66 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



evidently been under snow within the last few days, but it was now 

 quickly becoming clear in all but the most sheltered places. The 

 only eggs found were eight Gulls', of which the Great Black-backs' 

 were too incubated for blowing. All the birds were very wild, for 

 three small Russian vessels were anchored in the straits, whose crews 

 appeared to be firing at everything that came within shot ; and a party 

 of them landed with guns just before we left. 



After lunch we landed on the promontory which terminates in 

 Korovi point and divides the Ukanskoe river (Yukanka in Arctic 

 Pilot, 1898) from Svyatonoskaya or Yukan bay; and soon found the 

 ravine where the Rough-legged Buzzards nested in 1895, but there 

 were none here now. We climbed up to the top of the ridge and 

 walked along it until we were nearly opposite the village of Lutni ; a 

 wild desolate country covered with erratics of all sizes. The only 

 signs of life were a few Snow-Buntings, some tame reindeer, and the 

 track of a hare. The day being clear, we had a good view of Sviatoi 

 Nos, its lighthouse, and the four small red-roofed houses for its keepers. 



June 1st. — Captain Hansen had been very unwilling yesterday to 

 entertain the idea of taking the Uxpres up the river to Lutni ; but I 

 explained that the Saxon had been there twice in 1895, and there was 

 no necessity for him to go above the village in search of the rock we 

 grounded on then, also that the distance from Medveji island to Lutni 

 was too great for the crew to row us every day, sometimes against a 

 heavy stream and tide. So he screwed up his courage this morning 

 and moved the ship up at high tide (6 a.m.) to a little below the point 

 where our camp was pitched in 1895. I landed and went up to the 

 old camping-ground ; the trenches we had cut round the tents were 

 almost as distinct as when we left them. Plate 24 shows the state of 

 the country on the first day of " Summer." The ice-floes in the fore- 

 ground are two feet thick, and are the remains of the winter's covering 

 over this part of the river. The spring tides here rise more than 

 fourteen feet. A few Redwings were singing in the birch-scrub, and 

 one or two White Wagtails were about the shore. After lunch we 



