410 GOLCHIKA 



Near the river Golchika I shot two reeves, and on the 

 hills I shot a male Little stint. On the same bare places 

 which the ringed plover frequented, I occasionally came 

 upon a pair of wheatears. Redpolls, Lapland buntings, 

 red-throated pipits, and shore-larks were common, and 

 were evidently feeding their young. On the banks of 

 the Golchika I saw a solitary white wagtail, and some- 

 times a red-necked phalarope or a Temminck's stint. 

 That day a party of seven or eight Buffon's skuas flew 

 over our heads, out of gunshot. This was the only 

 occasion upon which I saw the " chorna chaika " at 

 Golchika. One of the most interesting discoveries we 

 made on this trip was that of a number of hills of shells 

 on the tundra, at least 500 feet above the level of the 

 sea.^ Some of these beds of shells were on the slopes 

 of the hills, others were conical elevations of sand, gravel, 

 and shell. These latter were from ten to twenty feet high, 

 with a little turf and vegetation on the top ; the sides 

 were as steep as the loose materials of which they were 

 composed would allow. I picked up four or five 

 different species of shells in a nearly perfect condition, 

 but by far the greater number were broken into small 

 pieces, and bleached white. The soil in the neighbour- 

 hood of these hills, whenever it was bared from its 

 covering of turf, seemed to be a bluish, sandy clay. 



In the evening the two captains came on board, and 

 I acted as mediator. I tried all I could to bring matters 



* A series of these shells was submitted to my friend Captain H. W. Feilden, 

 who, with the aid of Mr. Edgar A. Smith, determined them to be of the following 

 species : 



MOLLUSCA: Pecten islandicus, Astarte borealis, Natica affinis, Saxicava arctica, 

 Fusus (Neptunea) kroyeri, Fusus (Neptunea) despectus. CIRRIPEDIA : Balanus porcatus. 

 All the species here represented, although obtained at so great an elevation, are 

 now existing and common in the neighbouring seas. This can only be accounted 

 for by the supposition of a recent rising of the land or subsidence of the sea in 

 these regions. 



