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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

THE BIRDS OF SIBERIA

THE

BIRDS OF SIBERIA

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A RECORD OF A NATURALIST'S VISITS

TO THE VALLEYS OF THE PETCHORA

AND YENESEI

BY

HENRY SEEBOHM

F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.R.G.S.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1 90 I

•u,%^^l>^-'*^^^.

Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson ir' Co.
At the Ballantyne Press

PREFACE

The following pages contain the narrative of Mr.
Seebohm's two Siberian Expeditions — the first under-
taken in 1875 in company with Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown
of Dunipace to the valley of the Petchora ; the other,
more lengthy and arduous, to the Yenesei river in
1877, when, though without any fellow-naturalist to
share his labours, he had the advantaofe of the
companionship of Captain Wiggins, the well-known
Siberian navigator. Under the respective titles of
"Siberia in Europe" and "Siberia in Asia," the
results of these two journeys were published in 1880
and 1882.

Both works having passed out of print, it was
arranged to combine them in one volume. Mr.
Seebohm set about the task, and had nearly finished
it when his death occurred. With regard to the
present completion of it, it is only necessary to say
that, though the author has in various places made
emendations of his former text, the nomenclature and
the ornithology generally are here given as he left
them. Certain passages which were unnecessary to
a combined edition, or which had been superseded by

vi PREFACE

subsequent information, have been omitted. Limita-
tion of space has also necessitated the omission of
the lengthy footnotes, which chiefly referred to the
geographical distribution of birds, but this omission,
if not in its entirety, was at all events to a large
extent contemplated by the author himself

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

CONTENTS

PART I
TO THE PETCHORA VALLEY

CHAPTER I.

EARLY EXPLORERS.

John Wolley — Unknown Breeding-Grounds — Birds of Archangel and Lapland —
Voyages to the Petchora in the Seventeenth Century — Schrenck's Visit in
1837 — Castren's Visit in 1842 — Keyserling's Visit in 1843 — Pelzam's
Visit in i874^Hoffmansegg's Visit about 1850 — Outfit — Letters of Intro-
duction .......... Pp. 3-6

CHAPTER H.

LONDON TO ARCHANGEL.

London to St. Petersburg — Mode of Heating Railway Carriages — Frozen Market
at St. Petersburg — Bohemian Waxwings — Moscow to Vologda — M. Verakin —
Sledging from Vologda to Archangel — The Yemschik — Post-houses — The
Samovar — Angliski Russ — Modes of Harnessing Horses — State of the Roads —
Weather — Traffic — Birds seen en route — Arrival at Archangel . . Pp. 7-13

CHAPTER HL

ARCHANGEL.

The White City, Archangel— Decline of its Commerce — Cheapness of Living —
Peter Kotzoff— Father Inokentia — The Samoyedes and their Sledges — Their
Physical Characteristics — Samoyede Names of Birds — National Songs —
Election of Samoyede Chiefs — Their Ignorance of Doctors or Medicinal I'lants
—Piottuch— Birds— The Weather— Hasty Departure from Archangel

Pp. 14-20

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV.

SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA.

Bad Roads — Postal Service in Winter and Summer — Changeable Weather —
Scenery — Pinega and Kuloi Rivers — Snow Plains— The Forests — Birds —
Samoyedes — Mezen— A Polish Exile — Snow-Buntings — Jackdaws — We leave
Mezen— Scenery— The Mezen River— The Pizhma — Bad State of the Roads—
Piottuch's Accident — The Via Diabolica — Bolshanivagorskia — Break up of the
Road — Polish Prejudices — The Villages — Curiosity of the Peasants — Greek
Crosses — Love of Ornament — Employment and Amusements — Samoyedes —
Siberian Jays — Umskia — First View of the Petchora — Arrival at Ust-Zylma

Pp. 21-35

CHAPTER V.

UST-ZYLMA.

Ust-Zylma — Its Streets and Houses — Its Manure — Population of the Town — Its
Churches— Our Quarters— The Banks of the River— The Old Believers— Their
Superstition — Silver Crosses — Hospitality of the Officials — Shooting-parties —
Captain Arendt and Captain Engel — Snow-shoes— Scarcity of Birds — The
Snow-bunting — Redpolls — Winter Pp. 36-47

CHAPTER VI.

THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

The Samoyedes — Reindeer — The Tundra — Nomad Life — Diseases of Reindeer —
Samoyede National Character — Trip to Umskia — Bad Roads — Paucity of
Birds — Easter Holidays — Drunkenness — Heavy Snowfall — Our First Bird's-
nest — Excursion to an Island in the River .... Pp. 48-54

CHAPTER VII.

THE SA.\fOYEDES.

Trip to Habariki — Samoyedes — Lassoing Reindeer- — Dogs of the Natives —
Samoyede Sledges — Reindeer Harness — The Chooms — Samoyede Hospitality
— Marriage Ceremonies — Funeral Rites — Religion . . . Pp. 55-67

CHAPTER VIII.

LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA.

May-day — Snow-buntings — Jackdaws — Game — Birds of Prey — Sunday at Ust-
Zylma — A Fire — Marriage Ceremony — Tenure of Land — The Commune —
Preparations for Summer ........ Pp. 68-74

CHAPTER IX.

THE ADVENT OF SUMMER.

Mild Weather — Bear-tracks — Saddle of Bear — First Rain — Six New Migratory
Birds — Magpie's Eggs — Cessation of the Winter Frost — Return of Winter —
A Wild-goose Chase — Cachets — Night on the Banks of the Petchora— The
Silent Forest .... ..... Pp. 75-81

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER X.

THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE.

Gulls — Species new to Europe — Fresh Arrivals — Duck shooting — Bird-life in the
Forest — Gulls perching on Trees — Break-up of the Ice on the Zylma — On the
wrong Bank of the River — Dragging the Boats across the Ice — Final break-up
of the Ice on the Petchora Pp 82-89

CHAPTER XI.

PEASANT LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA.

Religious Processions — Costumes of the Peasants — A Russian Holiday — Drunken-
ness — Prejudices of the Old Believers — Field Work — House-building — New
Birds — The Siberian Chiffchaff — Prices of Provisions — Arrival of Waders

Pp. 90-96

CHAPTER XII.

THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD.

Samoyede Names — The Blue-throated Warbler — Toads — Birds Resting on
Migration — Sparrow-hawk — The Petchora Free from Ice — A New Song —
Ceremony of Blessing the Steamer — Rambles in the Woods — Appearance of
the Mosquitoes Pp- 97-106

CHAPTER XIII.

A TRIP TO HABARIKI.

Trip to Habariki — Forest Scenery — Tarns in the Woods — Changeable Weather —
New Birds identified in the Forests — Golden Eagle — Osprey — Hobby —
Cuckoo — Yellow-headed Wagtail — Bohemian Waxwing — Great Snipe — Terek
Sandpiper — Goosander — Smew — Black-throated Diver . . Pp. 107-116

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA.

Return to Ust-Zylma — Wedding of the Engineer's Son — Scarlet Bullfinch — Last
Days at Ust-Zylma — Our Boat — We Sail to Habariki — Birds' Eggs — Smew's
Eggs — Snipes in Trees — Down the Petchora — Sedge-warbler — Blackcock —
Arctic Tern — Willow Swamps — We Cross the Arctic Circle — A New Bird —
Arrival at Viski — The Delta — Double Snipe — Pustozersk — The Tundra —
Arrival at Alexievka ........ Pp. 117-132

CHAPTER XV.

ALEXIEVKA.

Alexievka— The Timber Rafts — The Island — Nests and Eggs — Buffon's Skua —
Sailing for the Tundra — Description of the Tundra — Its Vegetation — Nests of
Lapland Bunting and Red-throated Pipit — First Sight of the Grey Plover — Its
Nest — Omelette of Grey Plover's Eggs — Birds seen on the Tundra — Eggs
collected during the Day — Nest oi A ntlius gustavi . . Pp. 133-142

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVI.

STANAVIALACHTA.

The Tundra near the Yushina River — Golden Plover's Eggs — Abundance of
Nests — Lapland Bunting — Richardson's Skua — Means of Propelling our Boat —
The Tundra near Stanavialachta — Eyrie of a Peregrine Falcon — More Nests —
Abundance of Willow-grouse — Nest of the Willow-grouse — Visit to two
Islands in the Delta ......... Pp. 143-14S

CHAPTER XVII.

AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA.

Examination of our Nests — Excursion to Wasilkova — Search for Breeding Haunts
of Bewick's Swan — News from England — Grey Plover's Eggs — Flock of
Buffon's Skuas — Black Scoter's Nest — Watching for Skuas' Nests — Another
Nest of Grey Plover — Scaup's Eggs — The Zyriani . . Pp. 149-160

CHAPTER XVIII.

STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED.

Second Visit to Stanavialachta — Peregrine Falcons — Plague of Mosquitoes — Mid-
night on the Tundra — Nest of the Velvet Scoter — Little Feodor sent in Quest
of the Swan's Skin — A Russian Bath — Feodor's Return — Identification of Eggs
of Bewick's Swan — Mosquito Veils — Our Eighth Nest of Grey Plovers — Our
Servants — Our Ninth Nest of Grey Plovers — The Tenth and Eleventh Nests

Pp. 161-177

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS.

Trip to the Golievski Islands — Shoal of White Whales — Glaucous Gull — Dunlins
and Sanderlings — Black Scoter — Dvoinik — Little Stint — Curlew Sandpiper —
Snow Bunting — Overhauling our Plunder — The Company's Manager — ■
Discussions concerning the Stints — Probable Lines of Migration followed b}^
Birds Pp. 17S-1S8

CHAPTER XX.

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

Hybernation of Birds — Migration of Birds — Reed-warblers — Origin of Migration
— Transvaal Warblers — The Mammoth Age — Insect Life — Lines of Migration
— Heligoland and its Ornithologists — Variety of Birds — Wind and Weather —
The Throstle-bushes — ^ Migration by Sight — Order of Migration — Stray
Migrants — The Yellow-browed Warbler — Migration on Heligoland — Skylarks
— Migratory Instincts — Other Facts of Migration . . Pp. 189-206

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER XXI.

IN CAMP AT DVOINIK.

Trip to Kuya — The Prahms — Travelling in a Rosposki — The Birds en route —
Arrival of the Triad at Alexievka — We Win over the Manager — The Ino —
Doing Robinson Crusoe in a Wrecked Ship — Nest of the Long-tailed Duck — •
Our First Little Stint's Nest — The Tundra — Sunset and Sunrise — Little Stint's
Eggs — The Tundra near Bolvanskaya Ba^^ — Phalaropes — Interior of the
Tundra — Change of Plumage in Phalaropes — An Early Morning Start — Con-
fusion of Time — The Snowy Owl — Two more Nests of Little Stint — A March
of Geese on the Tundra— An Old Grave ..... Pp. 207-225

CHAPTER XXI L

HOMEWARD BOUND,

On Short Commons — Bad Weather — A Foraging Party — Russian Superstitions —
Return of the Steamer — Beautiful Flowers— Arrival at Alexievka— Departure
for Home — Thunderstorm — Water-spout — Sea-birds — Hard Fare — Copen-
hagen — Summary of the Trip Pp. 226-234

CHAPTER XXIII.

RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY.

Results of the Trip — Summer in the Arctic Regions— Circumpolar Birds — Birds
Confined to the Eastern Hemisphere — Various Ranges of Birds — Migration of
Birds — Dates of Arrival— Probable Route — Conclusion . . Pp. 235-243

PART II
THE YENESEI

CHAPTER XXIV.

SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE.

Sir Hugh Willoughby's Voyage to Novaya Zemlya— Ancient Voyages across the
Kara Sea — Modern Voyages across the Kara Sea — Captain Wiggins's Voyage
in 1876— Ornithological Arctic Expeditions — Letters of Introduction from
Count Schouvaloff — Recent Expeditions to Siberia — Nordenskiold's Voyage

Pp. 247-254

xii CONTExNTS

CHAPTER XXV.

FROM LONDON TO OMSK.

At St. Petersburg — Political Feeling in Russia — Feeling against England — Russian
Arguments against the Policy of England—At Moscow— Irkutsk and the
Siberiaks— At Nishni Novgorod— The Journey before Us — Our Sledge— Birds
— At Kazan— Roads between Kazan and Perm — At Perm — At Kongur — The
Urals — Birds — We Enter Asia — Ekaterinburg — Tiumen — The Steppes —
Villages of the Crescent and the Cross — Russian and Mahommedan Clergy —
Cheap Provisions — Birds Pp. 255-265

CHAPTER XXVL

DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS.

Omsk— From Omsk to Tomsk — Sledging— Birds— Tomsk— Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk
— Birds— Krasnoyarsk — Prices — Beaten by the South Wind — Frost again —
Birds — Yeneseisk — Our Visitors — Scientific Expeditions — Birds — Our
Lodgings — Easter-day Festivities — I Hire a Young Jew — Lessons in Bird-
skinning— New Sledges — Down the Precipices — Russian Hospitality — Special
Couriers — Deceptive Appearance of the Road — Winding Roads — Epidemic
among the Horses— Race with the South Wind— The Kamin Pass — Stopped
by the Rain — The Kamin Pass in December — The Pass in April — The South
Wind Beaten Pp. 266-280

CHAPTER XXVn.

TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER.

Stations — Hospitality of the Peasants — Furs and their Prices — Dogs Drawing
Sledges — Birds — Visit to a Monastery — Graphite — Captain Wiggins's Former
Travelling Companion — An Honest Russian Official ! — Installed as Guests in
the House of the Zessedatel — Turukansk — We turn Shop-keepers — The Skoptsi
— Scarcity of Birds — Old Gazenkampf— Our Host's Tricks — The Blagachina —
The Second Priest — The Priest's Accomplishments — -The Postmaster — The
Secretary of the Zessedatel — Schwanenberg's Troubles . . Pp. 281-291

CHAPTER XXVIII.

OUR journey's END.

Soft Roads — Sledging with Dogs— Sledging with Reindeer — We reach the Thames
— Cost of Travelling — The Yenesei River — Good Health of iheThames Crew —
Precautions against Scurvy — Fatal Results of Neglect — Picturesqueness of our
Winter Quarters — View from the House — Through the Forest on Snowshoes
— Birds — The Nutcracker — Continued Excursions in the Forest — Danger ahead

Pp. 292-298
CHAPTER XXIX.

IN WINTER QUARTERS.

The Ostiaks of the Yenesei — An Ostiak Baby — A new Bird — Visit from the
Blagachina and the Postmaster — Blackcocks in the Forest — The Capercailzie
— Wary Crows — Stacks of Firewood — Result of a Week's Shooting

Pp. 299-303

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER XXX.

WAITING FOR SPRING.

Scarcity of Birds — Arrival of Ostiaks — Snow-spectacles — Ostiak Dress — Poverty
of the Ostiaks — Schwanenberg goes in search of Graphite — Ostiak Ideas con-
cerning the Covering of the Hair — Hazel-grouse — Difference of Tungusk and
Ostiak Hair-dressing — The Weather — Superstition about shooting Crows — A
Token of coming Spring — Scarcity of Glass — Double Windows — Geographical
Distribution of the Samoyedes — Of the Yuraks — Of the Ostiaks — Of the Dolgans
— Of the Yakuts — Of the Tungusks Pp. 304-310

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE CHANGING SEASONS.
Erection of an Ostiak Choom — Ornithological Results of the Week — An Ostiak
Feast — Comparisons of Ostiaks and Tungusks — Snowy Owl — Our First Rain
in the Arctic Circle — Further Signs of approaching Summer — Northern
Marsh-tit — Ornithological Results of the Third Week — White-tailed Eagle —
Snowstorm — A solitary Barn Swallow — A Wintry Day — A Fox — The River
Rises — Five Roubles for an Eagle — What became of the Roubles — Visit from
our Ostiak Neighbour — A Baby Fox — Our Two Babies — A Crow's Nest — The
Blue-rumped Warbler ........ Pp. 311-320

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE.
Weary Waiting for Summer — Ravens — More Ostiak Neighbours — The Ship
breaks her Bands of Ice — A Hen-harrier — Appearance of the Rising River —
Premature Migration of Geese — My Week's Work — Old Story of Thaw in the
Sun and Frost in the Shade — Last Day of May — Revolutions in the Ice — A
Range of Ice Mountains — Signs of Summer — Arrival of the Common Gull and
of the White Wagtail — Ice Breaking up — An Unprepared-for Contingency —
Dangerous Position — Driving along with the Ice — Loss of the Ship's Rudder
— Preparations to Abandon the Ship — Babel of Birds — We Desert the Ship —
On Board Again — The Thames steered into the Creek — Enormous Pressure of the
Ice — The Battle of the Yenesei — "Calving" of Icebergs — The Final March Past

Pp- 321-334
CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE MARCH-PAST OF THE MIGRANTS.

Arrival of Migratory Birds — Wagtails — The Thames Afloat once more — More
Birds Arrive — An Ostiak Funeral — Birds Arrive Fast — The Tungusk Ice
Coming Down — New Birds — Pintail Snipe — Mosquitoes on the Wing

Pp- 335-342
CHAPTER XXXIV.

A BUSY WEEK ON THE KUREIKA.

