BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 67 



went across the river to Lutni. The spelUng of this name has been 

 altered to Lyetni in the last edition of the Arctic Pilot, while Herr 

 Holmboe, Russian Vice-Consul at Vardo, renders it Litza. There is a 

 delightful uncertainty about the English spelling of Russian names, just 

 as there was respecting English spelling itself a hundred or more years 

 ago, and when the authorities cannot agree, an Englishman may take 

 his choice, and set his critics at defiance. I have generally followed 

 the spelling adopted by Governor Engelhardt in " A Russian Province 

 of the North," and that on the Admiralty charts, as the latter had 

 been used in the article in the Ihis, 1899, but the later readings of 

 names in the Arctic Pilot are also given for convenience of reference. 



We found the bulk of the summer inhabitants of Lutni had come, 

 although small parties continued to arrive for some days. Some of 

 the women were busy with the occupation so dear to females over 

 most of the known world, and equally hated by men — spring cleaning 1 

 What a volume those two words convey to the poor masculine mind ; 

 books, papers, &c., lost for weeks, perhaps months. Here at Lutni it 

 was carried out in a most thorough manner, for everything movable 

 was turned out of doors while the rooms were scrubbed and washed. 

 Perhaps the size of the houses — see Plate 25 — was a reasonable 

 excuse for these drastic measures ; still I doubt if any of the men 

 in Plate 26 were just then undergoing the infliction — they looked too 

 placid. The women's dresses were mostly of bright coloured cotton 

 prints, and their headgear of cloth profusely ornamented with beads. 

 The majority of the men and women are quite as clean in their 

 persons and houses as those in a similar position of life in England ; 

 but it needs a Russian spring with its floods of melted snow and rain 

 to cleanse the surroundings. I am speaking now of the Poniors ; jnost 

 Lapps and Samoyeds would be considerably improved by a more 

 liberal use of soap and water. 



After taking some photographs, and watching two Martins which 

 kept well out of shot and so prevented our identifying the species (I 

 think they were House-Martins), we started for Lake Ukanskoe (now 



