour to describe this part of the coast 

 and tundra, which is situated as nearly as possible on the 

 parallel of 68^° N. lat. 



Along the water's edge at high tide the shore is gravelly 

 and sandy, and is about thirty yards in breadth, sloping gra- 

 dually up to the base of the peat cliff which forms the ter- 

 mination of the tundra, and which is about twenty to thirty 

 feet in height. Close to the base of the peat-cliff great 

 quantities of drift wood have been washed up and left high 

 and dry by the tide, and afforded us abundant fuel for our 

 camp. From the top of the bank, or level of the vast tundra, 

 a distant view of the Pytkoff Mountains (piet kova, five peaks 

 or caps) can be had on a clear day. These hills are 583 feet 

 high [vide map of the Petchora published by the Petchora 

 Timber-Trading Company) , and about twenty-five versts dis- 

 tant from the beacon in an easterly direction, forming the 

 highest land between the Petchora river and the Ural Moun- 

 tains. The coast-line runs in a general N.E. and S.W. di- 

 rection ; but after passing the inlet it trends more to the north- 

 ward as far as Cape Constantinovka. On either side of the 

 entrance to the inland sea lie the low points of sand known 

 as Dvoinik or the Twin Capes. The inland sea is shut off 

 from the Petchora Gulf, to the north of the Boluanskai Bucht^, 



* The headland between the gulf and the Petchora-mouth, north 

 of Stanavoialachta, is called Boluanskai Noss ; but it must not, of course, 

 be confounded with the cape of the same name — meaning, as we are in- 

 formed by Mr. Lamont, Idol Cape (' Yachting in the Arctic Seas,' 1876, 

 p. 134) — which forms the N.E. extremity of the Waygatch Islands, 

 at the eastern entrance of the Kara Gates, The Boluan there men- 

 tioned is the place where Purehas relates ('Pilgrimes,' vol. iii. p. 5.33, 



SER. III. VOL. VI. X 