Four Species added to my List — Dotterel — Rapid Rise of the River— Open Water
— Arrival of the Great Snipe — Pallas's Sand-martin — Common Sandpiper —
Characteristics of the Native Tribes — Ship Repairs — Pine Bunting — Ice lost
in the Forest — Glinski's Industry — Ruby-throated Warbler — Waxwings — Nut-
crackers — Death of a Tungusk — Funeral Rites — Diseases of the Natives—
Their Improvidence — Uselessness of the Priests . . . Pp. 343-352

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXV.

FULL SUMMER AT LAST.

Trip Across the Yenesei — Lost in the Forest — Second Visit to the other Side of
the Yenesei — Number of Birds — Striped Squirrels — Gulls in Trees — A New
Bird — The Ibis — Song of the Yellow-browed Warbler — Ostiak Fishing Season
— Observations made across the Kureika — Nest of the Little Bunting — Eastern
Stonechat — Another Round in the Forest— Von Gazenkampf again — A System
of Plunder — Russian Commercial Morality .... Pp. 353-36S

CHAPTER XXXVI.

LAST DAYS ON THE KUREIKA.

Birds begin to Grow Scarce — Absence of the Nutcrackers — Fertile Hybrids
between Hooded and Carrion Crows — Nest of the Yellow-browed Warbler —
Birds Plentiful in the Early Morning — Arctic Willow-warbler — Nest of the
Dark Ouzel — Second Nest of the Little Bunting — Leaving the Kureika — New
Birds Identified each Week — Parting with our Friends . . Pp. 369-375

CHAPTER XXXVn.

THE LOSS OF THE " THAMES."

Contrary Winds — Aground on a Sand-bank — Ostiaks to the Rescue — Visit on
Shore — Nest of the Siberian Chiffchaff — Birds in the Forest — Under Way
again — Wreck of the Thames — Arrangements for the Future . Pp. 376-383

CHAPTER XXXVHI.

DOWN RIVER TO D U D I N K A.

Wild Flowers — Willow-warbler's Nest — Windy Weather — Tracks of a Bear in
the Sand — A Snipe's Nest — Nest of the Arctic Willow-warbler — The Captain
and His Crew — British Pluck and Blunder — On the Way again — Measuring
the Footprints of Swans — The River Bank — Purchasing Costumes of the
Various Races — Manner of Hunting the Sable — Coal from the Tundras

Pp. 3S4-392

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FROM DUDINKA TO GOLCHIKA.

The Tundra — The Dried-up Dudinka — Reception by the Birds — Variety of Birds
— The Chetta River — Samoyede Chooms — The Broad Nose of Tolstanoss —
Second Visit to the Tundra — Asiatic Golden Plover's Nest — A Night on the
Tundra — The Dunlin — News of Siberoff's Schooner — Winter in Siberia — The
Fishing Station — The King of the Samoyedes — Egg of the Red-breasted Goose
— Brekoffsky Island — Eggs of the Mountain Accentor — Various Eggs — Wearied
out — Ugliness of the Natives — Land on the Horizon . . . Pp. 393-404

CONTENTS XV

CHAPTER XL.

GOLCHIKA.

Golchika — Blowing Eggs — Drift-wood on the Swamp — The Little Stint — Rock
Ptarmigan — I secure a Passage to Yeneseisk — Fighting over the Ibis— Buffon's
Skuas — Shell-Mounds — The Captains come to Terms — Sandbanks at the
Mouth of the Golchika— Farewell to the Tundra . . . Pp. 405-413

CHAPTER XLL

MIGRATION.

Climate of the Tundra— Break up of the Ice — Migration of Birds in the South or
France — Comparison between Island and Continental Migration — Routes of
Migration — Grouse — Conservatism of Birds — Mortality amongst Migrants —
Origin of Migration— Glacial Epochs— Emigration of Birds — Geographical
Distribution of Thrushes— Reports on the Migration of Birds . Pp. 414-428

CHAPTER XLIL

RETURN TO KUREIKA.

Ornithological Spoils— My Three Companions— The Native Tribes— Birds on a
Little Island— Dolgan Names for Various Articles of Clothing— An Island
Rich in Birds— The Siberian Pipit— Temminck's Stint — An Arctic Accentor—
My Doubts cleared concerning the Thrush seen at Brekoffsky— " Die Wilden "
— Evil Influences — Need of a Hero in Siberia — The Two Curses of Russia-
Baptized Natives retaining their Charms and Idols— The Strange Hours we
kept — Marriage Ceremonies — Funeral Ceremonies -Diseases— Birds seen on
approaching Dudinka—Vershinsky— Golden Plover frequenting the Summit of
Larch-trees — Gulls— Mosquitoes — The Thames — An Impenetrable Island —
Kureika in its Summer Aspect Pp- 429-441

CHAPTER XLIIL

BY STEAMER TO YENESEISK.

Silovanoff— Hospitality of the Inhabitants— Interior of one of the Houses— A
Model Village— The Sect of the Skoptsi— Their Exile — A Fish Dinner— Birds
near Silovanoff— Redstart— Lost in the Forest— The Steamer Aground-
Michael Susloff— A Tipsy Blagachina— Discussion about Siberia— Its Gold
Mines the Ruin of its Prosperity— A Dense Forest— Birds on the Banks—
Verkhni Ambatskia— Decrease of the Ostiaks— Their Boats and Canoes— Birds
on the Pasture Land— The Forest Trees of the Yenesei— Larch— Spruce Fir
—Siberian Spruce Fir- Scotch Fir— Cedar- Birch— Alder and Juniper-
Poplar- Picturesque Scenery— Two New Birds added to my List— The Kamin
Pass— The Ibex -Hot Weather— The Amount of Wood our Engines consumed
—Our Hostess' Hospitality— A Poor Bag— Vegetation in the Forest— The
Black Kite— The Taz—Yermak— Swallows .... Pp. 442-457

xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER XLIV.

FROM YENESEISK TO TOMSK.

•Once more in Yeneseisk —Country on the Banks of the Yenesei — Moulting
Birds — Blyth's Grass-warbler — Nordenskiold's Goods — A Holiday — A Dinner
Party at the Ispravnik's — From Yeneseisk to Krasnoyarsk — Three days at
Krasnoyarsk — The Club — Telegraph Communication — Scurvy amongst the
Tungusks — The Neighbouring Country — From Krasnoyarsk to Tomsk —
Magnificence of the Autumn Foliage — The Villages— The Birds — Difficulties
in the Way — A Friendly Ispravnik — Tomsk — The Wreck of the Thames.

Pp. 458-468

CHAPTER XLV.

FROM TOMSK TO PERM.

From Tomsk to Tiumen — An Old Acquaintance — Cost of Steamboat Travelling —
Cooking — Tobolsk — Contrast between Russian and Tatar Villages — Threading
the Labyrinth of the Tura — The Black Kite — Cormorants— Asiatic White
Crane — Notes of Sandpipers — Tiumen — Russian Hotel Accommodation— Bad
Roads — Ekaterinburg — Recrossing the Ural — Iron-works — Kongur — New
Railways — The Big Village Pp. 469-478

CHAPTER XLVI.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

Perm — De-Tatarisation of Russia — The Siberiak — Heavy Rain — Autumnal Tints
— Kazan — Search for a Professor — The Museum — Tatars — Steamboat Accident
— The Volga — Nishni Novgorod — Moscow— Its Museum — St. Petersburg.

Pp. 479-486

CHAPTER XLVII.

RUSSIAN CORRUPTION.

St. Petersburg — The Turkish War — Corruption of Russian Officials — Commercial
Morality — Russian Servants — Turkish Misrule — Christianity of the Turks —
Childishness of the Russian Peasants — Russian Conservatism — Financial
Condition of Russia ......... Pp. 487-496

CHAPTER XLVni.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS.

Ornithological Results of the Trip — Siberian Forms of Birds — Discoveries of
Pallas — Comparison of European and Siberian Birds — Interbreeding of
Allied Species — Affinity of European and Japanese Species — Sub-species —
Conclusion ........... Pp. 497-504

Index Pp. 505-512

ILLUSTRATIONS

Old Russian Silver Cross
Grey Plover ....

Sledging through the Snow .

Little Stint ....

Samoyede Knives .

Ust-Zylma ....

Old Russian Silver Cross

Ancient Church of the Old Believers

Old Russian Silver Cross

Chooms of the Samoyedes

Lassoing Reindeer .

Rein Rests ....

Old Russian Silver Cross

A Spill in the Snow

Old Russian Silver Cross

Shooting Wild Geese

The Banks of the Zylma

Difficulties with Snow-shoes .

Old Russian Silver Cross

Willow-Grouse

Old Russian Silver Cross

The Flooded Banks of the River

The Delta of the Petchora .

Ploughing at Ust-Zylma

A lexievka from the Tundra .

Old Russian Silver Cross

Stanavialachta

Grey Plover's Nest and Young

A Swan's Nest

Kuya .....

Watching Grey Plovers through a Cloud of Mosquitoes

Mosquito Veil ....••••

Page
vi

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7

14

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21

35
36-

47
48

55
61
67
68
74
75
82
90
96

97
106
107
117
132

133

142

143
149

151
161
164
176

xviii ILLUSTRATIONS

■Old Russian Silver Cross 177

Little Stint's Nest, Eggs, and Young 178

The Lighthouse at Heligoland on a Migration Night . . . .189

Heligoland 203

Old Russian Silver Cross ......... 206

Doing Robinson Crusoe at Dvoinik 207

Old Russian Silver Cross 225

Migration of Geese . 226

Old Russian Silver Cross 234

From Mekitza to Kiiya on a Rosposki 235

Our Headquarters at Ust-Zylma ........ 242

Old Russian Silver Cross ......... 243

Old Russian Silver Cross 244

Captain Wiggins ........... 247

■Ostiaks of the Ob 251

Samoyede Pipe ........... 254

Boundary between Europe and Asia 255

Bronze Ornament from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk . . . 265

Sledging in a Snowstorm 266

Fishing Station on the Ob 273

Samoyede Snow Spectacles 280

Siberian Dog Sledge 281

Ostiak Cradle ........... 291

Inside an Ostiak Choom ......... 292

Dolgan Belt and Trappings 295

Samoyede, Ostiak, and Tungtisk Pipes ...... 298

Reindeer Sledge on the Kureika 299

Tungusk Pipe and Belt 303

Winter Quarters of the " Thames " . 304

Bronze Knives from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk .... 310

•Ostiak Choom . . . . . . . . . . .311

Ostiak Costume ........... 319

Bronze Bit from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk .... 320

Driving with the Ice on the Kureika 321

•Ostiak Anchor 334

■Gulls among the Icebergs 335

Ostiak Pipe 338

Ostiak Drill ............ 340

Russian Pipe 341

Old Russian Silver Cross 342

Dolgan Hunter 343

Ostiak Arrow -Heads 348

Russian Ikon 349

Bronze from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk 352

Summer Quarters on the Kureika 353

ILLUSTRATIONS xix

Page

Russian Ikon 367

Old Russian Silver Cross 368

Samoyeds Man and Dolgan Woman ....... 369

Tungusk Pipe 375

Wreck of the " Thames " . . . . . . . . . 376

Samoyede Pipe . '379

Old Russian Silver Cross 383

Yurak Hunter 384

Mammoth Tooth {Upper view) ........ 389

Matnmoth Tooth {Under view) ........ 392

Samoyedes erecting Choom . 393

Golchika ............ 403

Old Russian Silver Cross ......... 404

Shell Mounds on the Tundra ........ 405

Shells at Golchika . 411

Dolgan and Samoyede Boots . . . . . . . .413

Ostiak Boats ............ 414

Bronze Fork from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk .... 428

An Island in the Yenesei 429

Bronze Mirror from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk . . . 435

The Kamin Pass . 442

Bunch of Squirrels^ Skins . 447

In the Kamin Pass . . 458

Dolgan Lady's Bonnet . 461

Village on the Ob 469

Dolgan Quiver ........... 473

Ostiak Choom on the Ob . . 479

Russian Pipe 485

Bronze from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk ..... 486

Tatar Girl 487

Bronze Celt from Ancient Grave near Knasnoyarsk . . . . 496

Carrion and Hooded Crows and Hybrids 497

Bronze Celt from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk .... 498

Bronze Celt from Ancient Grave near Krasnoyarsk .... 499

Bronze Ikon . 504

MAP ........ At end of volume

PART I

TO THE PETCHORA VALLEY

A

GREY PLOVER

CHAPTER I.

EARLY EXPLORERS.

John Wolley — Unknown Breeding-Grounds — Birds of Archangel and
Lapland — Voyages to the Petchora in the Seventeenth Century —
Schrenck's Visit in 1837 — Castren's Visit in 1842 — Keyserling's Visit
in 1843 — Pelzam's Visit in 1874 — Hoffmansegg's Visit about 1850 — Outfit
— Letters of Introduction.

The history of British birds has been enthusiastically
studied by ornithologists during the last half-century. In
spring and autumn several species of birds annually
visit our shores in considerable numbers, passing us in
their migrations to and from unknown breeding-grounds.
These migrations, and the geographical distribution of
birds, have of late years occupied a large share of the
attention of ornithologists. The name of John Wolley
stands pre-eminent amongst the discoverers in this de-
partment of science. His indefatigable labours in Lapland

4 EARLY EXPLORERS

are still fresh in the memory of the older generation of
ornithologists, who will never cease to regret his untimely
death. Notwithstanding his researches, there remained
half a dozen well-known British birds whose breeding-
grounds still continued wrapped in mystery, to solve
which has been the ambition of many field naturalists
during the past twenty years. These birds, to the dis-
covery of whose eggs special interest seemed to attach,
were the Grey Plover, the Little Stint, the Sanderling,
the Curlew Sandpiper, the Knot,* and Bewick's Swan.

In 1872 myfriend John A. Harvie-Brown accompanied
E. R. Alston on an ornithological expedition to Arch-
angel, the results of which were published in the " Ibis"
for January 1873; and in 1874 I went with Robert
Collett of Christiania to the north of Norway. Neither
of these journeys added any very important fact to the
stock of ornithological knowledge ; but in each case they
considerably increased our interest in Arctic ornithology,
and gave us a knowledge of the notes and habits of many
Arctic birds which was of invaluable assistance to us
on our subsequent journeys. The difference between
the birds found at Archangel and those at the north of
Norway was so striking that we, as well as many of our
ornithological friends, were convinced that another ten
degrees east would bring us to the breeding-ground of
many species new to North Europe; and there was also
a chance that among these might be found some of the
half-dozen birds which I have named, the discovery of
whose breeding-haunts w^as the special object of our
ambition.

* The Knot (Tringa canuius) was the only one of these six species of birds
which we did not meet with in the valley of the Petchora. It probably breeds
on the shores of the Polar Basin in both hemispheres, but its eggs were absolutely
unknown until they were discovered on the west coast of Greenland a few years
ago.

NATURALISTS' VOYAGES 5

Harvie-Brown had been collecting information about
the river Petchora for some time, and it was finally
arranged that we should spend the summer of 1875 there
together. We were under the impression that, ornitho-
logically speaking, it was virgin ground, but in this we
afterwards discovered that we were mistaken. So far as
we were able to ascertain, no Englishman had travelled
from Archangel to the Petchora for 250 years. In that
curious old book called " Purchas his Pilgrimes," published
in 1625, may be found the narratives of divers merchants
and mariners who visited this river between the years
1 6 1 1 and 1 6 1 5 for the purpose of establishing a trade there
in furs and skins, especially beaver, for which Ust-Zylma
on the Petchora was at that time celebrated.

In 1837 Alexander Gustav Schrenck visited the
Petchora under the auspices of the Imperial Botanical
Gardens at St. Petersburg, and published voluminous
information respecting the botany and the ethnology of
this district.

In 1842 Castren was sent out by the Swedish Govern-
ment and collected much valuable information about the
Samoyedes and the other races of North-East Russia.
The following year, Paul von Krusenstern and Alexander
Graf Keyserling visited the Petchora, and published an
important work upon the geology and physical geography
of the country, but none of these travellers seem to have
written anything upon the subject of birds beyond a
mere passing mention of ducks and geese. In St. Peters-
burg- we learnt that Dr. Pelzam, from the Museum at
Kazan, visited the Petchora in 1874, but he spent most
of his time in dredging and paid little attention to birds.
In Archangel we made a more important discovery. We
there met the man who had been guide to Henke and
Hoffmansegg about 1853. From him we learnt that

6 EARLY EXPLORERS

these naturalists had spent a year or more on the Petchora,
had there collected birds and eggs, and had been very
successful.

Our outfit was simple. We determined to be tram-
melled with as little luggage as possible. Besides the
necessary changes of clothing we took each a pair of
Cording's india-rubber boots, which we found invaluable.
To protect our faces from the mosquitoes, we provided
ourselves with silk gauze veils, with a couple of wire
hoops inserted opposite the bridge of the nose and the
chin, like little crinolines. These simple koniarniks proved
a complete success. On a hot summer's day life without
them would have been simply unendurable. Of course
the heat and sense of being somewhat stifled had to be
borne, as by far the lesser of two evils. Our hands we
protected by the regulation cavalry gauntlet. We took
two tents with us, but had no occasion to use them. Our
net hammocks served as beds by night and sofas by day,
and very luxurious we found them. We each took a
double-barrelled breechloader and a walking-stick gun.
Five hundred cartridges for each weapon, with the neces-
sary appliances for reloading, we found amply sufficient.
The only mistake we made was in not taking baking
powder, nor sufficient dried vegetables and Liebig's
extract of meat.

