iocs ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



A shore-lark's nest, with six eggs, which I took on 

 this evening, was entirely composed of dead grass and 

 willow down. This bird, which the Samoyeds call ' sizlo ' 

 from its note, is another of our Arctic visitors. It nests 

 in Greenland and Novaya Zemblya, and all about the 

 Siberian and Arctic Russian coasts. It has an exceed- 

 ingly pretty song, about which I shall have more to say 

 later on. Its plumage is very pretty, for its throat is 

 yellow, and its breast broadly banded with black. 



And then at 8.30 p.m. we found the nest of a little 

 stint with four eggs ; far away from any water, for all 

 that we could see. The bird twittered and ran about 

 close to us, feigning lameness. The nest was a deep 

 cup in the ground, half filled with dried birch-leaves. 



Now, exactly at ten o'clock in the evening, we came 

 upon a little lake. A good dry bank sloped down to its 

 edge, and on this we lay very comfortably with our backs 

 to the wind. 



We were pretty hungry. After eating a bit of raw 

 bacon and a biscuit we made some cocoa. I had fenced 

 the spirit-lamp with lichen and moss as a guard against 

 the wind. Presently the moss itself caught fire ; and 

 this idea flashed upon me, Why not make a moss fire 

 and try to cook with it ? 



Hyland did not believe this possible But I set to 

 work and scrabbled up all the moss round about, earth 

 and all — it was very dry — and presently had a good big 

 smouldering fire. 



