70 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



wards, for we searched every yard of the shore. A pair of Golden 

 Plovers and another of Buffon's Skuas were near the lake, but neither 

 showed signs of having selected a nesting site yet. There appeared 

 to be a few more birds in the birch-scrub near the river; I only 

 identified Redwings and Meadow-Pipits. 



June ^rd. — It being a beautifully bright morning we decided to 

 visit the gorge Feilden and I had been to on June 26, 1895, and 

 started at 10 a.m. accompanied by Kjeldsen and Thomas. Warned 

 by the experience of the previous expedition we kept below the stones 

 and above the birch-scrub, thus securing a much more comfortable 

 country to walk over. For the first mile or two the hills were covered 

 with reindeer tethered by long ropes to the erratics ; the deer careered 

 wildly in all directions, requiring a little care on our part at times to 

 avoid their ropes. Not much chance of birds nesting in their neigh- 

 bourhood I I shot a male Wood-Sandpiper Totanus glareola on the 

 fell at an elevation of 450 ft., the first we had seen this season. On 

 reaching the ravine at 1.30 p.m. we could find no trace of the Gyr- 

 Falcons Falco gyrfalco, and although Hetley saw a Rough-legged 

 Buzzard, neither species was nesting here, as was the case in 1895. 

 Three Ravens were there when we arrived ; they soon left, and were 

 only hunting, not nesting, I think. Both rivers were bringing down 

 large volumes of water, and the view up the gorge in the bright sun- 

 light was fine. After taking some photographs we proceeded up the 

 side of the gorge two or three miles farther than we had done in 

 1895. From its junction with the Ukanskoe river this valley first 

 runs half a mile to the east, it then turns at a square angle towards 

 the south and continues in almost a straight line as far as can be seen 

 from the point we reached. Plate 27 shows the view of it we then 

 obtained. The photograph was taken with the half lens and gives 

 somewhat the same efiect as looking through a pair of glasses. Both 

 sides of the ravine are nearly perpendicular and can only be descended 

 at a few points. I think it is clear neither water nor ice has cut this 

 channel, but the river has occupied a long rift, and has made little 