In travelling in Russia, it is of the utmost importance
to be on good terms with the officials, and we were
most fortunate in obtaining the best introductions. Our
warmest thanks are due to Count Schouvaloff for his
kindness in grivingf us letters that ensured us a welcome
such as we could not have expected. They added greatly
to the safety and success of our trip.

SLEDGING THROUGH THE SNOW

CHAPTER 11.

LONDON TO ARCHANGEL.

London to St. Petersburg — Mode of Heating Railway Carriages — Frozen
Market at St. Petersburg— Bohemian Waxwings — Moscow to Vologda —
M. Verakin — Sledging from 'Vologda to Archangel — The Yemschik —
Post-houses — The Samovar — Angliski Russ — Modes of Harnessing
Horses — State of the Roads — Weather — Trafl&c — Birds seen en route —
Arrival at Archangel.

We left London on the 3rd of March 1875. A journey
of four days and three nights, including a comfortable
night's rest at Cologne and a few hours each at Hanover
and Berlin, landed us in St. Petersburg. In Belgium it
was cold, but there was no snow. In Germany we saw
skaters on the ice, and there were patches of snow in
shady corners. As we proceeded eastward the snow and
cold increased, and in Russia the whole ground was from
one to two feet deep in snow, and sledges were the only

8 LONDON TO ARCHANGEL

conveyances to be seen at the stations. As far as Cologne
the railway carriages were heated by the ordinary hot-
water foot-warmer, and very comfortable they were, with
a temperature outside of about 40°. From Hanover to
Berlin the carriages were heated with charcoal fires under
the seats, and the sense of oppression from foul air was
so intolerable, that we were only too glad to shiver with
the windows open and the thermometer down to 20°.
From Berlin to the frontier the carriages were heated by
steam-pipes, with an arrangement for regulating the heat,
and although the thermometer outside continued the
same, we were able to keep a comfortable temperature
of 60° without any sense of suffocation. In Russia the
carriages were heated with wood fires, and we kept up
about the same temperature without any sense of dis-
comfort, although the thermometer had fallen to 5°
outside. At Wirballen our letters of introduction saved
us from an immensity of trouble and formality, thanks to
the courtesy of M. de Pisanko and the other officials.

We spent four days at St. Petersburg, sight-seeing
and completing the preparations for our journey. The
morning after our arrival was the last day of the "butter
fair," and we were very much amused and interested,
especially with the ice-slide, which is one of its great
features. A most interesting sight to us was the frozen
market. Here, one stall was full of frozen pigs, there
another was laden almost mountain high with frozen sides
of oxen and deer. Part of the market was occupied by
rows of stalls on which the frozen fish lay piled up in
stacks. Another portion was devoted to birds and game,
heaps of capercailzie, black grouse, hazel grouse (the
rabchik of the Russians), willow grouse (the koropatki of
the Russians), and others, with stacks of white hares, and
baskets full of small birds. Amongst the latter we were

ST. PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW 9

anxious to secure some Bohemian waxwings, in order, if
possible, to throw some light upon the vexed question of
the difference between the sexes. We bought a dozen
of the most perfect skins for eighty kopecks. There
were not many waxwings in the market, and all those we
bought proved, on dissection, to be males. In winter these
birds go in flocks, and it seems that the sexes flock sepa-
rately, as is known to be the case with many other species.

On the evening of the loth of March we left St.
Petersburg, and travelled by rail all night to Moscow,
where we spent a day. In the market we were told
that waxwings were seen only in autumn. Jackdaws and
hooded crows we found very abundant in Moscow. We
left in the evening, and travelled by train all night and
the whole of the next day, reaching Vologda at midnight.

We had previously written to the English Consul in
Archangel, and he was kind enough to buy fur dresses
for us and send them on to St. Petersburg. He also
commissioned M. Verakin, a Russian merchant in
Vologda, to furnish us with a sledge and provisions
for the journey. M. Verakin treated us most hospitably,
would not hear of our going to the hotel, and gave us
every assistance in his power. Unfortunately, he spoke
only his native Russ, but at last he found us an inter-
preter in the person of the German servant of a friend,
and we were able through him to convey our thanks to
our host for his kindness to us.

From 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, the 14th of March,
to Thursday at noon, we travelled by sledge day and
night from Vologda to Archangel, a distance of nearly
600 English miles. Our sledge was drawn by three
horses, driven by a peasant called the yemsckik. Both
horses and drivers were changed at each station. There
were thirty-six stages, varying in length from fifteen to

10 LONDON TO ARCHANGEL

twenty-seven versts (ten to nineteen English miles).
The horses were generally good, though small. They
were tough, shaggy animals, apparently never groomed,
but very hardy. We had but one lazy horse out of the
1 08 which we employed on the journey, but another
broke down, and had to be left on the roadside to follow
as best it could. That this treatment was not a solitary
instance was proved by the fact that on one of the
stages (the one of twenty-seven versts) we passed two
horses which had evidently broken down and had been
cast aside in the same way, lying dead and frozen on the
road. The drivers were very civil and generally drove
well, urging on the horses rather by the voice than the
whip, often apparently imitating the bark of a wolf to
frighten them, and at other times swearing at them in
every variety of oath of which the Russian language is
capable. The yemschiks were perfectly satisfied with a
pourboire of one kopeck per verst. The horses were
charged three kopecks per verst each. There was
generally a comfortable room at the stations, and the
station-masters usually came out to receive us. Some-
times we did not quit our sledge, but if we were hungry
we carried our provision-basket into the station-house,
ordered the "samovar," and made tea. The samovar is
a great institution in Russia. Provisions are not to be
had at the station-houses, but we always found a samovar,
and we were generally able to procure milk. The
samovar is a brass urn, with a charcoal fire in a tube in
the centre, which boils water in a few minutes. We
found that about a dozen words of Russ sufficed to pull
us through very comfortably. Arrived at a station, we
generally allowed the station-master to have the first
say. As soon as a convenient opportunity occurred we
interposed, " Tre loskedi saychass,'' ysfhich. being interpreted

SLEDGE-TRAVELLING ii

means "Three horses immediately." We then produced
some rouble notes, and asked, " Skolko " — " How much ? "
The station-master would again begin to talk Russ. We
offered the amount due as appeared from the list of
stations which had been provided for us by M. Verakin
at Vologda. This proving satisfactory, we proceeded to
pay the yemschik his pourboire. The station-master
once more began to talk volubly in Russ. We waited
until he had done, and then asked innocently, ''Fa7Jteelye?"
The station-master nodded his head and said, " Da, da " —
' ' Yes. " We then said, ' ' Brown Seebohm A ngliski Vologda
na Arckange/sky After the changes had been rung upon
our names, it generally ended in our having to copy them
upon a piece of paper for the station-master to write in
his book ; and the new yemschik having by this time
got his team in order, we settled ourselves down again,
cried '' Kharasho T — " All right ! " and started off. With
slight variations this course was repeated at each station.
Our horses were harnessed in divers ways. Of course
one was always in the shafts, but the other two were
sometimes put one at each side of the shaft-horse ; some-
times one on the near side, and the other in front ;
sometimes side by side in front of the shaft-horse ; and
sometimes all three were in single file. The roads in
the Archangel province, where the snow-plough was
used regularly, were generally very good. In the
province of Vologda, where the snow-plough seemed to
be unknown, the roads were at least twice as bad as the
imaofination of an Enorlishman can conceive. On the
good roads the sensation of travelling was very pleasant,
not unlike that in a railway carriage ; on the bad roads
our sensations were something like what Sancho Panza's
must have been when he was tossed in the blanket. Our
luggage was tightly packed with hay, and ourselves in

12 LONDON TO ARCHANGEL

fur, else both would have suffered severely. At first we
expected to be upset at each lurch, and took it for
granted that our sledge would be battered to pieces long
before the 600 miles to Archangel were completed,
but by degrees we began to feel reassured. The out-
riggers of our sledge were so contrived that the seat
might approach, but not quite reach, the perpendicular ;
and after we had broken a shaft once or twice, and seen
the cool businesslike way in which our yemschik brought
out his axe, cut down a birch-tree and fashioned a new
shaft, we began to contemplate the possibility of the
entire dissolution of the sledge with equanimity. The
weather was very changeable; sometimes the thermometer
was barely at freezing-point, sometimes we had a sort of
November fog, and occasionally a snowstorm, but nearly
half the time it was clear and cold with brilliant sunshine.
The last night and day it was intensely cold, from 2° to
4° below zero. There was a considerable amount of
traffic on the roads, and we frequently met long lines of
sledges laden with hides, tar-barrels, frozen sides of beef,
hay, flax, etc. Many peasants were sledging about from
place to place, but we saw very few travellers with
Government horses. The country was covered with
about two feet of snow. It was rarely flat ; at first a sort
of open rolling prairie land with plenty of timber and
well studded with villages, it afterwards became more
hilly and almost entirely covered with forest. In many
cases the road followed the course of a river, frequently
crossing it and often continuing for some miles on its
frozen surface. The track was then marked out with
small fir-trees stuck into the snow at intervals. During
the whole journey we met with only one person who
could speak either English, French, or German. This
was at Slavodka, where we bought some fancy bread

BIRDS EN ROUTE 13

and Russian butter from a German baker, who came
from Hesse Cassel. Jackdaws and hooded crows were
the commonest birds in the open country, feeding for the
most part upon the droppings of the horses on the roads.
They were in splendid plumage and wonderfully clean.
Many of the jackdaws had an almost white ring round
the neck, and are doubtless the Corvus collaris of some
authors, but, so far as we were able to see, this cannot
be regarded as a good species. We frequently saw
almost every intermediate variety in the same flock.
During the first few days we noticed many colonies of
nests in the plantations, but whether these would be
tenanted by rooks later on in the season, or whether the
hooded crow breeds in colonies in this country, we were
not able to ascertain. We occasionally saw ravens and
magpies, the latter becoming more common as we travelled
farther north. In the open country we frequently came
across small flocks of yellow-hammers on the roads, and
now and then a pair of bullfinches. In driving through
the forest we occasionally caught sight of a crossbill,
pine grosbeak, marsh-tit, jay, or great spotted wood-
pecker. On one occasion we had an excellent opportunity
of watching a small covey of willow-grouse, almost as pure
white as the snow upon which they were running. In
the villages sparrows were common enough. At Vologda,
we are under the impression that they were all the house
sparrow. In the villages through which we passed after
the first day they were certainly all tree sparrows.

Upon our arrival at Archangel we were most hospitably
entertained by the British Consul, Mr. Charles Birse.
We were delighted once more to sit down to a good
dinner, to enjoy the luxury of a Russian bath after our
long journey, and to have a good night's rest in a
comfortable bed.

LITTLE STINT

CHAPTER III.

ARCHANGEL,

The White City, Archangel — Decline of its Commerce — Cheapness of
Living — Peter Kotzoff — Father Inokentia — The Samoyedes and their
Sledges — Their Physical Characteristics — Samoyede Names of Birds
— National Songs — Election of Samoyede Chiefs — Their Ignorance of
Doctors or Medicinal Plants— Piottuch— Birds — The Weather — Hasty
Departure from Archangel.

We spent nineteen days in Archangel completing the
preparations for our journey, and picking up what in-
formation we could respecting the great river Petchora,
and the routes thither. Everybody looked upon our
expedition as a most formidable undertaking, but all were
anxious to give us every assistance in their power. There
is an excellent German club in Archangel, and we
dropped a few roubles in practising krasnoye po bielemou

ARCHANGEL 15

and bieloye po krasnomou * with billiard-balls large
enough for Hercules to have played with. Archangel,
the white city, must have been christened in winter.
Most of the houses are painted white, the streets were
white, the Dvina was white, and as far as the eye could
reach the whole country was white. The principal street,
the Troitski Prospekt, is a long straight road flanked with
low houses, separated by gardens. All the houses are
constructed of wood, except in the centre of the town,
where many of them are of plastered bricks. The popula-
tion is said to be from fifteen to seventeen thousand in
winter, increasing in summer to about half as many more.
Archangel seems to be declining in importance as a
commercial centre, doubtless in consequence of its isola-
tion from the railway system of Russia. The number of
large firms does not increase, and there are now only
three export houses of importance. The chances of
commercial success are consequently small, and most of
the young men who can afford it leave the city. The
cost of living is small. House-rent is very cheap, and
provisions equally so. For example, the best joints of
beef can be bought in winter for 3^. per lb., in summer at
3f^. White bread costs /^^d. per lb., but brown bread
can be had for f^. Butter is y^d. per lb. Milk (un-
skimmed) id. per quart, and cream 3f^. per pint. Game is
ridiculously cheap, capercailzie being y^d, each in autumn
and IS. yd. each in winter ; hazel grouse /\^d. per brace in
autumn and i i\d. in winter ; hares 3^. each, and salmon gd.
to IS. Tfd. per lb. In spite of the long and severe winters,
the price of fuel is not a very important item. Wood
sufficient to serve a small family for a year costs
about 10/.

For some days we sat in commission, examining

* Red upon white, and white upon red.

i6 ARCHANGEL

witnesses on the Petchora, the British Consul kindly acting
as interpreter for us. We got the best information from
Peter Kotzoff, a Russian pilot, who showed us a chrono-
meter which was presented to him by the British Govern-
ment for assisting in the rescue of the crew of the
Elizabeth, which was wrecked at the mouth of the
Petchora. He was for some years a pilot on the great
river, and acted as guide to Count Wilczec on his return
journey overland from the Austrian- Hungarian Arctic
Expedition. Another interesting acquaintance which we
made was that of Father Inokentia, the present arch-
priest of Archangel, who lived seventeen years in the
Petchora, principally east of Ishma. He was sent out by
the Russian Government as a missionary amongst the
Samoyedes, to convert them from their so-called idolatrous
faith to the Greek Church. He told us that he remem-
bered meeting with Schrenck, and that Castren stopped
some time at his house, at Kolva, on the river Ussa.
He left the Petchora in 1847, so that his information was
somewhat out of date. Father Inokentia seemed to be a
jolly fat friar of the old school, and was very kind and
patient in answering our numerous questions. How far
he succeeded in his mission it is difficult to say. Most
of the Samoyedes on the west side of the Ural now
profess to belong to the Greek Church, but we were
repeatedly informed that many of them still secretly
retain their old beliefs, and continue to practise their
ancient rites. We went through most of the Samo-
yede vocabulary given in Rae's " Land of the North
Wind," and found it to be on the whole correct.
No doubt, in districts so widely separated as the
Kanin peninsula and the valley of the Ussa. consider-
able differences of dialect must be expected. But
perhaps the most interesting information which we

THE SAMOYEDES 17

obtained respecting this curious race of people was that
which we got from the Samoyedes themselves. We had
our first glimpse of them — it was little more than a glimpse
— at St. Petersburg, where we found a single choom erected
on the ice of the Neva. These were probably poor
Samoyedes, owning only a few reindeer, and earning a
scanty living during the long winter by selling various
articles made from the skins and horns of these deer, and
picking up a few kopecks by giving curious strangers a
ride in their national sledges.

Near the villages round Archangel there were several
Samoyede chooms. Two or more families were wintering
about fifteen versts from Archangel, and came almost
every day in their sledges to the town. On one of our
shooting excursions we chartered a couple of these
sledges to take us to an island on the Dvina, and
thoroughly enjoyed this novel mode of travelling. The
reindeer were very tractable, and we skimmed over the
surface of the snow at a rapid pace. We had long
conversations with several Samoyedes, the Consul, of
course, acting as interpreter, and we invited them
to the Consul's house, where they gave us freely
all the information they could respecting themselves
and the traditions of their race. They spoke Russian
well and were by no means devoid of intelligence.
They were all small men, with dark straight hair
worn hanging over the forehead, thin moustache and
beard, and little or no whiskers. Their features were
irregular, with wide fiat noses, high cheek-bones, and
thick lips. The under jaw was coarse and heavy, the
eyes brown, small, and oblique like those of the Chinese,
and not unfrequently sore. They had small hands
and feet, wide round heads, and sallow complexions.
We took some of them to the museum, where they

B

i8 ARCHANGEL

recognised many of the stuffed birds, and tried to
describe their habits and imitate their notes. They
gave us the following Samoyede names of birds in the
Petchora district :

Sandpiper Suitar.

Willow Grouse Hond-jy'.

Swan Chouari.

Goose Yebtaw.

Black Goose Parden Yebtaw.

