128 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



to men who undertake to keep a certain number of persons — gene- 

 rally four — there during the summer. Travellers having a Govern- 

 ment red pass are entitled to the services of these people on payment 

 to the contractor of a few copecks per verst ; but those unfortunates 

 without this most useful paper must make their own bargain — a very 

 difficult process. After Rae's and Witherby's experiences I was deter- 

 mined to take enough food and not to trust the resources of the 

 country. This entailed an amount of luggage far beyond the trans- 

 port power provided by the red pass, and much time had been wasted 

 during the last nine days in trying to come to terms with the men 

 through Mr. Skjoerseth. After much haggling, it was at last agreed 

 we should pay 2 roubles 50 copecks from Kola to Kitsa, and 2 roubles 

 from Kitsa to Pulozero for each extra load of about sixty-five Russian 

 lbs. (i Russian lb. = 0.90282 English lbs.). As forty versts out of 

 the seventy were by water, these prices paid them well. Then came 

 the question, how much food would three men require in five weeks ? 

 I had sent instructions to our host at Pulozero the winter before to 

 get in an extra supply of flour, but could not learn whether he had 

 done so. All the provisions had been packed in cases of the right 

 weight before we left England, the contents being assorted as far as 

 possible. After much consideration it was decided that eleven of these 

 must go. Clothes, bedding, collecting gear, &c., were finally so reduced 

 in quantity as to fill only three waterproof sacks — invaluable for this 

 kind of travelling — a canteen, and a gun-case, fifteen loads in all, as 

 the two last items were combined as one. The artful old man of each 

 party, with a keen eye for a light load, generally made for that canteen 

 and gun- case, weighed one in each hand, and proceeded to cord them 

 on his carrying frame, a piece of birch bent in the shape of a capital U 

 and laced across with cord. Then his troubles began, for those two 

 things always objected to travel together, and one or other was con- 

 stantly slipping out of the cords. After having the canteen on his 

 back an hour, he usually found that lightness was not the only con- 

 sideration in a load, and that the round canteen hurt his spine. If 



