June, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



125 



its southeru represeiihitive, which liears a white spot ou 

 its 1>hie throat. The voung l>inl has no blue on the 

 throat, and its brown spotted plumage is much like that 

 of a voung robin. 



Our walk cndetl ou the shores of another small lake— 

 the Penozero. Crossing this and marching again, this 

 time through a pine forest, we reached Saslu'ika, where 

 there is a "station " of two or three huts at the southern 

 side of the great Imaudra Lake. We were told here that 

 the ice had cleared from off the lake only five days before 

 we arrived (viz., on July 4th), so that all our delays 

 counted little because we could not have proceeded further 

 until the ice had left the lake. 



At Sashe'ika we came across the first Lajips we had seen 

 in this country. There were two very small men with fair 

 hair and fair skin and two women with rather dark com- 

 ])lexions. They lived in a small turf hut of the meanest 



A Lapp Hut made of Turf. 



description. During our journey across Russian Lapland 

 we saw very few Lapps, as they leave the interior of the 

 country during the summer and proceed to the coast for 

 the fishing. At two places we found large Lapp villages 

 of wooden houses entirely deserted. During this time of 

 the year the reindeer are turned adrift, and most of them 

 find their way to the coast or to high ground in order to 

 escape from the swarms of mosquitoes which make the 

 interior of the country unbearable for man or beast during 

 the summer. 



The few people we saw, whether Lapps or Russians, 

 and the few animals, such as a dog or two and one cow, 

 were utterly miserable owing to the mosquitoes and biting 

 flies, and it is not surftrising that the coimtry is deserted 

 even for this reason alone. The Lapps appeared to live 

 almost entirely ou fish and a sort of bread which is made 

 from pounded birch bark with a mere sprinkling of flour. 

 No vegetables can be grown in the country, and it is 

 possible that this birch bark bread serves as a substitute. 

 The huts of these i)eople are extremely dirty, and those 

 we examined were always strewed with fish bones and old 

 reindeer horns. 



Finding very few birds about Sashcika we soon decided 

 to leave, and loading our baggage and ourselves into a small 

 boat we started up the great lake, rowed by two men and 

 two Lapp women, and steered by a Lapp man. We bad 



got well into the middle of the lake when a thick fog 

 came down and every landmark disajipeared. 



None of us wished to wander about the lake for hours 

 in the fog, and the old Lapp at the rudder was sure he 

 could steer to the shore, but no land appeared, and we soon 

 discovered by a fishing line which wi' had out astern that 

 his course was by no means straight. After a search in the 

 baggage we found a comjiuss which showed much to our 

 amusement that the boat was describing circles. We tried 

 to explain this to the Lapps, but they did not understand 

 a compass. The fishing line, however, convinced all. 

 except the old mau who was steering, that we were not 

 going straight. He was perfectly certain that he knew 

 where he was going and refused to give up the rudder. 

 Everyone in the boat began shouting directions to him, 

 and it was some time before we could calm the people 

 down and induce the old man to give up the rudder. As 

 I knew that we wanted to go somewhere north I thought 

 it safest to steer due north, and in about half an hour we 

 reached the shore. As luck would have it there was a 

 large rock which the Lapps immediately recognised just 

 where we struck the land. It ajipeared that we had come 

 ou in the right direction, and even the old Lapp looked 

 ou me with suspicious awe. 



According to Gregori they thought the rock was marked 

 ou the compass, but I rather think they suspected magic, 

 lucau.sc they could not undcrstaud how anyone could steer, 

 especially in a fog, without a jirevious knowledge of the 

 country. 



Wliile the fog lasted we sjient the time in sleep, and the 

 next day we rowed on and reached Bella Guba, where there 

 was a telegraph station, a jwst house, and one other house, 

 besides a few Lapp huts. Along the shores of the Imandra, 

 ringed plovers* were nesting, while a few other birds such 

 as Arctic terns and gulls, generally seen by the sea, were 

 flying about. The dense pine forests which stretched away 

 from the lake to the rocky hills beyond were distressingly 

 destitute of bird life. Now and again one would catch 

 sight of a capercaillie,t a Siberian jay, or a pine grosbeak, J 

 but a walk in this dreary forest yielded little to com- 

 pensate one for the torments inflicted by the mosquitoes. 

 There were a few islands in the lake, but these were 

 unproductive of birds, and we found that the marshes and 

 the country just round them were the only really profitable 

 places in which to spend our time. 



We visited every marsh we could find or hear of near 

 our route, and it was curious that while most of them 

 contained many interesting birds, every here and there was 

 one which was practically deserted, although apparently 

 it differed in no way from the others. 



All travellers in Lapland have something to say about 

 biting flies, while a few in relating their experiences have 

 been so led away by the subject that they have devoted a 

 full two-thirds oi their narratives to descriptions of mos- 

 quitoes and flies. Caution is therefore necessary in dealing 

 with so tempting a suljject, and I shall endeavour to 

 confine my remarks on these interesting insects to the 

 effect they had upon our work with the birds. Walking 

 anywhere in a damp hot climate is somewhat of an effort, 

 and soft mossy ground like most of that we had to travel 

 over is notoriously tiring. Add to this the necessity of 

 wearing continually thick gauntlets and a mosquito veil, 

 and the conditions are not pleasant. But it was on the 

 marshes that we were chiefly tried. There, mosquitoes 

 and flies were in clouds, the damp heat was increased, and 

 one sank knee-deep in moss and mire at every step. Under 

 these circumstances, it will be understood that it took us 



* AegialHis hiaticula. t Tetrao urot/allits. 



X Pinicola enueleator. 



