THREE SUMMERS AMONG THE 



BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



CHAPTER I 



1899 



ONE great difficulty of travel in the North is that all arrange- 

 ments for the voyage must be made months beforehand, 

 when there is no possibility of learning what the summer, 

 conditions of the ice, and other important items are likely to be. It 

 is, therefore, almost entirely a matter of chance whether the explorer 

 has a favourable season to reach the desired parts and to find birds 

 there. In 1899 ^y brother, Mr. Charles Pearson, and I were very 

 unfortunate ; and it seemed that we had hit on the worst season ex- 

 perienced in the north of Norway for more than forty years. As we 

 advanced towards Russian Lapland matters became worse rather than 

 better. 



On our arrival at Tromso, May 19th, we found the main streets 

 of the town buried under four feet of snow, compressed into one hard 

 solid mass by the winter's traffic ; while many of the small courtyards 

 behind the houses were filled with snow to a depth of eight feet, a 

 narrow passage having been excavated to give access to the back- 

 doors. This did not promise well for the advent of summer-migrants 

 or the nesting of birds at present. In fact, since we entered the 

 Arctic Circle the whole coast-line had been covered under deep snow 



