BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 25 



during the years 182 i, 1822, and 1824 in exploring the coasts of the 

 country more commonly known to us by that name. In the last 

 Arctic Pilot it is rendered Novoi Zemli, and is generally known to the 

 Russian traders as Ozerko (small lake). At one time this harbour 

 was favourably considered by the authorities as the site of the official 

 port for the Murman coast, but it was decided to be at too great a 

 distance from the open sea and the main line of traffic. The bay is 

 surrounded by low hills, still covered with deep snow at the time of 

 our visit, a few black lines showing across the general whiteness and 

 marking the edges of terraces. There are only three or four huts, 

 scarcely worthy of the name of houses, here ; but even the few people 

 they contain are rapidly exhausting the supply of birch for firewood. 

 We hardly saw a bush with wood large enough to burn, much less a 

 tree ; and the inhabitants were collecting the stumps they had left 

 when cutting down the trees. As the latter operation had been done 

 in the winter, three to four feet of each tree remained buried in the 

 snow. In a few years peat or imported wood will be the only fuel 

 available. 



We landed after dinner and walked across the isthmus to Voloko- 

 vaya bay, an inlet of the Var anger fjord. This narrow neck of land — 

 scarcely a mile wide, connects the great Ribatchi peninsula with the 

 mainland, and is a low marshy tract but little raised above the present 

 sea-level ; some pools near its centre send their waters into both seas. 

 We walked most of the way on a very distinct ancient beach made of 

 water-worn stones, and one or two other beaches could be plainly 

 traced at different levels ; so that Ribatchi was probably an island 

 within comparatively recent times. The Wliite Sea Pilot for 1887 

 states that Ribatchi was formerly shown on old charts as an island, 

 but gives no particulars respecting the charts. The little birches 

 showed scarcely a sign of breaking into bud ; the grass was brown and 

 dead, covered in all directions by last year's crop, which the lemmings 

 had mown. The Buffon's Skuas take heavy toll of the latter, hawking 

 over the ground for them and hovering at times like Kestrels : they 



