20S 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
“As the sandy slopes of the beach offered no suitable 
breeding-place for looms, black guillemots, or other sea-fowl, 
and there were no islands along the coast which could serve as 
breeding-places for eiders and other species of geese which 
breed in colonies, the abundant bird-life of the Polar Sea was 
wanting here. At the mouth of the river, however, large 
flocks of eiders and long-tailed ducks flew about, and on the 
sandy banks along the shore, flocks of Calidris armaria and 
a Tringa or two ran about restlessly seeking their food. The, 
solitude of the tundra was broken only by a couple of larks 
and a pair of falcons {Falco peregrimis) with young. Traces 
of reindeer were also seen, and two fox-traps set on the strand- 
bank showed that foxes occur in these regions in sufficient 
numbers to be the object of capture. 
“ Later in the afternoon, when some solar altitudes had been 
taken, in order to determine the geographical position of the 
place, we rowed back to our vessel and sailed on, keeping at 
some distance from the coast, and at one place passing between 
the shore and a long series of blocks of ground-ice, which had 
stranded along the coast in a depth of nine to sixteen metres. 
During night we passed a place where five Samoyed tents were 
pitched, in whose neighbourhood a large number of reindeer 
pastured. The land was now quite low, and the sea had become 
considerably shallower. The course was therefore shaped for the 
N.W., in which direction deeper water was soon met with. 
Notwithstanding the slight salinity and high temperature 
(+ '7°'7) of the surface water a Clio horealis and a large number 
of Copepoda were taken at the surface.” 
The excursion now described and AlmquisPs and Hovgaard’s 
landing in 1878 were, as far as I am aware, the only occasions 
on which naturalists have visited the northern part of that 
peninsula which separates the Kara Sea from the Obi. The 
Norwegian hunters also visit the place seldom, the main reasons 
being the inaccessibility of the shallow east coast, and the w^ant 
