298 Messrs. H. Sccbohm and J. A. Harvic Brown on 



except at their point of junction, by a peninsula, the sea- 

 ward side of which consists of a range of sand-hills covered 

 with esparto- grass, lowering towards its extremity to a gravelly 

 sandy ridge, which latter, sweeping inland in a circle, comes 

 to a sharj) point, and forms a promontory on the shore of the 

 inland sea"^. Inside the sand-hills there is a level green 

 meadow studded over with many small pools, and intersected 

 by narrow winding lanes of brackish and stagnant water. 

 Many of these pools are of curious shapes, having almost an 

 artificial appearance, their edges, about a foot in height, being 

 perpendicular and even, as if cut by a spade. At the bottom, 

 below a foot or two of water, is a deep, tenacious, bluish 

 black mud, which, if disturbed, gives off a powerful and offen- 

 sive smell. Quantities of water-plants grow on the surfaces 

 of some of them, sometimes almost choking them up. It is 

 upon the edges of the pools and on the shores of the inland 

 sea adjoining, that the flocks of wading birds are found at 

 feeding-time. Red-necked Phalaropes settle on the surface 

 of the pools ; Ruffs and Dunlins and the little flocks of Stints 

 feed along the edges ; and a few Grey Plovers come down from 

 the tundra and run over the meadow. Buffon^s Skuas fly 

 overhead from time to time ; and Seebohm obtained a fine 

 Snowy Owl, which perched on the gravel ridge. Snow- 

 Buntings were seen here occasionally ; but they seemed to 

 prefer the piles of drift wood near the sea-shore and the barer 

 ground. Ducks — Long-tailed and Pintail — with their young, 

 were also found ; and Wild Swans were sometimes seen far 



A.D. 1611) that " an airie of Slight- [sic] Falcons " was purchased. It 

 was near this also that we found two nests of the Peregrine Falcon. 

 The persistent return of Falcons to favourite breeding-places year after 

 year has been recorded before, notably in ' Ooth. Woll.,' part 1, p. 99 ; 

 and it is possible that in this instance also the same sites may have 

 been occupied continuously, or at intervals, since the date mentioned by 

 Purchas. 



* The geographical position of the inland sea, as shown upon the Ad- 

 miralty Chart (Chart of Norway and White Sea — Supplementary Sheet) 

 is as nearly as possible 685° N. lat., and 55° 55' E. long. In this chart 

 even the above-mentioned promontory is delineated with tolerable ex- 

 actitude. 



