XXXIV MEMOIR. 



Society of London, and read at the meeting held on the 24th of March, 

 1857, which was attended by my brother Edward in order to exhibit 

 the nest and eggs, which Avere subsequently figured in the Society^s 

 'Proceedings^ (1857, pp. 55, 56, Aves, pi. cxxii.). Soon after, egg- 

 collectors had an opportunity of shewing how they appreciated this 

 new acquisition to oology, with the result that a higher price was 

 obtained for each of the three eggs of the Waxwing — offered for sale 

 at Mr. Stevens's auction-room — than had ever been known before, 

 except in the case of those of a species presumed to be extinct. 



The winter of 1856-7 passed with Wolley much as usual, though 

 in his letters to his most constant correspondents he complained of 

 being less able than formerly to withstand the rigour of the climate^. 

 It was a year of famine. The crops of the country, both corn and 

 hay, suffered from an inclement summer, so as to be far below the 

 average, scanty as that is, while the potatoes were cut off by prema- 

 ture frost, and the people around were driven to great shifts for 

 food, mingling a large proportion of chopped straw and bark with 

 the meal of which they made their bread. The disastrous autumn 

 was followed by a winter of unusual severity f- 



In the spring he again set out for Norway ; but this time took 

 another and more difficult route, proceeding through the almost 

 unexplored country nearly due north of Muonioniska, until he struck 



* An agreeable glimpse of his life at this time is furnished by Mr. Bayard Taylor 

 in his 'Northern Travel ' (New York : 1858), who with his companion Mr. Braisted 

 stayed several days at Muoniovara on their way to and from Kautolieiuo in 

 January, 1857, and especially acknowledges (p. 163) the attention and kindness 

 shewn to them by Wolley. Mr. Taylor's statement (p. 100), however, as to 

 Wolley's using the common bath, is, as the latter assured me, a mistake. On the 

 10th of the preceding December, Mr. Theodore W. Bathbone, of Allerton Priory 

 near Liverpool, arrived at Muoniovara from Alton, and two days later he and 

 Wolley travelled with reindeer to Kengis, whence they drove next day to Kittila, 

 having heard of two bears being " ringed " in that neighbourhood, for which they 

 searched in vain, owing to the unfavourable condition of the snow. On the 23rd of 

 December they parted, Wolley returning to Muoniovara, and Mr. Bathbone, accom- 

 panied by Ludwig, making for Kengis on his way southward. In August 1857 

 Messrs. Frederick and Percy Godman, who had been passing the summer at Bodo 

 (Ibis, 1861, pp. 77-92), made a short stay at Muoniovara on their way from 

 Alten to Haparanda. 



t Wolley did not hear of any death from hunger ; but the distress was terrible. 

 Mr. Wilmot, who always took the greatest interest iu his proceedings, generously 

 sent him a considerable sum of money to be distributed among the sufferers. 



