ALKXIKVKA TEOM THE TUJSIDKA. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Alexieyka — The timber rafts — The island — Nest aud eggs — Bufibn's Skua — Sailing 

 for the Tundra — Description of the Tundra — Its vegetation — Nests of Lapland 

 bunting and red-throated pipit — First sight of the grey plover — Its nest — 

 Watching by the nest — Shot at last — Omelette of grey plover's eggs — Birds 

 seen on the Tundra — Eggs collected during the day — Blowing eggs — Nest of 

 the Petchora pipit. 



Alexieyka is the shipping-port of the Petchora Timber- 

 trading Company. It is a group of houses bnilt upon an 

 island in the delta of the great river, where the ships are 

 laden with larch for Cronstadt. The larch is felled in the 

 forests five or six hundred miles up the river, and roughly 

 squared into logs varying from two to three feet in diameter. 

 It is floated down in enormous rafts, the logs being bound 



