270 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. xxi. 



dunlin ground ; and where this short grassy swamp was 

 sprinkled over with tussocks of dryer earth, covered over 

 with moss and flowers, then it was the Lapland bunting or 

 red-throated pipit ground. Where the tussocks lay so close 

 together that they reminded one of the hundred vaults or 

 rather domes of the Stamboul bazaar seen from the minaret of 

 Santa Sophia, and the swampy ground was almost hidden, 

 or traceable only by rows of cotton-grass, we agreed to call 

 for the future " little stint " ground. The hummocks were 

 covered with green moss, mingled here and there with a 

 little hoary reindeer moss. This undergrowth was concealed 

 by the maroshJca (the cloudberry), a species of juncus, 

 cariees, the dwarf sweet-smelling rhododendron, and other 

 shrubs and flowers of the tundra. 



The following day the wintry chill of the last few days had 

 disappeared, and it was summer-time abroad. The wind 

 had dropped, the clouds had gone from the sky : this w r as the 

 bright side of the change ; the reverse was the clouds of 

 mosquitoes that hung over the tundra. Brown and I visited 

 the little stint ground, on the principle of "stick to your 

 covey ;" but not a bird or a nest could we see upon it. We 

 shot a wheatear on the shore, saw a pair of sanderlings, 

 dropped a fine glaucous gull, a reeve, and some other birds, 

 then returned to our quarters. Our Samoyede brought us 

 a couple of nests of long-tailed ducks, one containing three 

 eggs, the other five. We were tired out, so having cooked 

 a duck for dinner, we went to bed at 4 a.m., to rise at 

 11 a.m. We began our day (let the reader forgive the 

 Irishism, it is only a Petchorski bull), by watching the sun 



