BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 113 



indeed I doubt whether we should have succeeded in reaching our 

 destination without his assistance, for the Russian peasant — in the 

 Kola district at least — is a curious individual to bargain with, and 

 apt to put an extraordinary value on his services. 



Leaving Hull on April 30th in the s.s. Tasso we crossed the North 

 Sea in (practically) a calm, and although a cold east wind blew there 

 was no sea; this good fortune followed us throughout the voyage to 

 Kola, and again from Kola to Hull. Of course, during a large part of 

 the distance, we were steaming between the islands of the Norwegian 

 coast; still there are many places on this route where Father Neptune 

 is not always found in such a placid mood, and to traverse the whole 

 distance without the faintest excuse for sea-sickness is probably a 

 record voyage. Our captain told us that the ships of his line had 

 been crowded with emigrants this spring, in consequence of the bad 

 harvests in Norway of the last two years. The Montebello took over a 

 thousand on her last voyage from Christiania. 



At Christiansund we were joined by the third member of our 

 party — Miss Juno, a black-and-tan Gordon setter belonging to 

 Musters. She was a valuable addition, as she found a number of 

 nests by putting up the sitting bird, and proved an irresistible 

 attraction to geese and others. During the breeding season many 

 birds will stop to mob a dog, when they would fly away without 

 giving a man the chance of a shot if he appeared alone. Juno's one 

 weak point was a fixed idea that our beds were primarily intended for 

 her comfort ; this was bearable in cold weather, but became rather 

 trying as the summer advanced. 



We went over the S.Y. America at Throndhjem where she was in 

 dry dock, preparing for her next attempt to reach the North Pole : 

 and spent a pleasant evening with her new commander Captain 

 Coffin. He was evidently a man of considerable arctic experience, 

 and had been engaged in whaling for more than thirty years. When, 

 in 1878, Nordenskiold just failed to complete his voyage along the 

 Siberian coast during the season and was beset in Kolyutschin bay. 



