Kamhle in Lajilartd. 161 



two eggs : amongst the wool whicli lined the nest was a fairly 

 large sheet of a Bodo newspaper. We also observed a pair 

 of Common Sandpipers on a small piece of water rather high 

 up on the hills. 



The LofFoden Islands had a fine but wintery appearance 

 as we steamed past them on the 30th May, for from the 

 summit of their jagged peaks down to the water^s edge was 

 one white expanse of snow. At Harstadhavn, where we waited 

 several hours, I observed flocks of Common Gulls {Larus 

 canus) feeding on the patches of cultivated land. Fieldfares' 

 nests were also numerous, but here none of them had eggs yet, 

 though a Hooded Crow had a nest full of half-grown young. 

 Magpies were common. On the 31st I observed Arctic Terns 

 for the first time. The nights now were as light as day, but 

 there did not seem to be the least sign of summer. Tromso 

 was reached in the evening, and there, according to arrange- 

 ments made before leaving England, I met and engaged 

 a Norwegian servant, afterwards referred to as Trinus, to 

 accompany me on my journey to Lapland. 



June lst-3rd. The hills north of Tromso were clothed in 

 snow to the water's level, and we were greeted by cold nortb 

 winds and occasional snowstorms. Nevertheless, at Voerholt, 

 in Laxe Fiord, in spite of the cliffs being covered with snow, 

 Common Gulls already had eggs in numbers. On the 4th 

 June we landed at Stangenoes, in the Tana Fiord, at 3 a.m., 

 and a dull and dreary look-out it was — great steep cliffs and 

 rounded hills, with pure white snow down to the sea-level ! 

 Where could we expect to find birds breeding in such a 

 country ? A pair of Merlins were hawking about the shore, 

 chasing and alarming the small birds (Wheatears, White 

 Wagtails, and Titlarks) ; Cormorants, or Shags, Eiders, and 

 Mergansers seemed plentiful, and seals were numerous. We 

 got a boat to take us from Stangenoes, at the head of the 

 Tana Fiord, to a little island called Gulholmen, at the mouth 

 of the Tana river ; but instead of being able to go straight 

 up the country, as I had intended, I found that the ice in 

 the river had not yet broken up, and about two miles above 

 Gulholmen a white line of fast ice extended right across the 



