276 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi. 



broke against the shore ; ever and anon the sun shone, but 

 masses of cloud kept drifting over the sky. We spent the 

 day in exploring the tundra in the direction of the Bolvanski 

 Bucht. Far as the eye could reach, the country stretched 

 before us, a gently undulating moor, an Arctic prairie, a 

 Siberian tundra ; no hills were on the horizon, save the short 

 range of the Pytkoff Kamin. Plenty of lakes, large and 

 small, gleamed upon the expanse, the banks of most of 

 which were steep and of peat ; others were flat, and covered 

 with rushy grass ; rarely were they sandy. Here and there 

 the pools were almost dried up ; some were so choked up by 

 coarse grasses, rushes, and carices, as to become swamps, 

 holding a little space of open water in the centre. These 

 morasses were quite accessible, however, for our waterproof 

 boots ; we would sink some twelve to eighteen inches through 

 water and mud, and reach a safe bottom, hard and level as a 

 stone floor, a solid pavement of ice. We spent an hour or 

 two wading round one of these open spaces of water, forming 

 the centre of a choked-up lakelet. Upon a little island of 

 firm ground, that raised its summit above the reeds, was the 

 empty nest of some bird, probably a gull, and close to the 

 open water was the nest of a black-throated diver, with one 

 egg. The latter was placed upon a foundation of roots and 

 dead grass, half turned to peat, raked up from the bottom of 

 the swamp, and upon this was laid a lining of fresh green 

 flaggy grass. The egg was very small ; but both parent 

 birds were flying overhead, often coming near enough for 

 their species to be identified. On the open water phalaropes 

 were swimming, and we frequently rose them from the grasses 