They told us there were two species of swans in the
Petchora, the larger one common and breeding there, the
smaller one rare, and appearing only in autumn. They
represented the snowy owl as found on the tundra, but
did not recognise the Lapp or Ural owls. We found
later that these statements were substantially correct. On
one occasion the Samoyedes favoured us with some of
their national songs, monotonous chants which reminded
me very much of the songs of the peasants of the Par-
nassus. One, which was translated for us, was a sort of
Ossianic ditty, relating how the singer intended to make
a journey with reindeer, how he would select the four
fleetest bull reindeer from his herd, how he would always
be at the head of the party, how he would get plenty of
vodka, how he would barter his skins, and how he would
take care not to be cheated in the transaction. One of
the Samoyedes told us that they have a chief, residing in
the Ural, who is answerable to the Emperor for the
annual tribute, and that at his death his son succeeds
him, unless he is thought not worthy to be made king.
In this case another chief is elected by ballot, by putting
pieces of wood into 2, piniu, or boot. It is right to note,
however, that other Samoyedes whom we questioned had
never heard of this Ural chief. The Samoyedes have no
doctors, and use no medicinal plants, nor do they employ

BIRDS OF ARCHANGEL 19

any other medicines, unless the outward application of
goose or swan fat for frost-bites may rank as such.

At Archangel we were fortunate enough to secure the
services of M. Piottuch, a Polish exile, whom we engaged
to go with us to the land of the Samoyedes in the double
capacity of interpreter and bird-skinner. He spoke
Russian and bad French, and since Alston and Harvie-
Brown's visit to Archangel in 1872 had spent a con-
siderable part of his leisure time in shooting and skinning
birds. Accompanied by Piottuch we made several ex-
cursions on snow-shoes into the neighbouring woods, but
saw remarkably few birds. Archangel contains a great
number of sparrows ; most of the farmyards abounded
with them. Once or twice we identified a tree-sparrow,
but by far the greater number were the common house-
sparrow, many of the males being in splendid plumage.
The next commonest bird was certainly the hooded
crow. They were remarkably tame. In the market we
sometimes saw half a dozen perched at the same time on
the horses' backs, and we could almost kick them in the
streets. They are the scavengers of Archangel. Pigeons
were also common, now wild, but probably once domesti-
cated. They look like rock-doves, a blue-grey, with
darker head and shoulders, two black bars on the wing,
and a white rump ; but in some the latter characteristic
is wanting. These pigeons are never molested, and are
evidently held to be semi-sacred, like those in the Piazza
di San Marco in Venice, or in the court of the Bayezidieh
mosque in Stamboul. Jackdaws, ravens, and magpies
were frequently seen. In the woods we found the mealy
redpoll, the marsh-tit, an occasional bullfinch, a pair of
lesser spotted woodpeckers, and a solitary hawfinch.
Some white-winged crossbills and waxwings were brought
alive into the town, but the peasant who had the wax-

20 ARCHANGEL

wings asked eight roubles a pair, so, of course, we did
not buy them. We were told that these birds were
common near Archangel until towards the end of No-
vember, when they disappear as the weather becomes
more severe.

During our stay in Archangel we had considerable
changes in the weather. Soon after our arrival it was
very cold, and on one or two occasions we noticed the
thermometer as low as 27° below zero. If the weather
was windy we felt the cold keenly, but at the lowest
point there was not a breath of wind, and wrapped up in
our furs we suffered from nothing but an attack of icicles
on the moustache. Occasionally we had slight snow-
storms, but brilliant sunshine was the rule, and we found
the clear, dry air most invigorating. After April had set
in the weather became more cloudy, and the thermometer
once registered 2)7° '^^ the shade. No signs of frost
having been visible by the 6th, we made hot haste to be
off before our winter road should break up, taking leave
of our kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Birse, with great
regret. It has rarely been our lot to be received with
such genuine hospitality as was shown us by this es-
timable gentleman and his wife.

SAMOYEDE KNIVES

UST-ZYLMA

CHAPTER IV.

SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA.

Bad Roads — Postal Service in Winter and Summer — Changeable Weather
— Scenery — Pinega and Kuloi Rivers — Snow Plains — The Forests — Birds
— Samoyedes — Mezen — A Polish Exile — Snow-Buntings— Jackdaws — We
leave Mezen — Scenery — The Mezen River — The Pizhma — Bad State of
the Roads — Piottuch's Accident — The Via Diabolica— Bolshanivagorskia
— Break up of the Road— Polish Prejudices — The Villages — Curiosity of
the Peasants — Greek Crosses — Love of Ornament — Employment and
Amusements— Samoyedes — Siberian Jays— Umskia — First View of the
Petchora — Arrival at Ust-Zylma.

The journey from Archangel to Ust-Zylma on the
Petchora is between 700 and 800 English miles.
There are about forty stations, the distances between
them being somewhat greater than those on our previous
journey. Had we left Archangel a fortnight earlier,
before the sun was powerful enough to soften the surface

22 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

of the snow, we might have accomplished the journey
in much shorter time. As it was, we took three days
and three nights to reach Mezen. We stopped one
day and two nights in this, the frontier town of Siberia in
Europe ; and the remainder of the journey occupied five
days and four nights. A fortnight later the snow became
impassable, the winter road was broken up, the horses at
the stations in the uninhabited portions of the country, a
distance of 250 versts, were sent home, and for two
months the valley of the Petchora was as effectually cut
off from all communication with civilised Europe as if it
had been in the moon. The last 1 50 miles had become a
series of uninhabited, impassable swamps, across which no
letter, nor messenger, nor telegram, ever came. The
postal service was suspended until the floods in the river
caused by the sudden melting of the snow had sufficiently
subsided to make it possible to row against stream.
The summer route from Mez^n to Ust-Zylma is up the
Mezen River to its junction with the Peza, up that river
to its source, across the watershed, a porterage of sixteen
versts, by horses, to the source of the Zylma, and then
down that river to the Petchora.

We left Archangel on a Tuesday evening, in two
sledges or pavoskas ; Har vie- Brown and I, with part of
the luggage in one, drawn by three horses, and Piottuch
with the remainder of the luggage in the other, drawn
by two horses. That night and the whole of the follow-
ing day were warm, the thermometer standing at 44° in
the shade. In the sun it once went up to 70°. The
wind was south-west, and in our inexperience we began
to fear that summer would be upon us before we reached
the Petchora. Our progress was slow, and at this time,
including stoppages, we did not average much more than
seven miles an hour. On Wednesday night we had a

THE PINEGA AND KULOI 1'^

smart frost, and began to congratulate each other on the-
chance of our progress being more rapid. But we soom
found that we were out of the frying-pan into the fire.-
The great traffic to and from the fair at Pinega had W(()Fn<
a deep rut for the horses' feet in the track, and one runner
of our sledge would persist in running in it, which threw
the sledge so much out of the level that the outrigger or
projecting spar, which is necessary to prevent the sledge
from being upset every five minutes, was continually
ploughing into the snow which formed a bank on each
side of the road. As long as the snow was soft it was of
little consequence, but when the crust was hardened by
an hour or two of frost, the outrigger of the sledge went
" scrunch " into it with a sound almost like that of a man
turning wood in a lathe, and our progress was as much im-
peded by this unwelcome break as it had been by the giving
way of the snow under the horses' feet. On Thursday
afternoon the sun was again hot, but fortunately it froze again
at night. Friday was dull all day, with a slight thaw, and
we reached Mezen at 4 p.m. and found the roofs dripping.
The scenery on the route was much more varied than
we had expected to find it. Most of the way we sledged
through the forests, a wide space being cleared on each
side of the track ; but sometimes the trees came close up
to the road, which was hilly and winding, and we seemed
to be lost in a dense wood. Perhaps the most picturesque
scenery of the journey was that we saw in ascending the
Pinega River and descending the Kuloi, and we repeat-
edly enjoyed it for some versts at a time. The Pinega
River is very broad, with what looked like cliffs of oolite
on each side, surmounted by pine forests. The Kuloi
River is narrower, and there are no cliffs of any importance,
the trees coming down to the edge of the ice. When we
passed the Kuloi near its source, soon after leaving

24 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

Pinega. the river was flowing through a strip of open
country. In several places it was free from ice, and on
two occasions we saw ducks swimming upon the open
water. About thirty versts before reaching Mezen we
crossed an immense plain of snow, as flat as a lake,
extending east and west as far as the eye could reach. In
almost every instance the flat plains were destitute of
trees, being no doubt swamps or marshes, too wet for
timber to grow in, whilst the hills were invariably covered
with forests. We found that the roads were always deep
in the forests. Our horses had firm footing, but the out-
riggers of the sledge " scrunched " unpleasantly. In the
open plains the sides of the road were low, any deep
tracks which might have been made being no doubt soon
filled up again by the drifting snow, and we got on at a
rapid pace so long as the snow did not give way under
the horses' feet. The forests were principally spruce fir,
and very spruce these fir-trees looked, as if they had just
been combed and brushed, in striking contrast to the
hasrsrard larches, whose leafless branches were clothed
with black and grey lichen like a suit of rags, and were
torn and twisted by the winds into wild fantastic shapes,
reminding one of a sketch by Gustave Dore. In many
places birches and Scotch fir were common, and occasion-
ally we saw a few willows. There were very few birds.
The hooded crow was the commonest, principally close
to the villages. Now and then we saw a jackdaw or a
raven, or a pair of magpies. As we proceeded farther
east, sparrows became less plentiful, but we noticed both
species, the house and the tree sparrow. Soon after
leaving Archangel we met with a flock of snow-buntings,
and they gradually became more frequent as we neared
Mezen, especially on the rivers. They seemed to be
slowly migrating northwards, following the course of the

ARRIVAL AT MEZEN 25

rivers, where there was always a chance of their finding
some open water. Not far from Pinega we got out of the
sledge to chase a pair of great spotted woodpeckers, and
succeeded in shooting the female. We also saw a pair of
Siberian jays, but, not being provided with snow-shoes,
we found it was no use attempting to follow the birds into
the forests through the deep snow. Soon after leaving
Pinega we saw a bird sitting on a cliff, and after a short
chase shot it, and found it to be a common crossbill, a
bird which, curiously enough, wq did not meet with
afterwards. A staofe or two before reaching Mezen we
saw a second pair of Siberian jays, and surprised a fine
male capercailzie not far from the road.

At Pinega we found a party of Samoyedes from Kanin,
with about twenty sledges, and we passed a larger party
about halfway to Mez^n. We met with no difficulties.
Once or twice, on our arrival at a station during the
night, we were told that there were no horses to be had,
that they were all out ; but on the presentation of the
"Crown Padarozhnayas," with which General Timarsheff
(the Minister of the Interior at St. Petersburg) had
kindly provided us, horses were forthcoming at once.
We paid for five horses on one occasion when we had
only four, and at Pinega the station-master tried to make
us take six, but our obstinate refusal to do so, lest it
should become a precedent in future, prevailed.

We reached Mezen on the loth of April, and spent an
interesting day in this frontier town. The Ispravnik, to
whom we had letters from the Governor of Archangel,
called upon us and invited us to take tea at his house. He
spoke a smattering of French, but had asked a Polish
exile of the name of Bronza to meet us as interpreter.
M. Bronza spoke German, and we endeavoured to get
some information from him about the Samoyedes ; but he

26 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

was so full of his own grievances, and so utterly without
interest in Russia and everything Russian, that we soon
gave it up in despair. Poland is evidently the Ireland of
Russia. Both the Irish and the Poles seem crazy on the
subject of home-rule, and in many other points show a
similarity of temperament. They are both hot-blooded
races, endowed with a wonderful sense of humour, and
an intolerable tolerance of dirt, disorder, and bad
management generally.

At Mezen we were much interested in watching a
large flock of snow-buntings. Their favourite resort was
the steep bank of the river, where they found abundance
of food in the manure which was thrown away. In a
country where there is plenty of grass in summer and
very little corn is cultivated and where the cattle have to
be stall-fed for seven or eight months out of the twelve,
manure apparently is of little value, and hundreds of cart-
loads are annually deposited on the steep banks of the
river, where it is washed away by the floods caused by
the sudden melting of the snow in May. The snow-
buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in the
ice on the river, where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained
their supply of water. In both places the boys of the
village had set white horsehair snares, and seemed to be
very successful in their sport. At this time of the year
these birds are fat and are excellent eating. We were
told that in a fortnight they would be here in much
o-reater numbers, and would be sold for a rouble the
hundred, or even less. None of the birds we got were
in full summer plumage, yet they looked extremely
handsome as they ran along the snow like a wagtail or a
dotterel, or fluttered from place to place with a butterfly-
like kind of flight. We occasionally saw them hop, but
they generally preferred to run. The most interesting

BELOW-ZERO DISCOMFORTS 27

fact which we observed was that the snow-bunting
occasionally perches in trees. We saw two in the forest,
one of which perched in a spruce fir.

We found jackdaws very numerous at Mez6n, but
Piottuch told us that it is only during the last four or five
years that the bird has been seen in this neighbourhood.
He said that it is now a resident there. Piottuch in the
days of his exile lived some years at Mezen, and had
a considerable circle of acquaintance in the town, who
made merry on the occasion of his revisiting them.

We left Mezen on Sunday morning at nine, glad to
get away, as Piottuch's old friends were too many for
him, and far too hospitable, and he was drinking more
champagne than we thought prudent. During the pre-
vious four-and-twenty hours we had had violent wind
and snowstorms, but the morning had cleared up, the
sun shone brilliantly, and it was not cold. But at night
snow came on again and continued till Wednesday
evening, when the weather suddenly cleared up again,
the thermometer falling from freezing-point to zero.
During the three days, about four inches of snow had
been added to the couple of feet already on the ground.
Travelling during even a slight snowstorm is by no
means so pleasant as when the sun shines on a mild
day ; but travelling in a sledge with the thermometer at
zero is decidedly unpleasant, even with brilliant sunshine
and no wind. If you expose your face to the air your
nose is in danger, then the icicles that form continually
upon your moustache are anything but comfortable, and
the condensation of your breath upon your neck-wrap-
pings is always irritating; while, if you subside altogether
into your furs, the sense of semi- suffocation is almost as
bad. On the whole, however, we did not suffer so much
from the cold as we expected.

28 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

The scenery on this journey was more varied than
any we had previously met with. We alternated between
forest, river, and opejj plain. The Mezen is a fine river,
half a mile or more wide, with steep banks of what
looked like red chalk about lOO feet high, clothed with
forest to the edge, which is continually crumbling away
and letting the pine-trees slip into the water. At in-
tervals, and often with remarkable regularity, the cliffs
were cut away down to the water's edge, probably by
small temporary rivulets born of the melting snow. The
Pizhma is a much smaller river, not half the size of the
Mezen, and without rocky cliffs on the banks. There
are two Pizhmas, on both of which we travelled. Both
rise in the lake of Jam, the Petchorski Pizhma flowing
north-east into the Zylma just before that river enters
the Petchora, and the Mezenski Pizhma flowing south-
west into the Mezen. On the rivers the roads were
always good, except in one part of the Mezenski Pizhma
where the river is very narrow and the current very
strong. In one place we almost shuddered to see open
water rushing along within nine feet of the sledge. Not
long afterwards we stuck fast, and had to get out of the
sledge on the snow in the middle of the river. It was
nearly midnight and very cloudy. Piottuch with his
lighter sledge had got safely over the dangerous part
and stood grinning at us, as the yemschiks hacked the
frozen snow off the runners of our sledge with their axes,
and having added his two horses to our team, placed two
little fir-trees across the path and flogged the horses
until they dragged the machine through the snow and
water on to firm ground. We had our revenge, however,
shortly afterwards. A few stations farther on Piottuch's
sledge came to grief, one of the runners breaking com-
pletely in two in the front. He was some distance in

A VIA DIABOLICA 29

advance of our sledge, and when we overtook him at the
station he came to us with a very long face to tell us of
the ''tres 7nal chose.'' We soon set him upon his legs
again. We bought a peasant's sledge for a rouble and a
half, took off the sides, and removing the runners from
the broken sledge lashed the two together with a strong
cord. Piottuch started in high glee again, assuring us
that his sledge was '' beaucoup plus don' than ours. The
effect of the alteration however was, to raise the level of
his outriggers a few inches, which made all the difference
between safety and danger. He was soon fast asleep as
usual, for he had not yet quite slept off his Mezen cham-
pagne, when his sledge gave a greater lurch than it was
wont to do and capsized, waking him with a shower of
portmanteaus about his ears; and he was dragged out of
the deep snow by the yemschik amidst roars of laughter
on our part.

As before, we found the roads in the open plain
always good. These plains were a dead flat, with a tree
or two here and there. The rut worn by the horses' feet
was not deep, and the path was almost level with the
side. We glided along smoothly and luxuriously. The
roads in the forest were bad beyond all conception. The
banks were high, and were always in the way of the
outriggers, which "scrunched" against them with a most
irritating sound. Both laterally and vertically they were
as winding as a snake. Sometimes our sledge was on
the top of a steep hill, our first horse in the valley, and
our third horse on the top of the next hill. The motion
was like that of a boat in a chopping sea, and the sledge
banged about from pillar to post to such an extent that
we scarcely felt the want of exercise. The Russian
forest-road is not a via mala, it is a via diabolica.

At Bolshanivagorskia, upon entering the station-house.

