the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 449 
ice, only a few acres of cultivated land around the village are 
left uncovered. On allsides the ground slopes gradually away, 
except on that side which faces the Kouria and the river. In 
the distance across the Petchora to the westward, about fifty 
versts distant, the low ranges of the Timan Mountains are 
visible ; and we were told that many many versts of the inter- 
vening willow-covered meadows were under water at the time 
of our visit. Round the village is a cleared space of ground ; 
and surrounding this there is a fine old forest of pine, larch, 
and spruce, with underwood beneath. Some parts of the forest 
are open, especially those where pine alone appears to flourish, 
light sandy soil forming a slightly higher ridge of land, covered 
with a soft carpet of reindeer-moss, and sprinkled with crow- 
berry, cranberry, and bilberry plants. All over these opener 
pine-tracts lie great quantities of bleached and barkless frag- 
ments of pine wood, the origin, no doubt, of the great piles 
of drift wood along the shore at Dvoimik. They are accumu- 
lating there until a higher flood than usual lifts and carries 
them away. Other parts of the forest are denser and more 
mixed. Many noble old larches are still untouched by the 
axe; but many more prostrate stems and high stumps leave 
record of the ruthless and reckless destruction done and still 
going on. The finest trees are cut down for firewood ; if, 
after being felled, they are found unsound, they are left to 
rot, or finally to drift away on some future flood*. Small 
spruce-firs comprise the bulk of the growth; but in some 
places the larches are also quite abundant. In the swampy 
places and along the river-side, on the edges of the pine- 
forests, are dense thickets of alder and willow, amongst the 
* For statistics connected with the fuel-supply of Russia, in which the 
statement is made that “ within fifty-four years Russia’s supply of timber 
will be exhausted to the last faggot,” see ‘The Geographical Magazine’ 
for March 1876, p.61. It is there stated that the total amount of timber 
possessed by Russia at present is 193,354,000 dessatines (the dessatine being 
equal to 211 English acres), and the annual consumption being 72,000,000 
cubic sajens (a sajen=7 English feet) for firewood alone. To naturalists 
in this connexion the question naturally presents itself, ‘‘ Will the Smew 
retreat before the axe, or adapt itself to another mode of nidification than 
in hollow trees ?” 































