300 Messrs. H. Seebohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 



similar to what has ah'cady been described. A smaller stream 

 runs into the inland sea on its south-western shore, the bot- 

 tom of whieh is a quicksand, formed by a deposit of fine sand 

 upon the top of the ooze, which quicksand stretches out 

 some distance from its mouth. This little stream rises in a 

 low marshy meadow studded with small pools, and seems to 

 be connected underground with these latter, and does not, as 

 we at first supposed, flow from a range of lakes upon the 

 higher tundra, unless, indeed, there be underground com- 

 munication with them also. 



It was upon the sloping tundra, and upon the sloping mea- 

 dow, that we found all our nests of eggs and young in down 

 of the Little Stint. Four of these sets of eggs and young — 

 which, for convenience, we will call Nos, 1, 2, 3, and 4, in 

 the order in which they were found — were got not far from 

 the neck of the peninsula, on the slope facing the N.E. 

 This part of the tundra bears a thick growth of arctic bram- 

 ble [Rubus arcticus), which, in some places, scarcely leaves a 

 square yard free of vegetation. The dwarf rhododendron 

 [Ledum palustre) is also abundant, but is small and incon- 

 spicuous. Large quantities of deep, soft, faded Sphagnum 

 cover also a considerable part of the ground ; and growing 

 through this are Cai'ices [Carex rariflora and another) and 

 grasses, and a green star- shaped moss, the latter being the 

 same which is often found on the ground frequented by the 

 Grey Plovers, Reindeer-moss is scarce upon this Little- 

 Stint ground, growing only in patches here and there ; but 

 the innumerable small round hummocks, with which parts of 

 it are thickly covered, bear a thin crust of minute white 

 lichen, which, blending with the darker colour of the peat 

 soil upon which it grows, gives a hoary appearance to the 

 higher portions of the slope. In many places this grey hum- 

 mocky ground is sharply defined, giving place at its edges to 

 tracts of slightly damper ground, which are covered with 

 matted white and green grass, or patches of cotton-grasses 

 {Eriophoron vaginatum and E. polystachyon, var. latifolium*), 



* We are indebted for assistance in naming a small collection of plants 

 of the tundra, formed by us. principally at Dvoiuik, to Professor A. Dick- 