30 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

we found the room occupied by a party, and the samovar
in full operation. Fancying that some of the party looked
English, I inquired if any of them spoke German, and
the least Russian-looking gentleman among them replied
that he did. I informed him that we were Englishmen,
travelling from London to the Petchora, and I added
that we were glad to find some one on the route with
whom we could converse. I then asked him if he and
his party were also travelling. He replied that they were
stationed there for some time. I then asked if his name
was Rosenthal. He said it was, and a hearty laugh
followed at the success of my guess. We enjoyed his
astonishment for some time, and then explained that we
had been told by the Ispravnik at Mezen that there was
only one man in the district who could speak German,
the forest engineer, Herr Rosenthal. We spent an hour
pleasantly together. Like every one we met who had
not been to the Petchora, he exaggerated the dangers
and difficulties of the journey. He was engaged in
measuring the timber felled on Rusanoffs concession on
behalf of the Russian Government, who receive so much
per tree according to the quantity of available wood in it.
On the other hand, it is possible that we may have
under-estimated the dangers and difficulties of our journey,
seeing we had the good luck to pull through them so
well. The roads were certainly giving way, and it may
have been a happy accident in our favour that the
weather changed again when it did. On one occasion
the crust of snow not being firm enough to support the
horses, they all three suddenly sank up to their bellies.
Of course they were utterly helpless. We feared for a
moment that our journey had suddenly come to an end
and that we had hopelessly stuck fast. We alighted
from the sledge, which had not sunk in the snow. The

WE COLLECT A CROWD 31

two yemschiks set to work in good earnest, and we doffed
our malitzas and followed suit. The horses were un-
harnessed, and we soon succeeded in making them
struggle out on to firm ground. We had no difficulty in
pushing the sledge after them, and were soon ready to
start again. All this time Piottuch stood calmly by,
never offering for a moment to render us the smallest
assistance. The Russians we always found equal to any
emergency, and ready to lend a helping hand on such
occasions as an Englishman would. The Poles, on the
contrary, seem to be a helpless, shiftless race of people,
with a contemptible prejudice against manual labour. A
similar accident did not happen again. We had many a
stumble, but no irretrievable fall. Our horses were sure-
footed and wonderfully plucky, and we seldom had a
really bad animal. We started with five horses for the
two sledges, which we reduced to four the latter half of
the journey, and on one or more occasions we accom-
plished a stage satisfactorily with only three.

The country is very thinly populated. After leaving
Mezen the villages were small, and during the last 150
miles there were no villages at all, only a single station-
house, where a change of horses could be obtained, and
which would shortly be deserted altogether for the
summer months. As we were the first Englishmen who
had travelled on this road during the lifetime of any of the
villagers, our appearance naturally excited great curiosity,
and when we stopped at a station in the village to change
horses, a crowd quickly gathered round the sledges. We
found the peasants very inquisitive, asking the English
names of various articles. They were extremely good-
natured, enjoyed a broad joke, laughed heartily at our
pigeon-Russ, and were, so far as we could judge, perfectly
honest. We left our sledges with all our luggage, wraps.

3 2 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

and things unprotected, sometimes for an hour, at the
stations where we stopped for a meal, and on no occasion
had anything been stolen. In the villages on this part of
the journey we noticed a number of crosses, generally one
or two at the entrance, and one near the centre of the
village. They were made of wood, and were about ten
feet high, the ordinary Greek double cross, with an
oblique foot-bar, and most of them were protected by a
wooden roof to keep off the snow. Both the roof and
the cross itself were, as a rule, elaborately carved, and the
whole face of the cross was covered with inscriptions (no
doubt Slavonic) in about three-inch letters. Sometimes
in the poorer villages the crosses were not carved, and
the inscription and ornamentation were simply painted
upon the wood, generally in various colours. The Russian
peasantry in European Siberia seem to be fond of orna-
ment. The majority of the houses are built with the
gable end to the street, and in the centre of the gable is
a window, opening on to a balcony. This balcony, the
framework of the windows, the ends of the rain-gutters,
and the ends of the ridge of the roof, were often elabo-
rately carved and fretted, and sometimes painted in gay
colours. In nearly all the villages we noticed a con-
spicuous arrangement of railings for the drying of flax,
hay, or corn. In the station-houses we found the men,
and sometimes the women, engaged in spinning flax,
making nets, or weaving coarse linen. In the stations,
however, where there was no village, a draught-board of
very rude construction evidently served to while away the
long winter evenings. Several times during the journey
we saw Samoyedes, or Syriani, sledging along with their
reindeer, and in many places the snow was ploughed up
some distance from the road, showing that the reindeer
had been seeking for food. As we neared Ust-Zylma we

THE SIBERIAN JAY 33

passed several of the chooms, or reindeer-skin tents, of
these curious people by the roadside. During the greater
part of the journey few birds were to be seen. In the
villages magpies were the commonest birds, and occa-
sionally we saw a few pigeons, hooded crows, and tree-
sparrows. On the banks of the river flocks of snow-
buntingrs were common. In the forests we saw a few
capercailzie.

At Umskia, where we were fortunately detained six
hours for want of horses, there was an abundant supply
of birds. This station is a solitary house on the banks of
the Petchorski Pizhma, about fifty-four versts from Ust-
Zylma. The great attraction for birds in this place was
doubtless the hole in the ice of the river, which had to be
kept open to supply the station with water, and the dung
which the horses dropped during the few hours they fed
and rested outside the station. We shot five Siberian
jays {Perisoreus infaustus), and had some opportunity of
watching their habits. They were not at all shy, and
were fond of perching upon or clinging to the trunks of
the pines, and sometimes we saw them run up the stems
like a woodpecker. Their song was by no means un-
musical, a low warble like that of the starling, but not so
harsh. These birds are early breeders, and the song is
probably discontinued soon after incubation has begun, as
we did not hear it afterwards, though we frequently came
across the birds. Out of the five birds which we shot
only one proved to be a female, with the ovary very
small. There were a few snow-buntings always to be
seen, but we did not think it worth while wasting powder
and shot upon them, as we had selected a score of hand-
some birds out of a lot brought to one of the stations by
a peasant who had snared them. We could have bought
almost any quantity alive or dead at ten kopecks the

c

34 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA

score. I shot one by accident as it was feeding under a
larch-tree in company with a Siberian jay, a couple of
bullfinches, half a dozen other snow-buntings, and a few
redpolls. Harvie- Brown shot another as it sat perched
upon the branch of a larch, in order to be able to produce
the skin of a bird shot perching, as the fact that they do
ever perch in trees has been disputed. We had abundant
opportunity of seeing these birds in trees. We saw as
many as three or four in one tree at the same time, and
frequently observed them fly from one tree to another.
We saw plenty of the Northern bullfinches {^Pyr7'hula
rtibicilla, Pallas) and shot five males in brilliant plumage.
They were all in pairs. We fancied that the call-note of
these bullfinches differed from that of our bird. Speaking
from memory, it seemed to us to be louder and harsher,
by no means so plaintive, and not badly represented by
the word " kak."

After leaving Umskia we looked anxiously out for the
first glimpses of the distant Petchora, and it was not long
before we crossed a low range of hills, from the ridge of
which we had a view of the mighty river. As we sledged
down the Zylma, and finally reached its junction with the
Petchora, the vastness of this river impressed us beyond
all our expectations. We were 300 miles from its mouth,
and to our left the huge flood stretched away in a broad
white stream as far as the eye could reach, and fifteen
times as wide as the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge,
On the opposite bank, a mile and a half off, we could
discern the churches and houses of Ust-Zylma, round
which the river swept to our right. Piottuch had arrived
at the town some hours before us, and we found comfort-
able apartments in the house of a Russian peasant of the
name of Boulegan, where we were visited by M. Znaminski,
the Preestaff of Ust-Zylma, and drank a toast {the success

A GREAT RIVER

35

of our visit to the Petchora) in a bottle of excellent
Crimean champagne.

The total course of this great river covers nearly
looo miles. It rises in the Urals, north of the
government of Perm, not far from the important town of
Tcherdin, which lies upon the watershed of the Petchora
and the Kama. It drains nearly the whole of the north-
western slope of the Ural Mountains, and flows almost
due north till its junction with the Ussa ; here the river
is a mile wide, and the Ussa is the larger stream of the
two. The Petchora at this point makes a bend west ;
but after receiving the waters of the Zylma, it resumes
its northward course, which it continues till it falls into
the Arctic Ocean by a number of mouths opposite the
islands of Novaya Zemlya.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

ANCIENT CHURCH OK THP: OLD BELIEVERS

CHAPTER V.

UST-ZYLMA.

• Ust-Zylma — Its Streets and Houses — Its Manure — Population of the
Town — Its Churches — Our Quarters — The Banks of the River — The
Old Believers — Their Superstition — Silver Crosses— Hospitality of the
Officials — Shooting-parties — Captain Arendt and Captain Engel — Snow-
shoes — Scarcity of Birds — The Snow-bunting— Redpolls— Winter.

Ust-Zylma * is a long, straggling" village, lying on the
narrow strip of flat land on the north and east bank of
the Petchora, where that river makes a sudden bend
from west to north, about 300 miles from its mouth.
Each homestead is a farmhouse with outbuildings,

* In " Purchas his Pilgrimes," the narrative of the voyage of Josias Logan,
who wintered in the valley of the Petchora in 1611, contains the following
description of this town : " Ust-Zylma is a village of some thirtie or fortie houses,
and standeth in the height of 66° and 30 minutes. They have corne growing
there, both barley and rye, and their barley is passing faire and white almost as
rice. ' '

UST-ZYLMA 37

including almost always a bath-house. They are
irregularly scattered over the ground, sometimes at
considerable distances apart, and sometimes in clusters.
There is a principal road which one might by courtesy
call the main street, which meanders throuofh the villao-e
for perhaps two miles, with numerous side branches ; but
the general appearance of the place is as if the houses
had been strewed about at random, and each peasant
had been left to make a road to his nearest neighbour as
best he could. Towards the centre of the villacre there
is here and there a wooden causeway, like those in Arch-
angel. We found this wooden t7'ottoir all but indis-
pensable when the thaw set in. When we reached Ust-
Zylma the streets were covered with a thick layer of
frozen manure. The yards round the houses were in a
still worse condition, and when the sun was hot it was
difficult to walk dryshod in consequence of the pools of
liquid manure, which filled every depression in the
ground, and no doubt very frequently soaked into the
wells. This manure makes Ust-Zylma one vast dung-
hill, and would probably produce much disease, were it
not for the fact that it is frozen for nearly seven months
out of the twelve, and is in most years carried away soon
after it thaws by the floods of the Petchora, which
generally overflows its banks when the snow melts all at
once with the sudden arrival of summer. It not un-
frequently happens at this season of the year that half
the village is under water, and the peasants have to boat
from house to house. All the houses are built with this
contingency in view. The bottom story is generally low,
and consists of a suite of lumber-rooms, where the cattle
are often housed in winter. The dwelling-rooms are on
the second story, generally reached by a covered flight
of stairs outside the house, leading from a porch below

38 UST-ZYLMA

to a gallery, which is carried round the house. Upon
this porch, staircase, and gallery a good deal of skill in
wood-carving is often expended. The winter is long,
and the lenofth of time durinof which the cattle are stall-
fed so great, and the amount of land available for cultiva-
tion so small, that there is always a large surplus of
manure, which, as I have already stated, the peasants do
not think worth the cost of preservation. The cattle are
fed principally upon hay, which is cut upon the low lands
on the other side of the Petchora. These lands are
flooded every spring, and any manure placed upon them
would speedily be washed off: nor is it needed, as the
river itself is the great fertiliser in these low-lying
districts, exactly as the Nile is in Egypt. Of course, to
accumulate so much manure in the streets, the trafiic
must be lar^e. Lono" stringfs of sledo^es were often to be
seen drawing hay, pine logs for buildings, and smaller
timber for firewood. In the summer nearly every
peasant turns fisherman, and catches salmon and other
fish in the Petchora with a seine net. Neither farming
nor fishing seems to be very profitable. It is very easy
to get a living, but there is no market for surplus produce.
Beef fetches only i^d. per lb. retail. Most articles that are
worth the cartage, such as furs, feathers, down, frozen
meat, tar, and so forth, go to Pinega fair, and some are
even sent as far as Nishni Novgorod ; but the cost of
transit absorbs the profit. Now and then you meet with
a merchant who has accumulated a handsome fortune ;
but the peasants are on the whole poor, and will doubtless
remain so until railway communication with Moscow is
opened, or steamers run regularly from the mouth of the
Petchora, both of which projects seem at present to be
hopelessly improbable. The population of Ust-Zylma
probably does not exceed 1500 or 2000, increased in

CHURCHES 39

winter by Samoyedes, who erect their chooms in the
neighbouring forest. When we reached Ust-Zylma, and
for a week or more afterwards, a great migration of these
curious people was going on, and we often saw a score
or more of their sledges in a day, and sometimes there
were as many reindeer as horses to be seen in the streets.

The flat country on the banks of the Petchora, upon
which the village is built, does not extend more than a
few hundred yards. The land then rapidly rises, and
these slopes are cultivated for some way up the hillside.
We found the peasants busily employed in carting
manure in sledges and spreading it on the snow. The
monotony of the long village is broken by three churches,
one a very ancient and picturesque structure, in some
places rather artistically ornamented. This was formerly
the church of the Old Believers, but it is now too rotten
for use, and a more modern-looking building has been
erected. The third church is that of the Orthodox Greek
Church. All the houses in Ust-Zylma are of course built
of wood, solid balks of timber with moss and tar in the
joints, and notched into each other at the corner, and
they are more or less carved and ornamented in various
places. Sometimes the slopes of the hills are relieved by
a large tree which has been left standing, and here and
there is an old windmill. Beyond the cultivated ground
is the forest, clothing the hilly country stretching away
north, the trees gradually dwindling in size as far as the
Arctic Circle, beyond which lies the mysterious tundra.

Our quarters in Ust-Zylma were two excellent rooms
on the second floor of the best house in the village, for
which we paid two roubles a month. No doubt we could
have had them for half the money if we had taken them
for six months. The house was built by M. Sideroff, the
founder of the Petchora Timber-trading Company, and

40 UST-ZYLMA

was afterwards sold to M, Boulegan. Our windows
looked out across the street on to the Petchora, which we
calculated from two rouQ"h trioronometrical observations to
be a mile and a half wide. At Ust-Ussa, 200 miles
higher up, its width is said to be nearly a mile. A little
beyond the limits of the village at each end, the flat land
on the bank of the river ceases, and the forest comes up
to the edge of a cliff of sand, earth, and pebbles, varying
from 50 to 100 feet high. This bank drops nearly
perpendicularly on to the mud and pebbles on the edge
of the river. In some places the pebbly strand was bare
of snow, and we noticed pieces of granite, ironstone, and
limestone. Some of the latter was full of fossil shells,
and we found many pieces that looked like madrepore
and fossil coral. Soon after the high steep bank of the
river begins, the grand sweep which the Petchora makes
round the village ends, and the river stretches away
north-east for miles. The view from the top of the bank
looking up the wide white river is very fine. The high
banks, too steep in most places for the snow to rest upon,
and the dark pines on the top, form a striking contrast
to the pure white snow on the ice below, down which for
many versts may be seen the long winding line of dimi-
nutive fir-trees, marking the road, upon which the sledges
of the travelling peasants look like black spots in the
distance. It would, perhaps, be a very difficult subject
to make a fine picture of, the effect on the eye being one
of simple vastness, causing one continually to exclaim,
" What a great river ! What a big country! "

Most of the peasants of Ust-Zylma and the villages
near are Old Believers, people who retain a very curious
form of Christian superstition, closely allied to the Greek
Church. Castren calls them the " Raskolnicken " of
Ust-Zylma. They have not a good reputation amongst

THE OLD BELIEVERS 41

the Germans, who have to hire labour for the timber-
trade on the Petchora. They are represented as crafty
and faithless, and as few of them are employed as possible.
Their chief characteristic appears to be that they make
the sio-n of the cross with the thumb touching the second
and third, instead of the fourth and fifth fingers, as is the
fashion of the Orthodox Church. They have a curious
prejudice against tobacco, and will not smoke it them-
selves nor, if they can help it, allow other persons to
smoke in their houses. They seem to have Jewish
superstitions against pork and hare, neither will they use
any plate, glass, or other article from which persons not
of their religion have eaten or drunk. If you offer them
vodka in your own glass they will refuse it if they be
strict Old Believers, but we must do them the justice to
say that, under circumstances of this kind, many we met
were superior to their superstitions. But the most extra-
ordinary feature of their religion is that it forbids the use
of potatoes as food. They are not very diligent in their
attendance at church nor much under the control of their
priests, holding the doctrine that every man should be a
priest in his own house, and should conduct divine
worship there. Our host was very exemplary in this
respect when he was sober, having an excellent religious
library, and we often heard him and his family chanting
Slavonic prayers. One of his books was a Slavonic MS.,
dating about 1740, and profusely illustrated with full-
page coloured drawings, very carefully executed, although
somewhat stiff. It appeared to be the history of some of
the saints of the Greek Church. I tried very hard to buy
this book, but nothing would induce M. Boulegan to part
with it. In a corner of every Russian room is a sacred
picture or ikon, before which every one on entering
the room bows and crosses himself several times before

42 UST-ZYLMA

speaking to the host. Some of these pictures are very-
old, being handed down from generation to generation,
and sometimes there is quite a collection of these ikona,
varied with brass and enamel triptychs of various ages
and merit. Every peasant wears a silver or bronze
cross. Some of these are of exquisitely delicate work-
manship, frequently ornamented with enamel, and
occasionally set with jewels. On the back of many of
them are elaborate Slavonic inscriptions. A wonderful
fertility of resource is found in the designs of these
crosses, which are always chaste and artistic, never florid
in the ornamentation or wanting in harmony of parts.
The great centre of all this religious art is, we were
informed, the monastery of Onega, on the south shore of
the White Sea.

