
the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 297 
search for the nest of the Little Stint, and possibly also that 
of the Curlew-Sandpiper. -We left Alexievka at 10 a.m. on 
the 22nd July, and landed at the wreck about 4 p.m. After 
hurriedly bearing the baggage, provisions, &c. on board the 
wreck, which was in a habitable condition, and which was 
to be our home for the next week, we started off along the 
shore in the direction of the inland sea where Seebohm had 
first discovered the flocks of Little Stints. 
We will now endeavour to describe this part of the coast 
and tundra, which is situated as nearly as possible on the 
parallel of 684° N. lat. 
Along the water’s edge at high tide the shore is gravelly 
and sandy, and is about thirty yards in breadth, sloping gra- 
dually up to the base of the peat cliff which forms the ter- 
mination of the tundra, and which is about twenty to thirty 
feet in height. Close to the base of the peat-cliff great 
quantities of drift wood have been washed up and left high 
and dry by the tide, and afforded us abundant fuel for our 
camp. From the top of the bank, or level of the vast tundra, 
a distant view of the Pytkoff Mountains (piet kova, five peaks 
or caps) can be had on aclear day. ‘These hills are 583 feet 
high (vide map of the Petchora published by the Petchora 
Timber-Trading Company), and about twenty-five versts dis- 
tant from the beacon in an easterly direction, forming the 
highest land between the Petchora river and the Ural Moun- 
tains. The coast-line runs in a general N.E. and S8.W. di- 
rection ; but after passing the inlet it trends more to the north- 
ward as far as Cape Constantinovka. On either side of the 
entrance to the inland sea lie the low points of sand known 
as Dvoinik or the Twin Capes. The inland sea is shut off 
from the Petchora Gulf, to the north of the Boluanskai Bucht*, 
* The headland between the gulf and the Petchora-mouth, north 
of Stanavoialachta, is called Boluanskai Noss; but it must not, of course, 
be confounded with the cape of the same name—meaning, as we are in- 
formed by Mr. Lamont, Idol Cape (‘ Yachting in the -Arctic Seas,’ 1876, 
p. 184)—which forms the N.E. extremity of the Waygatch Islands, 
at the eastern entrance of the Kara Gates. The Boluan there men- 
tioned is the place where Purchas relates (‘Pilgrimes,’ vol. iii. p. 533, 
SER. 11I1.— VOL. VI. x 













