1)0 



KNOWLEDGE 



[April, 1002. 



to bo the startiufj point of our journey across the Kola 

 Peninsula. Here wc took up (juarters in tiie house of the 

 pilot. The house, which was of wood, consisted of only 

 one pxid room, which wc occujucd while the pilot, his 

 wife and family cheerfully retired to the loft, in the roof 

 of which were many holes large enough to admit one's 

 head. 



Our room was furnished with a comfortable looking 

 Ix'd, which wo tried but soon forsook with many mur- 

 inuriiigs (the Russian variety being large and exceedingly 

 voracious), and thenceforth spread our blankets on the 

 hard but peaceful Hoor. Kandalax consists of a hundred 

 or more wooden houses, and its inhabitants, who are 

 Russians, are Ix'lieved to sustain themselves by fishing, 

 but during our throe days' stay almost every man and 

 woman was drunk. Indeed the inhabitants of this place 

 apjwared to be utterly degraded by vodka. They found 

 many opportunities for making holiday. The Greek 

 Church, I believe, provides some three or four saints' 



A Boat " manned " by Women. 



From aphotograjfh hy Mr. F. R. Eatclijf. 



days a week, and these are regularly used in Kandalax as 

 excuses for drunkenness, while the day on which the 

 weekly steamer arrives is invariably set aside as a day of 

 rejoicing. Moreover, the people were tipsy day and night, 

 and besieged our room at all hours demanding vodka, and 

 when forcibly ejected they stood in a group outside and 

 droned melancholy chants for hours at a time. 



However, we found more society in Kandalax than we had 

 expected. Mons. Boudit, a Frenchman, who was engaged 

 in starting a factory for tinning salmon and other fish, and 

 the chief of the telegraph station, entertained us right 

 royally, and gave us much help and advice. Mons. Boudit 

 informed us that the peasants of this country were utterly 

 worthless as workmen, and in consequence he had been 

 compelled to import labour, not only for the erection of his 

 factory and for the canning of the fish, but even for 

 catching the fish. 



The country round Kandalax was mainly composed of 

 dense pine forest, which yielded very little in the way of 

 birds, but the islands in the bay were more interesting. 

 On these islands we found a number of different ducks, a 

 few with young ones, but the majority apparently not yet 

 nesting. Perched on a little rock in the middle of the 

 bay we saw a great dark bird with a conspicuous white 

 tail. We knew this must be the white-tailed sea eagle,J 

 and we tried hard to approach it, but it watched our boat 



XSaliaitut albinlla. 



jealously, and no sooner had we hidden ourselves behind 

 a small island than the great bird rose, and circling ever 

 higher and higher was soon but a speck in the sky. Then 

 just as we were about to land on an island we noticed 

 a ]>air of TurnstoncsH running anxiously to and fro on a 

 spit of jMibbly shore. They were in their lovely breeding 

 l«lumage of black and ricli chestnut with silvery white 

 breasts- a plumage in which they are occasionally seen in 

 Great Britain, both when they prolong their spring visit 

 to us, or come to our shores somewhat earlier than usual 

 in autumn. But it is seldom that we see the Turnstone in 

 Great Britain either in summer or in ^vmter, for it only 

 passes along our shores in its passage between its northern 

 summer home and its southern winter one. Consequently 

 we were delighted to find a pair of these birds in their 

 breeding haunt, and a few minutes after landing on the 

 island we had the good fortune to discover in a nook 

 under a big stone, close to the water's edge, their nest, 

 which was made of grass and feathers, and contained four 

 dark green pear-shaped eggs. 



A problem to be decided at Kandalax was as to how 

 many men would be required to transport our baggage to 

 Kola, a distance of some 160 miles. The problem was 

 complicated because we wished to spend some three weeks 

 on the way, and no provisions, except perhaps bread at 

 one place, were obtainable on the route. Consequently it 

 became a question of how many pounds of food a man 

 would eat each day. Had it been winter, when sledges 

 and reindeer could have been used, there would have been 

 DO difiiculty, but in summer no transport animals are to 

 be had in Russian Lapland. A calculation and much 

 discussion with Gregori ended in the decision that nine 

 men, carrying some 70 or 80 pounds each, would be suffi- 

 cient to carry the baggage and food. 



The next difficulty was to procure these even, but I 

 must first explain that the route we intended to take was 

 a regular one, instituted and upheld by the Russian 

 Government. The route is chiefly benefacial to the 

 inhabitants of the White Sea coast who, being chiefly 

 fishermen, use it to reach the Arctic Ocean in spring, and 

 to return home in autumn when the White Sea is com- 

 pletely frozen in and impassable. During the short 

 northern summer the route is very seldom used, and the 

 interior of the country is almost deserted. At intervals 

 on this route, which is partly over lakes and rivers, and 

 partly overland, are " stations," and by means of orders 

 kindly provided by the Governor of Archangel, we were 

 entitled to the use of the boats on the lakes and rivers, 

 and to the services of two men each as carriers or rowers 

 to be provided at the " stations " at fixed rates. At 

 Kandalax, therefore, we had to obtain four men at the 

 "station," and in addition required five men to act as 

 carriers all the way to Kola. We gave the word out that 

 we wished to hire men to go to Kola, and as only the 

 jtick of the inhabitants were sober at the time it was easy 

 to select five of the strongest and most decent 3'ouug men 

 from the crowd which soon arrived at our door. It was 

 not so easy, however, to fix the terms, and this was only 

 accomplished after great exertion on the part of our iuter- 

 preter, whose English required almost as much translating 

 as the native tongue. The men were to feed upon rye 

 bread and salt fish, the usual fare of these poor people, 

 and it was soon known round the village that we were in 

 want of these commodities. A stream of old women 

 quickly appeared carrying great round loaves of dark brown 

 bread and baskets full of salt fish. Much of the bread 

 was mouldy, and many fish were badly cured, but after 

 careful selection, followed by long bargaining and much 



II StrepriUu interpres. 



