CHAP. XIX. 



GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS. 



227 



These islands are little more than sandbanks, and the 

 beacons erected upon them for the guidance of vessels 

 entering the river are washed away every spring by the ice. 

 To re-erect these beacons and to inspect others on various 

 promontories on the shores of the lagoon, the steamer makes 

 a trip every July. Capt. Engel asked us to accompany 

 him, and we gladly accepted the invitation. 



Passing Stanavialachta and Cape Bolvanski, we sailed 

 almost due north to the bar, where the lead announced scarcely 

 thirteen feet of water. We then steered nearly east to within 

 three miles of the shore, whence we afterwards kept in a 

 north-easterly direction; a few miles after passing Cape 

 Constantinovka we altered our course to north, and made 

 Island No. 4 about midnight. Off Cape Constantinovka we 

 came upon a shoal of white whales or beluga, which played 

 like porpoises round the steamer. 



We stayed a couple of hours on Island No. 4, erecting the 

 beacon upon it. The night was foggy at intervals, but the 

 midnight sun shone bright. The island is a flat desert of 

 sand, unrelieved by a blade of grass. It may be a couple 

 of square miles in extent in the summer time, and is not 

 much affected by the tide that rises only four or six inches. 

 We found a large flock of glaucous gulls upon it;* we 

 could only discover two nests. They were heaps of sand, 



* The glaucous gull (Larus ylaxcus, 

 Linn.) breeds on the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean of both hemispheres, 

 migrating southwards on the approach 

 of winter, in Europe as far south as the 

 Mediterranean, in Asia as far as Japan, 



and in America as far as Long Island 

 on the Atlantic coast. It visits the 

 shores of Great Britain during autumn 

 and winter, but has not been known 

 to breed so far south. 