A peculiarity which we were told marked the Old
Believers of Ust-Zylma is a habit which the women have
of uttering cries, not loud but frequently repeated. This
habit or disease is called ''eqiiarter,'' and is brought on
immediately by the smell of tobacco smoke. Whether
the cry is voluntary, and is intended as a mark of dis-
approval, or as an exorcism against evil influences, or
whether it be a form of hysteria allied to St. Vitus's
dance, we were not able to ascertain.

The officials at Ust-Zylma received us with the
greatest hospitality. In addition to the letters with
which the Governor of Archangel had provided us, it so
happened that Piottuch was an old friend of M. Znaminski,
the Preestaff, or highest military officer. He had made
his acquaintance some years ago, in the days of his exile
in Mezen, and both being fond of a day's sport, they had
fraternised as sportsmen ought to do. M. Sakeroff, the
postmaster, was the other great chasseur of Ust-Zylma,
and these gentlemen were kind enough to plan several

OUR HOSTS 43

shooting-parties for our benefit. M. Znaminski was a
stout handsome man, very dignified in his manners, but
active in the field, and we were under very great obliga-
tions to him for his uniform kindness and hospitality to
us. Another official who, as well as his charming wife,
was most hospitable to us was the Public Prosecutor,
M. Miranoff, the "Schliidevatel," as Captain Engel always
called him. We were also most kindly entertained by
the "Maravoi," who appeared to be a gentleman of con-
siderable education. Unfortunately none of these gentle-
men spoke either English, French, or German, so that
our communication with them was necessarily very
limited. Interpreting was certainly not Piottuch's forte.
Any information we got through him was so largely
mixed with his own ideas and opinions, that we soon
ceased to attach much value to it, besides which his bad
French was often as difficult to understand as the original
Russ.

We got a great deal of information respecting the
country and its inhabitants from two gentlemen in the
employ of the Petchora Timber-trading Company, Cap-
tain Arendt, the manager or " Provalychik " in the
Petchora, residing temporarily at Ust-Zylma, and Captain
Engel, the commander of the steamer belonging to the
company, which was then lying in winter quarters at
Habariki, about twenty-seven miles down the river.
These gentlemen called upon us the day after our arrival,
and we were indebted to both of them for innumerable
acts of kindness.

Among our first purchases on our arrival at Ust- Zylma
was a couple of pairs of snow-shoes, without which it is
impossible to travel on the snow. No one can form the
slightest idea how utterly helpless one is without snow-
shoes when there is scarcely three feet of snow on the

44 UST-ZYLMA

ground. To travel a mile would probably be a hard
day's work, completely knocking one up. On snow-shoes
we eot alonof comfortably at the rate of three miles an
hour, and we soon became tolerably at home on them.
They were about seven feet long and six inches wide,
made of birch wood, and covered underneath with rein-
deer skin, with the hair pointing behind. This is abso-
lutely necessary to enable one to ascend a hill, the hair
preventing effectually any sliding backwards. The great
difficulty with which we had to contend at first was to
avoid treading on our toes, but with a little practice we
learnt to keep our shoes parallel. In going down hill
we had to be careful lest our speed should increase to
the point where we lost the control of our centres of
gravity.

Every day we sallied out with our guns and snow-
shoes in search of birds, but during the first week or so
it was somewhat monotonous work, and we soon began
to tire of winter. There were very few birds to be seen.
In the village the hooded crow, the magpie, and the tree-
sparrow were common, and now and then we saw a
raven. The peasants brought us capercailzie and hazel
grouse, which they shot with their rifles and offered
us at twenty kopecks (about sevenpence) each for the
capercailzie, and the same sum per brace for the hazel
oTouse. These birds are probably all residents, though
Father Inokentia told us that the hooded crow was a
migratory bird at Pustorzersk, arriving there about the
loth of May.

The commonest bird at this season of the year in the
streets of Ust-Zylma is undoubtedly the snow-bunting
{Plectrophaiies nivalis). We were told that they arrived
about the ist of April. In spite of its abundance we
could not help looking upon it with all the interest

SNOW-BUNTINGS 45

attaching to a rare bird. The brilHant contrast of the
black and white on the plumage of these birds, then
rapidly assuming their summer dress, was especially
beautiful during flight. The flight itself is peculiar,
somewhat like that of a butterfly, as if it altered its mind
every few seconds as to which direction it would take.
It can scarcely be called an undulating flight. The bird
certainly does rest its wings every few seconds, but either
they are expanded when at rest, or they are rested for so
short a time, that the plane of flight is not sufficiently
altered to warrant its being called undulatory. The
snow-buntings in Ust-Zylma were principally in flocks,
but now and then we saw a couple of birds together
which seemed to have paired, and occasionally, when
the sun was hotter than usual, a solitary specimen might
be seen perched upon a rail attempting to sing, but we
never heard them sing on the wing. Unfortunately we
did not oret far enough north to meet with these birds at
their breeding stations. In 1874, when Collett and I
were in Norway, we found the snow-bunting breeding on
the island of Vadso in the Varanger Fjord. We were too
late for eggs, as this bird is a very early breeder, and the
young were already in the nest by the middle of June;
but we had many opportunities of watching the male
birds. They would fling themselves up into the air
almost like a shuttlecock, singing all the time a low and
melodious warble, not unlike that of a shore-lark, or
perhaps still more like that of the Lapland bunting, and
they would immediately descend in a spiral curve with
wing and tails expanded, and finish their song on a
rock. Although we only once or twice heard the snow-
buntings attempting to sing in Ust-Zylma, they were by
no means silent birds, and were continually calling to
each other. The call note is a zh, not unlike that of the

46 UST-ZYLMA

brambling or greenfinch. The alarm-note is a loud tiueek.
As they fly together in flocks they merely twitter to each
other, not unlike purple sandpipers on the seashore.

Flocks of redpolls [Frmgilla linaria, Linn.) were
also common, but consisting of much smaller numb^TS
than those of the snow-bunting. Many of the males
were beginning to assume the carmine breast, showing
great promise of beauty when the full summer plumage
should be attained. We were informed that these birds
arrived about the same time as the snow-bunting. On
the outskirts of the town we met with a few small parties
of yellow-hammers i^E^nberiza citrinella, Linn.), and oc-
casionally heard their familiar song. These birds are
probably also migratory. They were comparatively rare,
and as we never saw any farther north, we may assume
Ust-Zylma to be about the extreme limit of their summer
range. The forests were remarkably silent. Often there
was not a bird to be seen for miles. Once or twice we
had a distant glimpse of a Siberian jay, a marsh-tit, or a
bullfinch, but we did not succeed in obtaining a shot. On
the whole our first week in Ust-Zylma was not very
encouraging from an ornithological point of view. After
eight days work our list of identified birds in the valley
of the Petchora stood as follows :

1. Hooded crow. 4. Tree-sparrow. 7. Yellow-hammer.

2. Raven. 5. Snow-bunting. 8. Capercailzie.

3. Magpie. 6. Mealy redpoll. 9. Hazel grouse.

— certainly a very meagre list. Notwithstanding such a
bad beginning, we did not feel disheartened, but laid all
the blame on the weather. We could not help smiling at
our alarm in Archangel lest summer should come before
we could reach the Petchora. Nearly three weeks had
gone by, and summer and the summer birds seemed as
far off as ever. The thaw made no progress. Sometimes

SUMMER STILL DELAYS 47

it was hot enough in the sun in the daytime, and the
glare of the sunshine on the white snow forced us to
wear snow spectacles, but it always froze again at night,
and if a few days sunshine made any impression on the
snow, a raw cold day, with a high wind and a more or less
heavy fall of snow, made everything look and feel as
winterly as before, Piottuch went over to Ishma with
M. Znaminski, but did not shoot a bird. He told us that
he saw two birds of prey, most likely hen-harriers, and
M. Znaminski informed us that we must not despair, as
a swan had been seen flying over.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

CHOOMS OF THE SAMOYEDES

CHAPTER VI.

THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

The Samoyedes — Reindeer — The Tundra — Nomad Life — Diseases of
Reindeer — Samoyede National Character — Trip to Umskia — Bad Roads
— Paucity of Birds — Easter Holidays — Drunkenness — Heavy Snowfall
— Our First Bird's-nest— Excursion to an Island in the River.

During this comparatively idle time we picked up what
information we could about the Samoyedes. Captain
Engel, who was a wild, harum-scarum, devil-may-care
fellow, and had been in most parts of the world, had
seen a good deal of the Samoyedes. Some years ago
he was wrecked in the lagoon of the Petchora, not
far from the island of Varandai, had been hospitably
received by these wandering people, had made his
way across country to Kuya, and had remained in the
district ever since. The information which we obtained

THE SAMOYEDES 49

from Captains Arendt and Engel may be summed up as
follows :

The Samoyedes are a Mongolian race of nomad
habits. They live almost entirely upon reindeer. In
summer they live in tents made of birch-bark ; in
winter their tents or chooms are made of reindeer-skins.
They eat the flesh of the reindeer and drink its blood.
Their dress is made of its skins, neatly sewn together
with its sinews. The wealth of a Samoyede consists
entirely in the number of his reindeer ; each knows his
own by marks cut upon the animal's ear. In summer
the Samoyedes live on the tundras. Some go to the
Kanin peninsula, some to the Timanski Tundra or
Malyazemlia, and others to the northern shores of the
Great Tundra, the Bolshaizemlia of the Russians, the
Arkya-ya of the Samoyedes. These tundras are naked
tracts of slightly undulating land, rolling prairies of moor,
swamp, and bog, full of lakes, and abounding with
reindeer-moss, upon which the reindeer feed. In summer
the tundras are quite impassable for horses, but the rein-
deer, with their broad feet, will carry a sledge over places
where it would be impossible for a man to stand. The
Samoyedes are always on the tramp, seldom remaining
long in one place. A considerable portion of their lives
is spent in packing, unpacking, and travelling. In winter
the cold is too gfreat for the reindeer to find food under
the frozen snow of the Arctic latitudes, and in summer
the poor animals would be driven frantic by the mosquitoes
which swarm in the more southerly regions. In summer
the Samoyedes occupy their spare time in shooting ducks
and geese, making their clothes, reindeer harness, etc.,
and in winter they come down to the towns and villages
— Kuya, Pustozersk, Ust-Zylma, Mezen, Pinega, and
others, and barter their surplus reindeer-skins, horns,

D

50 THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

feathers, etc., with the Russian merchants for bread,
vodka, and other articles. Those that come down to the
more southerly towns have learnt the value of money,
and prefer to sell rather than barter. They used to be
very clever with the bow and arrow, but now they all use
old-fashioned small-bore flint-lock rifles. Some of the
Samoyedes are very rich. A reindeer is worth about
seven or eight roubles, or an English sovereign. Some
of the Samoyedes are said to possess as many as 10,000
reindeer. Of late years the reindeer have suffered much
from disease. Captain Engel was of opinion that this
disease was allied to cholera. The animals turn dizzy,
and run round and round like sheep attacked by " sturdy."
The reindeer also suffer much from a hideous parasite.
One day, as we were passing a herd of them in the streets
of Ust-Zylma, Engel took hold of one of the animals, and
groping among the long hair on the small of the back, he
presently squeezed out of the flesh one of these disgusting
creatures. In a short time he produced a dozen of them.
They varied in size from half an inch to an inch in length,
the diameter being from half to a third of the length.
The surface was covered with rudimentary scales. The
lower part of the body was tapered, and the head rounded
with two indistinct jaws. We did not notice even the
rudiments of legs. They are, no doubt, the larvse of some
fly or beetle. Engel told us that they sometimes reached
a lenofth of four inches or more. Some herds of reindeer
are perfectly free from these creatures, and others suffer
very much from them.*

The Samoyedes are an acute and intelligent people,
but on the whole they are not so sharp-witted as the
Russians. They are good-natured and harmless, except
when they are drunk, then they become quarrelsome and

* Probably the reindeer bot (Hypoderma tamndi), first described by Linnaeus. — Ed.

DRUNKENNESS 51

dangerous. They are passionately fond of vodka, a fairly
mild, and to us by no means palatable spirit, distilled
from barley, and they easily become intoxicated. In
some places they distil an intoxicating drink from a
fungus. If a drunken Samoyede quarrels, and calls for
help, the other Samoyedes will at once help him.
Engel's recipe for dealing with a dangerously drunken
Samoyede was to supply him with more drink, when he
speedily becomes maudlin and begins to sing. The
Samoyede women are generally betrothed very young,
about thirteen, and often have children at fourteen.
Some Samoyedes have more than one wife, but this is
very rare. The race is no doubt slowly dying out, and
is to some extent becoming mixed. They are acquainted
with the stars, and use them as a compass ; but Engel
told us of a very curious circumstance which came under
his observation when he was brought across the tundra
in the sledges of the Samoyedes. In stormy weather,
when it was impossible to determine the direction, the
Samoyede used to scrape away the snow down to the
moss, which he examined, and altered his course accord-
ingly. The Samoyedes do not live to be very old, but
grey-haired old men and women are seen among them.

After we had been a week at Ust-Zylma without
seeing any sign of summer or summer birds, we began
to find time hang heavy on our hands. Picking up in-
formation about the Samoyedes and the Old Believers
was such unsatisfactory work, from the contradictory
nature of the reports, that we soon got tired of it, and
longed for something better to do than shooting redpolls
and snow-buntings. As we had not met with any Siberian
jays or bullfinches at Ust-Zylma, we decided that the
best way to while away the time was to go back again to
Umskia for a day or two, in the hope of finding as many

52 THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

birds as we saw there before. We took the small sledge
and a couple of horses, and travelled all the Friday night.
The journey was a very eventful one. The sledge, it
may be remembered, had turned over once with Piottuch,
but he had travelled at least lOO miles in safety after-
wards, and we had almost forgotten the circumstance.
We soon found out, however, that something was radically
wrong with the crazy machine. It must have dropped
its centre of gravity altogether on the via diabolica, for
between Ust-Zylma and Umskia (a distance of thirty-six
miles) we were upset and tumbled over into the snow no
less than fifteen times. This was altogether a new experi-
ence for us, but we survived it without any damage, thanks
to the thickness of our malitzas and the depth of the snow.
Arrived at Umskia we were disappointed to see so
few birds. The Siberian jays had disappeared altogether.
The snow-buntings were represented by a solitary
individual perched upon the summit of a lofty larch.
Occasionally two or three redpolls were to be seen, and
at long intervals during the day a pair of bullfinches put
in an appearance. We saw a pair of white-tailed eagles
{Halicetus albicilla, Linn.) soaring over the forest, but they
never came within gunshot. The day was cold, with only
occasional gleams of sunshine and continual threatenings
of snow, and no birds seemed to be feeding. We took a
lone walk on the road, and made several excursions into
the forest and down the river on snow-shoes, but scarcely
a bird was to be seen. At this season of the year the
most absolute silence reigns in these drear Siberian
forests. In the afternoon we tightened up our " pavoska,"
and so far succeeded in restoring the centre of gravity that
we returned home without a spill. We saw only two birds
either in going or returning, a Siberian jay in going, and
a capercailzie (Tetrao tirogallus, Linn.) in returning.

WINTER ONCE MORE 53-

On our arrival at Ust-Zylma at two o'clock on Sunday-
morning, we found service going on in the church in cele-
bration of Easter Eve. We went with M. Znaminski to
the 3 A.M. mass, and after service breakfasted with him,
and at 7 a.m. turned into our hammocks for an hour or
two's rest. The Easter holidays lasted three days,
during which we saw plenty of eating and drinking, and
some (but not much) drunkenness. The Russian peasantry
in Siberia easily get drunk. They drink vodka neat, and
two or three glasses are enough for most of them. There
is one very curious circumstance about drunkenness in
this part of the world. So far as we could ascertain,
with the Russian peasants drunkenness never produces
crime. When a Russian peasant is drunk, he is not
quarrelsome like most Englishmen, but simply becomes
obtrusively affectionate. He wants to embrace you, and
kiss you, and be your very best friend. During these
holidays, when we were returning from the hospitable
boards of our Russian or German friends in the small
hours of the morning, we would occasionally meet one or
two victims of excess of vodka lying in the snow, their
malitzas being warm enough to prevent them from being
frozen 10 death.

On the Sunday night there was a very heavy fall of
snow. At least a foot must have been added to the
depth. On the Monday morning the weather was very
stormy, and the fresh fallen snow was drifted into hills
and valleys. The change in the appearance of the town
was wonderful. The vast dunghill of Ust-Zylma had
put on its Easter holiday attire, and was once more pure
as the driven snow. Everything was covered with a
layer of white powder, dry as dust, and white as (the
only possible comparison) — white as itself. At night the
effect was still more striking. The snow on the railings,

54 THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

on the house tops, and wherever it had been disturbed
by footmarks, was white, and all the rest was a pale
delicate cobalt-blue.

