The Zoologist — April, 1867. 695 



which foaming mountain-torrents rush clown. From both sides many 

 large rivers empty themselves in the Tana, and increase its volume of 

 water. Both the broad valley chain and the neighbouring valleys are 

 covered with thick birch-woods, mixed with alder and mountain ash, 

 and in many places impenetrable juniper- thickets. Of all the valleys 

 adjoining the Tana that cutting from Polmak north up to the Polmak 

 Lake is the mildest and richest in a Natural History respect, the 

 serpentine river flowing peacefully through the high wood-clad hills. 

 The lowlands in the chain of valleys, which are overflowed in the 

 spring but dried up in the summer, so that mosses covered with high 

 grass and bushes remain, the high sand-hills, the rank, high birch 

 woods, mixed with thick under brush, the solitude and quiet, so seldom 

 broken by the visits of human beings, the Polmak Lake, surrounded 

 by large meadows, green and covered with flowers and trees, and the 

 pine forests in the far distance to the southward, naturally make this a 

 resting-place for birds. Thus many of the rarer birds of East Fin- 

 mark are found here, viz. Muscicapa atricapilla and grisola, Pyrrhnla 

 vulgaris and eiythrina, Totanus glottis, Cygnus musicus, Anas marila, 

 Falco gyifalco, Garrulus infaustus, Picus tridactylus, &c, whilst 

 thrushes, finches, warblers and Totanus hypoleucos breed in numbers. 

 With respect to the climate, one might often be tempted to say, as 

 in 1856 and 1857, that East Finmark has eight months winter and four 

 months not summer, but the state of affairs is not always so bad. The 

 winter generally sets in early in October, and is stormy. What is 

 peculiar in the winter here is the sudden change from mild weather to 

 frost, thus within twelve hours the thermometer can fall from freezing 

 point to 24° Reaumur and vice versa,hx\t the usual winter temperature 

 here is 15° and 20° R. An even cold spell of 20° is seldom of longer 

 duration than a week, and then is generally changed by northerly 

 storms. We have had it here at Varanger Fjord down to 32° R. 



The spring generally commences late in April or in May, but some- 

 times the snow remains undisturbed until the 8th or 12th of May; 

 but when the south wind comes with rain or sunshine it disappears so 

 suddenly that one scarcely knows how it goes. The birds. of passage 

 arrive therefore in May, generally about the middle of the month ; but 

 Emberiza nivalis and Anthus rupestris sometimes arrive in April. At 

 first the birds often undergo great privations during the cold weather, 

 accompanied by snow, that we have almost every year when the rivers 

 are free from ice. They then collect in flocks about the houses, where, 

 amongst the refuse and on the roofs, they seek a miserable subsistence. 



