174 COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON T11E FLORA OF KOLGUEV. 
Whilst around the pools and wet spots are found 
Ranunculus pallasii 
Hippuris vulga ris 
Erioph ovum angustifolium 
,, scheuchzeri 
Sedges and a few Luzulse 
Each peat hag and mound is Lichen-covered, and probably the 
Lichen flora is the richest of all, it is quite the distinguishing 
feature of the tundra. 
The Gobista river, which rises at the base of Mount Siekherher 
in the interior and elevated part of the island, then flows west 
as a shallow, muddy stream, but when it reaches the tundra, or flat 
portion of the island, it has excavated through the soft clay and 
mud-beds a valley quite out of proportion to the river as it now 
runs. This valley is, in parts, as much as a mile and a half 
wide, decreasing in places to half a mile across. On either 
side it is bounded by bluffs, forty to ninety feet in height. At 
angles where the present river abuts, and erosion is in process, the 
mud walls are perpendicular ; but as the stream has shifted its 
course from one side of the valley to the other, miles of bluff have 
been left to moulder, and these now descend with more or less 
abrupt slopes. The bottom lands through which the Gobista river 
winds is dotted over with meres and pools of water, around which 
Ranunculus pallasii and Hippuris vulgaris are two of the 
commonest plants. It is in these localities that the wild Swan, 
Cygnus bewicldi, makes its nest on a mound of moss, built up by 
the birds for that purpose, whilst on the drier slopes, the Little 
Stint, Tringa minuta. was found depositing its four eggs in an 
artless nest. On the slopes of this valley and facing south, the 
greatest abundance of flowering plants was met with. Many kinds 
that dare not face the bleak tundra with its cutting winds, there 
nestle in warm corners, or on sheltered banks. The beauty of the 
flowers in some of these favoured nooks is difficult to describe, 
without laying one’s self open to the suspicion of exaggeration. Be 
it remembered that the traveller sees them under exceptional 
circumstances. For days before, he may have been sailing through 
fog, and surrounded by ice ) or he lands on some bleak and 
inhospitable shore, where only a few dwarfed and struggling plants 
are to be met with ; or, driven from the monotonous tundra by 
