60 Dr. O. FinsclFs Ornithological Letters. 
the Fodarata river, which flows into Kara Bay, on the 2nd 
of August, having had the good fortune to meet on the 
road an Ostiak with his herd of reindeer, from whom we 
purchased nine animals and three sledges to carry our pro¬ 
visions. Of these animals we lost six, as the “ milzbrand 33 
was rapidly decreasing the herds of reindeer. The Ostiak 
had owned 2000 reindeer, a number now reduced to only 
600 ; as many as eighty animals sometimes died in one 
night. At the Fodarata river, by chance, we found a second 
Ostiak with reindeer, who promised to bring us to the border 
of the sea. We went there in reindeer-sledges in the after¬ 
noon of the 3rd of August, but to our great disappointment 
were obliged to stop at about from twelve to fifteen versts from 
the sea itself, of which we got only a glance. We reached a little 
above 68° N. lat. The land before us consisted of swampy 
ground, varied by numerous lakes and stagnant morasses, 
which gradually give place to the very low sea-shore. It was 
impossible to cross this tract, even with reindeer ; and not 
being provided with a boat, and there being no wood with 
which to build a raft, we were obliged to return without 
reaching the shores of Kara Bay itself. We went back 
with the Ostiak to Tschornejar, on the Schtschutschja river, 
where we found our lotka on the 11th of August, although 
we had lost one of our men, an Ostiak and excellent fellow, 
who had died three days after having tasted the meat of one of 
the reindeer which had been struck by the incurable disease. 
During the fortnight we were absent we had to cross only 
tundra-ground, covered with dwarf birches, dwarf willows, 
mosses, and morasses, and varied with larger or smaller lakes, 
and sometimes small rivers. . Mosquitos swarmed all the 
time, by day and by night. I need not say how we suffered, 
the more so as provisions were scarce and, on account of 
want of fuel for fire, not easy to cook. Our principal at¬ 
tention was paid to Lagopus albus, which went about with 
fledged young, and Charadrius auratus, as both species formed 
the chief part of our meals. Once we got a family of Geese, 
an old female and six pretty-well grown young ; the species 
was Anser albifrons ! Generally Geese and Swans were rare. 
