BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 119 



hills, and woods are the property of the Lapps, and are managed on 

 a species of communism. For instance, when a Scottish gentleman 

 wished to rent the salmon-fishing in the Tuloma river, the lease was 

 arranged with the general council of the Lapps, and the rent paid 

 into their treasury; but I could not learn to whom and on what 

 basis these common funds were distributed. It is very difficult to 

 obtain accurate information on these points without a knowledge of 

 the language. 



The river Kola flows from south to north, while the Tuloma 

 comes from the south-west ; the land between them ending in a 

 plain half a mile wide, showing clear traces of formation under the 

 waters of the fjord before the last elevation of the district. There 

 are several well-marked terraces, denoting the different epochs in 

 this process, and these are continued on the east side of the river. 

 One or both of the valleys, now occupied by the rivers, must have 

 been filled at one time by enormous glaciers, for a moraine 200 

 feet high extends the whole distance between the rivers, to the south 

 of the plain. This moraine, called Solovaraka hill, reaches nearly 

 half a mile towards the south and there rests upon a hill, the top of 

 which has been much denuded by ice. The northern face is very 

 steep, like the front of a tip-bank. Plate 49 shows a part of this 

 moraine with the left side cut away by the river Kola, thus exposing 

 a section of the whole — a mixture of great boulders, gravel, and sand 

 from top to bottom. On the plain above described stands the town 

 of Kola. Founded in the fifteenth century by the monks, who 

 erected their first monastery on the island in front of the town now 

 occupied by the old church and graveyard, it had made considerable 

 progress when Burroughs came in i 5 5 6 (in hopes of learning tidings of 

 Sir Hugh Willoughby), for he then found thirty small vessels anchored 

 in the harbour. At that time the island formed part of the main- 

 land, but was afterwards cut off by a change in the course of the 

 Kola, for this river has often altered its course where it enters the 

 fjord. Forty years ago, when Mr. Skjcerseth's father first settled here, 



