xiv PREFACE 



My first visit to Russian Lapland was made in 1895 to the 

 district round the Ukanskoe river, and an account of its results was 

 published in " Beyond Petsora Eastward " — a title taken from Milton's 

 " Paradise Lost." When my late friend Philip Crowley's books were sold 

 this was entered as " Beyond Pretoria Eastward." In 1899 I spent six 

 weeks in the northern parts of Russian Lapland; the country round 

 the Ukanskoe river was revisited, and a short trip made to the Kanin 

 peninsula on the east side of the White Sea in the summer of 1 90 1 ; 

 and in 1903 I went to the interior of the country south of the town 

 of Kola. The following chapters contain the results of these three 

 years' work among the birds of the above-named districts; and 

 though they record no new species or facts of importance, they will, 

 I trust, prove of sufficient interest to brother-ornithologists to justify 

 their publication. 



By referring to the map, it will be seen my personal knowledge of 

 the large area of Russian Lapland is very limited. The general im- 

 pression produced on my mind by those parts visited was that the 

 country had very little economic value in the present, or capacity 

 for development in the future. The sea-fishery is inferior to that 

 on the adjoining coast of Norway, and is also more uncertain. 

 For instance, the fish were plentiful for several years off Zip-Navolok, 

 and gave employment to a thousand men ; a church, hospital, 

 &c., were built, and then the fish went elsewhere. At the time 

 of my visit in 1899 the windows of the church and hospital were 

 boarded up, and only two or three houses occupied. I have never 

 seen a fishing town in the north of Norway in this deserted state. 

 Yet the sea-fishery is far the most valuable asset the country 

 possesses, for the greater part of the land is practically worthless 

 and incapable of supporting more than its present scanty population. 

 Its productive power is best gauged by the fact that almost all the 

 inhabitants desert it during the summer months, and only return 

 when it is covered with two or three feet of snow. The scarcity of 

 population in summer was illustrated on our tour in 1903 extending 



