20 



KNOWLEDGE 



[February, 1902. 



by means of ropes coiled round large wheels. On the 

 quays men, women, and children are hard at. work 

 sorting, gutting, and salting fish, extracting the liver 

 oil, tying the fish in pairs tail to tail, threading the 

 cods' heads on lines, baiting the hooks and coiling the 

 lines into baskets ready for the fishermen. The fish 

 and the heads aro hung up to dry on laths fixed to 

 poles all over the island, whilst discarded fish and those 

 dropped accidentally lie about everywhere on the quays 

 and in the streets and are eaten with avidity by cats, 

 goats, and cows. Yet for all this wealth of fish you 

 cannot get a fresh cod t-o eat, as they are all salted and 

 dried and sent to Russia and Spain, while the heads 

 aro dried and used for manure. But so pure and 

 fresh is the air that, notwithstanding all the mass of 

 coniiption on the island, there is very little smell, and 

 even the decomposing cods' heads scarcely taint the 

 fresh northern breezes. 



The diying grounds proved most interesting to us, 

 especially where there hung rows and rows of heads, 

 as the maggots in these attracted numbers of birds. 

 Snow buntingsf in their beautiful velvety black and 

 snow white summer plumage were numerous, while 

 elegant shore larks.J with their handsome black ear 

 tuft.s, evidently found the cods' heads good hunting 



A Quay at V.anloe with C'.kU' HcaiU in Miiiig*. 



grounds, and their pretty little songs testified to their 

 contentedness. Then in the marshy ground under the 

 diying fijih we found Tcmminck stints,§ which rose 

 fluttering into the air calling rapidly tzi-tzi-tzi. Round 

 the coast on the searwa.shed rocks were purple sand- 

 pipers;] in all the glory of their summer sheen. In the 

 sea were numex-ous eider ducks. •[ the drakes in black 

 and white and sea/-gi-een, cooing like stock doves, and 

 flirting with their sombre colom-ed mates. Black 

 guillemots** were in swarms, and their soft mellow 

 whistles floated peacefully over the cold water, while 

 gulls of many sorts flew backwards and forwards over- 

 iiead. On the mainland, which we visited one day, 

 or was it night, we found still more birds. The country 

 was white with snow, but here and there on patches 

 of gi-ceu where the snow had melted, and on the shore 

 wo found the birds. Dotterels,!! with all their well- 



t Pleclrojyhenax nivalis. % Oiocori/s alpestris. 



§ Tringa temmincl-i. ]' Tringa striata. 



•" Somateria mollissima. •* I'ria gri/lle. 



tt Eiidromias morinellus. 



known silliness, allowed us to approach within a few 

 yards, but sanderlings^^ and little stints.§§ in their 

 rich brown breeding plumage, were more wary. Lap- 

 laud buntings|j!j were building their nests on the dryest 

 parts available of the wet ground uncovered by snow, 

 and the male birds often rose into the air singing, like 

 pipits, on the wing, soft little piping songs. Then we 

 saw three Arctic skuas,*'fi those robber gulls which 

 chase their hard-working cousins, and, making them 

 disgorge their honestly earned prey, swoop down and 

 catch it ere it reaches the siu-face of the water. As 

 is well known these birds vary greatly in colouring from 

 sooty black all over to greyish white on the under 

 parts. Of the three we saw two were dark and one 

 light. We approached them, and while one bird flew 

 away the other two swooped down near to us several 

 times, and then settled on the ground at some distance, 

 and spreading out their wings, quivered them and 

 uttered a plaintive meauw. Knowing by this that they 

 must have eggs, we seai'ched about, and on a strip of 

 ground from which the wind had swept the snow, we 

 found a small hollow lined with moss and lichen, and 

 containing two dark brown eggs. The third bird, 

 which had flown away, we noticed was being chased 

 and buffeted continually by the other two, and we could 

 not understand what was his share in this domestic 

 scene. Some weeks afterwards in Lapland I found a 

 similar trio, and managed to shoot the third bird, which 

 in this case also ajipeared to be "one too many," and was 

 continually chased and ill used by the other two. My 

 shot only winged it, and the bird was floating down 

 to the ground when the other two meanly attacked it 

 and knocked it over, so that it fell in the middle of 

 a very soft bog. The bog apj^eared to be of an un- 

 fathomable depth, but I was determined to get the bird 

 and clear up the mystery, so I took off my coat and in 

 a couple of hours managed by gieat exertions to pull 

 up by the roots eight fair sized birch trees and build 

 a bridge over the bog to the bird. It was a dark 

 coloured specimen, but the rufous edgings to many 

 of the feathers on the back proved it to be an immature 

 bird evidently hatched the year before. So that pre- 

 sumably in two cases a pair of adult birds was attended 

 by a single yovmgster whose presence evidently inter- 

 fered with domestic bliss. 



From Vardoe we journeyed on by a small coasting 

 steamer to a place called Petschena;a, where we were 

 to meet the Archangel boat. The Arctic Sea was 

 wonderfully calm, and we were delighted to see 

 some way from land a flock of those charming 

 little birds the red-necked phalaropes,*** floating 

 like corks upon the water. They were as tame 

 as farmyard chickens, and were so buoyant that on 

 alighting on the water they appeared scarcely to touch 

 it, and the sea was so still and glassy that one might 

 have thought they were resting upon ice rather than 

 water. At Petschenga the snow was waist deep and 

 vei-y soft, so that we found we could not explore the 

 counti'y far. We got along well on the top of the 

 snow for some distance, when suddenly the crust gave 

 way and we were floundering about up to our annuits 

 in wet and clinging snow. Near the water, however, 

 there were places bare of snow, but verj- wet. These 

 spots were full of bii'ds, several of which were building 

 nests, seeming determined to take full advantage of the 



*+ Calidris arenaria. §§ Tringa mintita. 



\\ II Calcarius Japponicus. TT Stercorarius (^repidatus, 



*** Phalaropus hyperhoreus. 



