BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 69 



most of the time we had hmch. I thought I saw a pair of Mealy 

 Redpolls, and a small Wader flew over one of the islands, but too far 

 off for identification. Several Geese and Divers passed over. We put 

 up six or eight Willow-Grouse, chiefly males ; and a hen Ptarmigan 

 rose close to me, but had no nest. Two white hares were also seen, 

 both very wild. Not much to record as the result of an eight hours' 

 walk ! a tiring one too, for at least five hours of it were against a 

 strong head wind, and a good deal of heavy snow had to be crossed. 



One thing, however, the walk had made clear, viz., that little as 

 there was to keep us in a country we had already worked fairly well 

 in 1895, we had much better stay where we were for the present, as 

 if the season was so backward here, it was sure to be worse on the 

 east side of the White Sea. Here we were in a thoroughly safe 

 harbour — the only good one for a hundred miles either up or down 

 the coast, while on the other side there was no harbour. 



June 2nd. — A slight snowstorm in morning, and it continued dull 

 and cold most of the day. Two boatloads of men from the village 

 came on board to barter skins, caps, &c., with the crew. Hansen had 

 obtained nearly half a reindeer yesterday for a bucketful of biscuit. 

 Several of the men seemed to have plenty of roubles and anxious to 

 buy things for money, but when they were asked to sell, the price was 

 out of all proportion to the value, at least from our point of view. 

 The men told us there was no probability of finding Geese eggs for 

 another fortnight, as they did not lay till all the ice on Lake Ukan- 

 skoe had gone. 



In the afternoon I went up to the lake above the old camp, from 

 an island on which Mr. Slater took a clutch of Black-throated Divers' 

 eggs on June 26, 1895. On the open water, which extended over 

 half its area, were three birds of this species swimming about in close 

 proximity ; and I saw all three together on several occasions after- 

 wards, but never observed any fights for preference, like those between 

 Great Northern Divers in Iceland. Possibly in this case two were 

 females. At any rate I am certain there was only one nest after- 