On Tuesday the 28th of April we got our first nest. It
was brought in by some peasants. It was the nest of a
Siberian jay, and contained four eggs. This bird is pro-
bably the earliest breeder in these parts, and no doubt
winters in the Petchora district. The nest was not so
flat as we expected, and was composed almost entirely of
lichens, with a few pieces of matting, hair, and feathers.
The foundation was made of slender pine twigs, and the
inside was profusely lined with feathers.

The snowstorm having now ceased, we made an
excursion on snow-shoes to an island on the Petchora.
and afterwards visited the opposite bank of the river —
I' metre cote, as Piottuch called it. It was remarkable
how very few birds we saw. I twice came across a flock
of bullfinches, all males, and shot three of them. I also
saw and shot a solitary tit, very nearly allied to our marsh-
tit. It is a greyer bird than ours, with the white cheeks
much whiter, and the black hood extending much farther
down the back. We also saw footmarks of hares, and
found several snares set by the peasants to catch them.
The next day we visited the same ground again. We
did not see a single bullfinch, but caught a glimpse of a
small spotted woodpecker. We crossed over to the
banks of the Zylma, but the birch woods there produced
nothing but a solitary marsh-tit, which I shot. The
woods round Ust-Zylma seemed to be absolutely empty
of bird life. Our first eight days had produced only nine
species of birds. During the following ten days we
increased our list by only three birds — the bullfinch, the
Siberian jay, and the Siberian marsh-tit.

LASSOING REINDEKR

CHAPTER VII.

THE SAMOYEDES.

Trip to Habariki — Samoyedes — Lassoing Reindeer — Dogs of the Natives
— Samoyede Sledges — Reindeer Harness — The Chooms — Samoyede
HospitaUty — Marriage Ceremonies — Funeral Rites — Religion.

It was quite obvious that we should make little or no
progress in our ornithological researches until summer
came. We accordingly laid ourselves out to pick up
further information about the Samoyedes, so that our
time might not be absolutely wasted. We had not yet
visited any of their chooms, or tents, and we were glad
to learn from Captain Engel that there were several in
the neighbourhood of Habariki. On Thursday morning,
April 29, we sledged over to that village, a distance
of forty versts. The road was about two- thirds on the
Petchora, and the remaining third across country,

56 THE SAMOYEDES

principally islands. It was so good that we accomplished
the distance in four hours, stopping for half an hour mid-
way to feed the horses. We scarcely saw a bird on the
whole journey.

Habariki is a poor little village, without a church,
and containing not more than a dozen houses. The
sandy banks of the river are about fifty feet higher than
the level on which it is built, and keep it out of the reach
of the floods that come with the thaw. The village was
admirably adapted for the winter quarters of Sideroff's
steamer, which lay below the bend in a little creek
running back out of the Petchora, protected there from
danger of being smashed to pieces by the blocks of ice
that crash down on the breaking up of the river.

After a good lunch we hired two sledges and started
in search of the Samoyedes with Captain Engel and a
Russian, the engineer of the steamer. We had ascer-
tained that there were some chooms about four versts off,
but just as we arrived at the place we found everything
ready for a move northward. The chooms were taken
down and packed on sledges, and the reindeer, to the
number of about 500, were collected together ; and before
we had been there ten minutes the order to march was
given. We were informed that they were not going far
that afternoon, and would probably erect their chooms in
the course of the evening within a verst of Habariki, but
that before doing so they were going to take out fifty of
the reindeer which belonged to a Russian. We were
anxious to see the operation of lassoing, and drove with
the Samoyedes in our sledges to the place selected for
the purpose. As soon as we left the road our horses
stuck fast with the snow up to their traces, and we were
glad to give up our almost ineffectual struggle to get
along on foot, and seat ourselves on one of the reindeer

LASSOING REINDEER 57

sledges, which soon brought us to the spot. It was
admirably chosen — a large open space — perhaps half a
mile across, sufficiently hollow to give it the effect of a
natural amphitheatre surrounded by forest. In the centre
was a slight elevation, where three or four sledges were
stationed, commanding a fine view of the herd of rein-
deer gathered round. A little below us in the hollow were
about a score of sledges with the women and the baeeao-e.

The Samoyedes proved themselves expert in throwing
the lasso. In the left hand they held a small coil of rope,
in the right hand the larger half. The lasso was thrown
with an underhand fling, and nearly always successfully
over the horns of the animal at the first attempt. The
left hand was then pressed close to the side so as to bring
the shock of the sudden pulling up of the reindeer at full
speed against the thigh. When a reindeer found itself
caught, it generally made desperate efforts to escape, but
was usually on its haunches gasping for breath in a few
seconds. The Samoyede then hauled in the rope, or, if
it had run out nearly to its full length, another Samoyede
came up and began to haul it in nearer to the animal.
When he was close to the deer he took hold of its horns,
and with a side twist brought it down on to the snow.
The Russian to whom the fifty reindeer belonged then
approached, and taking a thong of three-plait matting
from a bunch at his belt, tied one of the animal's forelegs
to the hind leg on the same side ; crossing the feet, but
keeping the legs parallel at the point of ligature.

As soon as the reindeer was left, he made wild efforts
to rise and walk ; and sometimes succeeded in hobbling
a few paces. Finding his strength give way with his
frantic efforts to escape, he generally rested with his fore-
knees on the snow for a time; and finally lay down
quietly. A dozen reindeer were soon on the ground.

58 THE SAMOYEDES

The scene became quite exciting ; the reindeer were
wheeling round and round in circles. The dogs tied to
the sledges barked furiously and evidently wished to have
a share in the sport. The dogs selected by the Samo-
yedes to help them to get within lasso range of the deer
rushed frantically about at the command of their masters,
whose loud cries added to the excitement of the scene.
Sometimes a herd of reindeer ran over a place where
the snow was unable to bear their weight ; and it was
interesting to watch them snorting and plunging. As
the number caught increased, the difficulty also increased
of identifying and catching the remaining few of the fifty
that belonged to the Russian, and the Samoyedes with
the lassos were driven about in sledges at a rapid pace to
get within reach of the animals they wanted. The deer
kept together ; if one ran out of bounds a dog was sent
after it and soon brought it back again. In one respect
the reindeer resemble sheep ; wherever one goes, the rest
try to follow.

In this herd the greater number were females {vah'
shinka), with good horns; these they do not cast till they
drop their young. A few were males {Jiorre), their new
horns just appearing. Those chiefly used in the sledges
were cut reindeer {biick\ also without horns. Some of
the hornless animals leaped right through the lasso and
others were caught by the leg.

The lasso is a cord about loo feet long, made of two
thongs of reindeer-skin plaited together, so as to make
a round rope three-eighths of an inch in diameter.
The noose is formed by passing the cord through a small
piece of bone with two holes in it. The lasso passes
freely through the hole, while the end is fastened to a
little bone peg with a bone-washer to prevent it slipping
through the other hole.

SAMOYEDE SLEDGES 59

The dogs were all white except one, which was quite
black. They were stiff-built little animals, somewhat like
Pomeranian dogs, with foxlike heads and thick bushy
hair ; their tails turned up over the back and curled to
one side.

The next morning we turned out of our hammocks at
four and strolled in the brilliant sunshine, hoping to meet
with some birds ; but, with the exception of the hooded
crows, magpies, snow-buntings, and redpolls, we met
with none feeding. In the woods we saw an eagle, a pair
of marsh-tits, a pair of Siberian jays, and occasionally a
pair of ravens.

After breakfast we visited the chooms, and very pic-
turesque they looked in the white landscape in the dazzling
sunshine. Here and there a few willows dotted the undu-
latinor around near a windino- rivulet. The reindeer were
not to be seen, all were away feeding. Two chooms
stood a few feet apart from the rest ; in front of these the
sledges were drawn up, twenty-three in number, some
light and elegant in shape, with four carefully hewn ribs
on each side, and a low sloping back. In these the
Samoyedes and their families travelled. Others were
not quite so finely finished, and had only three ribs on
each side ; these were used for the lighter baggage,
reindeer-skins, malitzas, and so forth, covered over in
some cases with a tarpaulin made of pieces of birch-
bark, neatly sewn together with reindeer-sinew. Other
sledoes a^ain were of much stronger and clumsier make,
with only two ribs on each side, adapted for the heavy
baggage. Some of these were a simple gantry upon
runners, carrying casks of reindeer-meat, others a wooden
chest with an ang'ular roof like the recogfnised Noah's ark
model, containing loaves of black bread and other perish-
able articles.

6o THE SAMOYEDES

The harness of the reindeer is very simple. The
saddle is a plain band of tanned reindeer-leather, about
eight inches broad, hanging a few inches below the body
on each side. About six inches from each end a double
thong of reindeer-skin is attached, and forms the belly-
band. The thong passes through the saddle, and is
fastened to a button {stchorlak) made of reindeer-horn or
bone. These buttons are about two inches in diameter,
with two oval holes near the centre for the thong to pass
through. Some of them are round, others square with
the corners off, others hexagonal, and others again hex-
agonal with every alternate side concave, whilst some are
merely irregular rhomboids. All the buttons are bevelled
on the edge, and generally slightly hollowed to fit the
curve of the reindeer's side. On the near side of the
near reindeer is a piece of carved bone, into which the
reins can be hitched, called halsil (the h pronounced
slightly gutturally). This part of the harness is of divers
shapes and patterns, and seems to be especially the part
on the ornamentation and variation of which the Samo-
yedes expend their spare time and taste.

The simplest form is a hook to receive the reins. A
more elaborate one is a double hook, the reversed hook
being obviously added only for the sake of ornament.
Others again have the double hook, with a variety of
ornamental carving added. On the off side of the saddle,
opposite the halsil, is a leather loop to which the bridle-
rein of the next deer is attached. The collar is a narrow
band about three inches wide, also of tanned leather
passing round the neck. The two ends of this collar are
fastened together by the trace which passes from the
sledge, between the hind legs of the deer, between the
body and the belly-band which hangs rather loosely,
then between the forelegs to the breast, where it passes

REINDEER HARNESS

6i

through the two ends of the collar, and is secured to a
bone peg or ^ paysik of simple construction. The head-
piece or halter (for no bit is used) is called syahney. That
of the leading deer consists of a square straight piece of
bone or horn, about four inches long, on the right cheek,
under the root of the horns, with a hole at each end, and
a second piece of horn, a semicircular or half-round
section, bending nearly rectangularly, not quite in the

.-^

REIN RESTS

middle. This piece of horn is hollowed or deeply
grooved on the flat side, and has a hole bored through at
each end, and a third hole about half an inch from that
one at the long end. The position of this piece of horn
is with the short end halfway across the forehead and
the long end in a similar position to the straight piece of
horn on the other side of the head. Both pieces are
more or less ornamented with simple carving ; they are
fastened together, the ends about a couple of inches apart,
by a short thong of plain or plaited leather, passing
through the holes at one end of each piece, and tied

62 THE SAMOYEDES

across the forehead. To the other ends of the pieces of
bone, plain thongs of leather are attached, one passing
behind the horns, the other under the neck. Through
the third hole, in the long side of the bent piece of horn,
passes a thong fastened to the single rein, either with a
simple tie or with an intervening swivel made of horn,
called by the Samoyedes the siirnye. The head-pieces
of the other deer are slightly different. The bone pieces
under the horns are slenderer, but slightly curved, and
both alike. They are tied together across the forehead,
as is the head-piece of the leading deer, but the other
ends are tied to the apex of a piece of bone or horn,
shaped like an isosceles triangle, with the angles cut off
square, the angle at the apex being very obtuse, and the
basal line slightly concave. These triangular pieces are
placed nearly over the jugular vein, and are fastened at
one end under the neck, and at the other at the back of
the head. The bridle-rein is attached at one end to the
thong passing at the back of the head, and the other to
the saddle of the deer to the left or near side. The wood
or bone blind pulley through which the traces run is
Q.-a}\^d.pate-chay, it is so arranged that any deer not doing
its fair share of the pulling drops behind against the
sledge. The animals are urged on by a long pole, with
which they are hit or poked ; it is called the toor, and the
bone button at the end of it the tooi^-inaJiL Behind each
sledge, on each side, there is a thong of leather passing
through a hole pierced through one end of a bit of bone
about nine inches long. ^ second thong of leather forms
the link connecting this to a second bone, which can be
fastened to the head-piece of the deer of the following-
sledge, which thus requires no driver. This rude chain
is called the pooinye. The swivel is occasionally a
brass one, bought from the Russians. Now and then a

SAMOYEDE CHOOMS 63

brass ring is seen on the head-piece, and sometimes
tassels of plain leather, shaped like luggage labels and
stained vermilion, ornament it.

The chooms were shaped like ordinary regulation
tents, about twelve feet in diameter and height ; the)^
were supported inside by some thirty slender birch poles,
converging to a cone, tied together in a bunch at the
top. This skeleton was covered with old, dirty, and
much-patched reindeer-skins, sewn together and lined
with coarse and half-rotten canvas, probably old sails.
Some cords of twisted reindeer-sinew strengthened the
structure, and an opening about a foot wide was left at
the summit of the tent to serve as a chimney. We drew
back the covering overlapping the opening used as a
door and entered. Snow, heaped up to the height of
about a foot, protected the choom from bottom draughts.
A wood fire burned in the centre upon a thin metal plate ;
an ordinary gipsy kettle was suspended over it by a
simple arrangement. Mats of slender birch-bark, woven
together every six inches by a warp of string, were placed
on either side of the fire ; over these were stretched
another mat made of some kind of rushy grass. Around
were packed various articles of clothing, wooden bowls
and spoons of Russian origin, a Russian box containing
a china tea-service ; a heap of reindeer giblets, part of
which were doubtless stewing in the kettle, and sundry
other articles. Exactly opposite the door there hung one
of the Onegra bronze bas-reliefs of saints or viroins,
framed in a rudely carved piece of wood, shaped some-
what like a cross.

After purchasing some reindeer harness, we were
invited to drink a cup of tea and to eat a kind of spiral
biscuit. Our hostess had just been sewing ; a steel
needle, a tailor's thimble, and thread of reindeer-sinew

64 THE SAMOYEDES

lay in a corner of the tent. The smoke annoyed us
when we stood up, but we did not feel it much when
seated. The Samoyedes sat cross-legged on the ground,
and tea was served on a little table about six inches high,
just large enough to hold half a dozen cups. As usual,
we found our hosts very ready to give us any information
we asked them.

The Samoyedes never seemed annoyed at our taking
notes among them ; they struck us as a good-tempered,
somewhat phlegmatic race. They carried old-fashioned
Russian flint-lock rifles, but we could not rouse their
interest in our breech-loaders ; they do not appear to
work much in metals. They always carry a knife, no
doubt of Russian make, but they are very ingenious in
makinor handles and in ornamentino- them. Patterns of
various grades of elaboration are carved upon them, and
the patterns filled up with melted tin. They use a small
saw, a rude form of brace and bit, and also the indis-
pensable axe.

Like the Russians, the Samoyedes have beautifully
white and regular teeth. They are very fond of chewing
the resin which they get from the Scotch fir, which
doubtless assists in keeping the teeth clean.

As we are now on the subject of this strange race,
we may as well insert here some details we gathered a
few days later, after our return to Ust-Zylma, from a
Samoyede who drove up in his reindeer sledge from a
choom near Habariki. Our interpreter was a Polish
Jew, banished by his father to Siberia, because he had
adopted the religion of the Greek Church. He translated
the Samoyede's bad Russian into worse German.

We were informed that when a young Samoyede
desires to marry, and has come to some understanding
with the damsel of his choice, he visits her father's

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 65

choom, and with a short stick taps him, and then the
mother of the maiden, on the shoulder. He then
demands the girl in marriage, and offers the father and
mother a glass of vodka, which he has brought with him.
As a token of his goodwill the father drinks the vodka ;
he tells the young man he has no objection, but that he
must ask the girl's consent. The preliminary ceremony
of asking papa having been gone through, the young
man retires. A few davs later he comes ao-ain to the
choom ; this time accompanied by what servants he has,
and provided with plenty of vodka. His retinue remain
outside, while he enters the choom, and seats himself by
the side of his lady-love. The father hands the young
man a glass of vodka ; he drinks half, and hands the
half-full glass under his left arm to the girl, who finishes
it. The father then gives his daughter a glass of vodka,
who in like manner drinks half of it, and presents the
remainder with her left hand under her rieht arm to her
lover, who drains the glass. After this the father hands
a piece of raw flesh to the young man, who eats it, and
then takes a piece from the floor, eats half, and presents
the other half under his left arm to the girl to finish.
She, in her turn, takes a piece of raw flesh from the
floor, eats half, and likewise hands the other half under
her right arm to the young man to finish. Then follows
the eating and drinking that in barbarous, as in civilised
nations, is considered necessary to ratify the ceremony.
Before night an old man, called a shaman, a kind of
magician or medicine-man, carrying a drum, visits the
choom ; of him the bridegroom asks certain questions
concerning his bride. If the old man knows nothing
against her he begins to play upon his drum, and the
marriage is completed. If, however, the magician speaks
evil of the girl, the young man has the option of leaving

E

66 THE SAMOYEDES

her there and then, or if he be still enamoured of her
charms, it is open to him to bargain with her father to
take her for a month or a year on trial. At the expiration
of the time agreed upon, if the pair suit each other, they
consider themselves married for life. On the other hand,
should they not agree, they can separate at the end of
the time specified ; but in that case the man must provide
for any children born within the period. After the
marriage festivities are over, the young couple are left
alone in the choom of the bride's father.

