BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 157 



We sat an hour and a half listening for their little " peep peep " before 

 we could locate three of them. The yolk was still in their stomachs, so 

 they had not been hatched long, yet they were forty yards apart ; and 

 one, which appeared only able to toddle, travelled twenty yards after 

 I first sighted him. Those who have not been engaged in these 

 hunts cannot realise how difficult it is to see the little things among 

 the lichen, &c., as long as they remain quiet. The old Redshank 

 stands in a very upright position ; but is rarely still, constantly bending 

 his body with a rapid jerk, at least when he thinks danger is about, 

 and even with glasses I never had the pleasure of watching him when 

 he did not know I was there. 



We were very disappointed in the country, for our Russian said 

 these were all the marshes within reach ; far too much wood and too 

 little marsh. Juno discovered a brood of young Capercaillie yesterday 

 and one of Willow-Grouse to-day. 



June 2^th. — We went on a forlorn hope across the lake, which is 

 here five versts wide, to some marshes on the east side which the men 

 predicted would be little use, and they were right. Before us rose the 

 Hibsinski Mountains, faintly shown on Plate 58. Governor Engelhardt 

 states (p. 79) that some of these peaks rise 970 feet above the lake, 

 which in its turn is 1 40 feet higher than the sea level ; but I feel sure 

 that some mistake (possibly feet in place of metres) has been made 

 here in the translation, for both lake and mountains are of much 

 higher elevations. Rae says the lake is over 500 feet above the sea 

 (p. 230) and gives Umpdek Dunder as the name of the range of 

 mountains, while Lieutenant Temple, in his paper published by the 

 Royal Geographical Society, calls this range the Umbdek-dunder, and 

 states they rise to an elevation of 2500 feet, a height which is pro- 

 bably much nearer the correct one than that given by Governor 

 Engelhardt. All the lower hills had been rounded by ice, and the 

 valleys were full of ice-borne stones, now covered with thick moss. I 

 noticed many moraines in the parts we traversed. 



Two pairs of Greenshanks evidently had young near the first lake 



