194 Geese of Europe and Asia 



It is here worth noting that anent Mr. Trevor- Battye's account of the taking of thousands of 

 moulting geese on Kolguev, I have read in certain sporting magazines articles expressing indignation, 

 and calling upon the authorities to put a stop to such barbarities. One must, however, know something 

 of local conditions to understand the absurdity of such philippics. 



In the first place, even if the " proper authorities" wished to protect the geese of Kolguev 

 at the expense of the natives of Kolguev, they have not, as a matter of fact, the means to carry out 

 such a plan. Kolguev is neither Pavlovsk nor Pargolovo. There is no local " authority," and not a 

 single Russian mission ; it is not so easy to get to that lonely nook in the Arctic Ocean, protected as it 

 is by shoals, fogs, storms, and ice-floes. It is quite unlike Novaia Zemlia, with its deep bays shut in by 

 high shores. 



In the second place, the Samoyeds are extremely humane, good-hearted people, incapable of 

 cruelty to animals, and lazy like all Asiatics. If they take the trouble to organise an annual hunt of 

 moulting geese (while strictly avoiding molesting them in the pairing and hatching season — a sensible 

 measure, the utility of which many of our "intelligent" sportsmen have yet to learn), this is because they 

 cannot do otherwise. The Samoyed must eat, and it is not easy to be a vegetarian in 69 N. lat. (the 

 sole " fruit of the earth " being the cloud-berry, which ripens then in large quantities, but by no means 

 every year). He cannot put to sea in his cockle-shell boats ; and fish in the lakes on the island (Sa/mo 

 and, more particularly, various species of Coregonus) is not plentiful. Wild reindeer there are none, and 

 the tame beasts, serving both as a medium of exchange and as animals of draught, cannot be slaughtered 

 ad libitum for food. Moreover, a considerable proportion of the latter are considered to belong to the 

 Russian traders from Pustozero. It is for these reasons that the Samoyeds lay in a stock of geese 1 to 

 feed themselves and their dogs during the long and dreary winter. 



A real evil, yet one in nowise to be averted by prescriptions from the authorities, are the drives 

 of "turpan," as the king-eider (Somateria spectabilis) is here called (the turpan of Russian writers, 

 CEdemia fusca, is here very rare, according to the Samoyeds, and I have not seen it at all). Instead 

 of consuming hundreds and thousands of turpan every year, it would be much more profitable for the 

 Samoyeds (and the Pustozero traders as well) not to touch them at all, but merely gather the eider-down 

 from the nests and barter it to the Pustozero people for flour and reindeer-meat. 



Only on August 27, on returning from Peschanoe Lake to Stanovoi Sharok, did I see the 

 first large flocks of brent (probably Br ant a brent a) y seemingly ready to migrate. 



During the following days flock after flock of brent flew off south, overtaking us on our return 

 to Bugrino Stanovishche and settling on the sand-banks of the shore and the muddy stretches in the 

 river valleys. Especially large numbers of them were seen on September 1 and 2 in the lower 

 reaches of the Bugrina and on the shoals at its mouth. The valley here widens out to half a verst, and 

 the sand-banks project more than a verst into the extensive bay. Here, particularly towards evening, 

 the brent gathered in flocks of several hundred each. 



On September 2 I noticed among them a separate gaggle of 1 1 bean-geese. 



The brent (Branta brenta) during its passage evidently kept more to the seashore ; and after 

 starting from Bugrino Stanovishche to the north across the middle of the island, we ceased to meet them. 

 On the other hand, during this journey, on September 2, on the Kekurnoi Pervy, in the hills, and on the 

 Peschanka, we were constantly seeing skeins and wedges of bean-geese (Melanonyx sp.) flying south. 

 They did not gather in such masses as the brent, although on the whole there were many on the wing, and 

 often flock followed close on flock and they kept their formation, while the brent usually flew without any 

 definite order. Some of these flocks alighted to rest on the sands of the valley of the Peschanka. 



On the following day, September 3, we continued to meet flocks of bean-geese, usually of from 

 8 to 15 birds each, either passing high in the air, with their wonted cackle, or sitting on the sands of 

 the more considerable streams (e.g. the Gusinaya). 



1 How important the geese are in the economy of the Kolguev Samoyeds appears from the fact that, although the island and the 

 reindeer pastures, and the collecting of drift-wood are common property for the general use, the places where the goose-drives occur are 

 strictly apportioned.— BUTURLIN. 



