295 
the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 
Petchora gulf, or lagoon of the Petchora, or to go to the far- 
out islands called the Golaievskai Banks, which stretch from 
Cape Kuskoi Zavarod across the north side of the same sheet 
of water. The former of these plans was considered im¬ 
practicable, owing to the unsatisfactory state of the only 
compass, and the danger of certain sand-banks or sunken 
rocks lying near the course, upon which, on a former occasion, 
Captain Engel had lost his vessel. The latter plan was more 
easily accomplished, as it is part of the annual duty of the 
Captain to visit these far-out islands, and to erect beacons 
upon two of them, to guide vessels from the sea into the 
only safe channel. 
At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 13th July we were 
awakened by M. Arendt ; and shortly afterwards we were on 
board the steamer, which was bound for the Golaievskai Banks. 
At the river-bar, about thirty-four miles from Alexievka, we 
took the cutter in tow alongside, and after a tiresome navi¬ 
gation of an intricate channel through the Shallow Sea (Soo- 
khoy'e More of the Russians), we landed about midnight 
upon the island upon the east side of the channel, which is 
marked in the Admiralty Chart as “No. 4." While the 
men were engaged in erecting a wooden beacon, the old one 
having been carried away by the ice when it broke up in 
spring, we had an hour or two's shooting upon the low sand¬ 
bank, and, amongst other things, obtained the old and young 
in down of the Glaucous Gull and our first Sanderlings. 
Leaving No. 4, the steamer was obliged to lie-to in the midst 
of a dense fog, after a vain search for the island known as 
“No. 3," which is upon the western side of the navigable 
channel, and upon which another beacon had to be erected. 
About 4 o'clock a.m. on the 14th July the fog lifted, and we 
soon after landed. Here the last year's beacon having been 
only upset, and not, as is usually the case, carried away, we 
had only a short run upon the sand-bank, and were soon ob¬ 
liged to hurry again on board. As ships from the sea might 
arrive at any time now, it was of the utmost importance that 
a third beacon should be erected without loss of time upon 
the mainland on the south-east shore of the lagoon of the 