It is customary for the bridegroom to present his
bride with the skin of a black fox. The girl's father
gives his son-in-law a choom, with all its appurtenances,
and five, ten, twenty, or thirty reindeer, according to his
wealth. If the bridegroom be rich, he gives his father-
in-law money to the amount sometimes of two hundred
roubles.

Since the adoption of the Russian faith by the
Samoyedes they bury their dead. Previous to their
conversion, when one among them died he was fully
dressed and, in his best malitza and soveek, was laid flat
on his back on the tundra. His favourite bilck reindeer
was killed and laid by his side, with his best harness and
his driving-pole and bow.* The choom is taken down
at once, and the camp is broken up amidst much weeping
and lamentation. If possible, the place is never re-
visited. The Samoyedes believe that if the dead man's
property were not left with him his spirit would follow
them.

The Samoyedes used to have wooden idols, to which

* Captain Hall, in his " Life with the Esquimaux," mentions a similar custom
existing among them. The Innuits seal up their dying in snow-huts, or igloos,
where they are allowed to die alone. The blubber-lamp, as well as the fishing
and hunting instruments of the dead, are always laid by his side, and the place is
abandoned.

SACRIFICE OF REINDEER

67

they sacrificed reindeer.* In order that the reindeer may
reach the unseen god, of whom the wooden idol is
evidently considered but the symbol, it must be killed in
a peculiar fashion. A running- noose is made in the
middle of a cord and put round the horns of the deer ; a
Samoyede holds the two ends. Another noose is put
round the animal's hind feet, and while he is thus held at
full stretch, he is stabbed in both sides with two pieces
of wood (not with a knife) ; then the spirit of the reindeer
is supposed to be sent to the god. The greater number
of Samoyedes have adopted the Russian faith, and have
been baptized into the Greek Church, but many of these
still retain their ancient beliefs, and sacrifice to their
idols, while in the more easterly parts of the vast
region inhabited by this people, many have not yet
been "converted."

* William Govedon, who wintered at Pustozara, 1614-15, tells us that the
Samoyedes had then " no true knowledge of God, but worship blocks and images
of the deuill, unto which they strangle tame deeTe."—Puichas his Pilgrimes, lib. iii.
ch. 12.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

A SPILL IN THE SNOW

CHAPTER VIII.

LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA.

May-day — Snow-buntings — Jackdaws — Game — Birds of Prey — Sunday
at Ust-Zylma — A Fire — Marriage Ceremony — Tenure of Land — The
Commune — Preparations for Summer.

On May-day the thaw continued in real earnest. A warm
wind and a hot sun made oreat havoc with the snow. All

o

traces of the heavy fall of the previous Sunday night
soon disappeared, and a considerable portion of the old
accumulation of winter melted. Ust-Zylma became once
more a vast dunghill, and on the hills, where the snow in
some places lay exceptionally deep, it was too soft to bear
our weight, even on snow-shoes. We attempted our
usual ramble in the woods at the back of the town ; but
travelling was very laborious, and we returned to our
quarters with broken snow-shoes, and without having

JACKDAWS 69

remarked anything of special interest. With the excep
tion of a yellow-hammer, which was making a feeble
attempt to sing, we scarcely saw or heard a bird. One
effect of the thaw was to banish the snow-buntings from
the town to the country. Although this bird is thick-
billed, and undoubtedly feeds on grain and seeds during
the winter, it appears to change its diet to some extent
during the breeding season. When I was in Lapland I
found it nesting among the rocks on the island of Vadso,
in the Varanger Fjord. Not far distant, down by the
shore, was the great whaling establishment of Mr. Foyne,
where on an average three whales a week were cut up.
The snow-buntings constantly visited the yard, which
abounded with insects attracted by the offal ; and the
stomachs of some which I shot and skinned proved to be
lull of these.

During this sloppy season we confined our walks
pretty much to the town itself, carrying our walking-stick
ouns in case a new bird should turn up. On the 3rd of
May we were rewarded by seeing for the first time a pair
of jackdaws. It was contrary to law to shoot in the
streets, and the birds were within a stone's-throw of the
house of the public prosecutor. I shot one of them, as I
thought, very cleverly, on the sly, but I found that my
attempt at concealment had been a failure, for a day or
two afterwards, whilst discussing our walnuts and wine
with the chief magistrate at the public prosecutor's
hospitable table, we were kindly cautioned to shoot as
little as possible in the streets.

The liberal hospitalities of our friends helped to
beguile the time during the thaw ; and occasionally the
peasants offered us birds, which provided variety for our
larder, and sometimes interested us and found employ-
ment for Piottuch We bought four capercailzies for

70 LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

eighty kopecks from one of our friends the Samoyedes
who had shot them with ball. Hazel-grouse (Bonasa
betulina) were also frequently brought to us, at twenty
kopecks per brace. They are most delicate eating, and
are considered by many to be the finest game that can
be brought to table.

Winter returned on the 4th of May, when a raw west
wind brought a heavy storm at noon, after which snow
and bitter cold continued, with occasional high wind, till
the 8th. We went out, notwithstanding, struggling on
snow-shoes across deep ravines and through bushes and
plantations. We also made an excursion within the
island in search of birds. For some days the snow-
buntings remained outside the town in such immense
flocks that when they rose the whirring of their wings
could be heard at some distance. On the 6th the
snow drove them back into Ust-Zylma, also small parties
of redpolls, which follow the buntings very much as
starlings follow rooks. When we first met with the
flocks of snow-buntings we found them to consist princi-
pally of males, but as the season advanced the females
largely predominated. On the 4th of May we saw a
white-tailed eagle and a hen-harrier, and on the following-
day we had an excellent sight of a merlin. Magpies
were as abundant as ever, but, like the snow-buntings,
they had moved into the country, and on the 5th we dis-
covered a nearly completed nest in a spruce fir, built
about five feet from the "•round. The birds were most
vociferous, and used every artifice to decoy us away from
their property.

On the 8th of May summer seemed farther off than
ever. On the previous day the weather had been very
changeable-^alternately warm, snowing, hailing, sleeting,
with an occasional gleam of sunshine, and a cold wind,

NEW ARRIVALS yf

but on the whole a thaw. The next day the morning
was bitterly cold, with the north wind blowing hard. In'
the afternoon the wind veered to the west, with a heavy
fall of snow. At midnight the wind dropped, the sky
became clear, and the thermometer went down to i6°.
The landscape was again white and frost-bound. It looked
exactly like mid-winter, except that at that hour of night
we could see to read a newspaper out of doors. The
climate of these regions is very curious at this time of the
year. The change is sudden and violent — a leaping from
mid-winter into summer, without any intervening spring.

We strolled out in the morning, not expecting to see
anything new. We shot a tree-sparrow and a yellow-
hammer, and were returning home somewhat disheartened,
in spite of our unexpectant mood at starting, when a hen-
harrier suddenly put in an appearance. He did not,
however, come within range, and we went into a little
valley, there to wait for him or a chance raven. By-
and-by a small hawk crossed in front of us. W^e followed
it up the hillside, caught sight of it again, watched it
alight on a heap of manure, quietly stalked it, and shot
it. It turned out to be a female merlin. Whilst we
were carefully putting it away, an eagle passed almost
within shot of us. In one of the cottages a peasant
showed us the skin of an eagle-owl [Btibo maxiinus).
The next evenino- we strolled out on the banks of the
Petchora. Brilliant sunshine flooded the earth, not a
cloud was in the sky ; but it was cold and winterly as
Christmas. Flocks of magpies and of hooded crows
were almost the only birds we saw. They passed us on
the wing, evidently going to their resting-places in the
woods.

The week had not brought us many birds, but we
knew summer was at hand, and we waited patiently.

72 LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

Meanwhile we mingled with the inhabitants of Ust-
Zylma and observed their ways. Sunday seemed a day
devoted to calling, and many sledges used to drive up to
the house where we were from the neighbouring villages.
The peasants combined business with these visits to town,
and we bought four skins of white fox and one of grey
fox for nine roubles and a half, from one of Boulegan's
visitors.

Once we had an opportunity of seeing the people of
Ust-Zylma turning out to extinguish a fire. A small
conflagration burst out in the house of Captain Arendt.
All the villagers trooped to the spot, armed with axes,
wooden shovels, and boat-hooks. It is the law that in
case of fire every peasant should assist in putting it out.
On each house a board is nailed up, on which is roughly
sketched the article its inhabitants must furnish to assist
in extinguishing the flames. The people keep to their
primitive ways and habits. We watched a peasant one
day shooting at a mark with a flint-lock rifle. The
barrel was very thick, and the bore the size of a large
pea. He carried a spiral coil of lead, and, when he
wanted a bullet, bit a piece off with his perfectly white
regular teeth, and chewed it into a rough sphere. His
gun, which he told us was worth five roubles, was
ornamented all over the stock with by no means inartistic
carvings.

On one occasion we assisted at a wedding in the
Orthodox Greek church. The marriage ceremony took
place in the afternoon, and was sufficiently imposing.
The priest met the couple at the vestibule of the church.
After going through a form of prayer, he presented the
bride and bridegroom with a lighted taper, which he had
first crossed over their bowed heads ; the rings likewise
were crossed over their heads, as were also a pair of

LAND TENURE 73

gold crowns before being placed upon them. The bible
and the crucifix were kissed. A silver cup of wine was
quaffed by the plighted pair, each drinking from it
alternately. Censers of incense were swung. The
priest, the happy couple, and the assistants bowed and
crossed themselves continually, and between each part of
the ceremony prayers were offered.

We were not very successful in our attempts to
obtain accurate information as to the tenure of land. It
was sometimes difficult to reconcile conflicting statements.
Most of our informants, however, agreed that they or
their ancestors were formerly serfs of the Crown, that
after their emancipation the land remained the property
of the Crown, and was leased to the village or commune
at a nominal rent. The affairs of the commune are
managed by a parliament or town council, composed
of every householder, electing a mayor or starrosta
(literally, oldest man), whose term of office is three
years, and who is responsible to the Government for the
rent or taxes payable by the commune. Every three
years a redistribution of land takes place, the arable land
being divided amongst the householders in lots propor-
tionate to the number of individuals living in each house.
Five hundred roubles will build a handsome habitation
in Ust-Zylma. We were informed that every peasant
was annually entitled to a fixed number of cubic yards of
firewood without charge, and to a limited number of balks
of good building timber, which he was free to sell if he
did not require to use it.

The near approach of summer was the signal for
unusual exertions on the part of the peasants. Pro-
crastination seems to be a Russian national vice. Now,
when the horses were nearly worn out by long feeding
upon bad hay, and when the roads were very heavy by

74

LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

reason of the thaws, the poor animals had to work double
time. A quantity of last year's fodder still lay on the
flat land on the other side of the Petchora, which, if left,
would inevitably be swept away when the frozen river
broke up ; the cattle had to be taken across the ice and
housed in a place of safety, there to wait until the floods
subsided on these flat stretches and the new rich pasture
had begun to spring up. The women and children had
also to be transported across, to look after the cattle ;
whilst the men went down the river to fish, leaving Ust-
Zylma as deserted for three months as a winter village in
the Parnassus.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

CHAPTER IX.

THE ADVENT OF SUMMER.

Mild Weather— Bear-tracks— Saddle of Bear— First Rain— Six New
Migratory Birds — Magpie's Eggs — Cessation of the Winter Frost —
Return of Winter— A Wild-goose Chase— Cachets— Night on the Banks
of the Petchora — The Silent Forest.

On the loth of May we had for the first time real summer
weather, which continued for some days. It thawed in
the shade as well as in the sun ; but, as there was not
much wind, the snow melted slowly. We drove up the
Zylma and took a Jong walk in our snow-shoes, returning
across the island ; but the pine and birch woods were
still almost deserted. We shot a pair of marsh-tits, heard
the cry of a great black woodpecker, and saw four wild
geese flying over our heads. On the island we fell in
with a small flock of shore-larks {Otocorys aipeslris), and

76 THE ADVENT OF SUMMER

succeeded in shooting four while feeding upon the bare
places on the banks of the island. We also started a pair
of wild geese and a large owl, probably the snowy owl,
which alighted on a heap of snow in the middle of the
Petchora. Its flight resembled that of the glaucous gull,
but it occasionally skimmed close to the snow for some
distance.

We traced along the snow the footprints of a bear and
its cubs, about a day or two old. The traces of Bruin's
presence had an added interest to us from the fact that
for the last two days we had been breakfasting and dining
on a saddle of bear, and most excellent we had found it,
much better than beef. The animal we had been feasting
on was about a year old ; it had been turned out of its
place of hybernation by some woodcutters, who had cut
down the tree at the root of which it was sleeping. I bought
the skin, and had an excellent hearth-rug made of it.

Summer now seemed to have suddenly burst upon us
in all its strength, the sun was scorching, the snow in
many places melted so rapidly as to be almost impassable.
The mud banks of the Zylma were steaming from the
heat. On the 12th of May, about noon, the weather
grew hazy, with a very conspicuous halo around the sun-
like a dull circular rainbow ; the wind was warmer than
it had yet been, and in the afternoon there came on a
steady rain, the first rain we had seen since we left home.
Sancho Panza says that one swallow does not make a
summer ; but the arrival of six species of migratory birds
within two days ought to have some significance. On
the I ith we saw for the first time a pair of swans. The
same day, on the half-open land between the Petchora
and the Zylma, we saw some flocks of wild geese, and,
near a pool of water on the ice, half a dozen Siberian
herring-gulls i^Lariis affinis, Rheinh.). Their cry seemed

SIX NEW MIGRANTS 77

to me to be exactly the same as that of the common and
Mediterranean herring-gulls. On the 12th a little detach-
ment of white wagtails came to the village, and we shot
six during the day. In each instance they were on the
roof of the houses. We also shot a redstart {Rtiiici/la
pkceniairtis, Linn.) occupying the same position. Another
new arrival was the meadow-pipit, of which we shot a
solitary example. The shore-larks had already been
some days in Ust-Zylma, and by this time were in large
and small flocks in the fields on both sides of the town.
All those we shot proved to be males. Three or four
small hawks, probably merlins, were hovering about, and
a snowy owl was brought in to us, apparently just killed.
A white-tailed eagle, his white tail looking grey against
the snow, was perching on an ice-block in the Petchora,
and at a little distance off we could distinctly see a raven
picking a bone. Morning and evening we watched the
gulls, without being able to get a shot at them. The
redpolls had disappeared altogether, and we saw the
snow-buntings only once or twice. The signs of coming
summer were surrounding us, small flies were on the
wing, twice we came upon a tortoiseshell butterfly ; we
visited the magpie's nest, which we had discovered some
days previously in a spruce, and found that it contained
seven eggs. But even the approach of summer has its
accompanying drawbacks : we had to give up at this
time all hope of more winter posts, and two months
might elapse before the summer ones would arrive. This
break in the communication with civilised Europe is
one of the trials to be endured by explorers in these
districts.

The little spurt of mild weather, however, turned out
to be a delusion. Our six species of summer migrants
proved no more reliable than Sancho Panza's solitary

78 THE ADVENT OF SUMMER

swallow. On the 13th a strong gale from the north
brought winter back again, and drove away our newly
arrived visitors to more genial latitudes. The snow-
buntings and the shore-larks became very wild during
this spell of bitter wind ; towards evening it dropped, and
when we came upon a flock of the former, they were so
tame that they allowed us to walk about within ten and
sometimes five yards of them. The flock was composed
mostly of females ; one male that we observed amongst
them was in more mature plumage than any we had yet
seen. Birds of prey appeared in unusual numbers. We
saw hen-harriers, both male and female, numerous merlins,
which often perched upon the heaps of manure in the
fields, and, for the first time, a peregrine falcon. Piottuch
was fortunate enough to shoot a fine snowy owl on the
goose ground between the Petchora and the Zylma. A
hard frost in the night, followed by a cold east wind with
bright sunshine, was most unfavourable to the arrival of
migratory birds. We were deliberating as to what would
be the least unprofitable mode of spending the day, when
the Preestaff sent in to inquire if we would join him and
the postmaster in an excursion four and twenty miles
up the Petchora to shoot geese, and we accepted their
invitation gladly. We ordered a horse and sledge,
packed up provisions, tents, and wraps, and were soon
■en route.

About halfway we descried two swans on the snow of
the Petchora. We started our sledge in pursuit, and
approaching the birds in a spiral curve, we came within
range, fired, and missed. The birds, very large and
very white, flew about a verst across the river, and again
alighted. Here they were joined by a third swan.
Slowly we crept up again in a spiral curve within range ;
this time two rifles fired, and both missed ; a third time

LYING UP FOR GEESE 79

the riHes came within range, but with no better result ;
after which the swans flew right away.

We then visited a small lake close to the banks of the
Petchora, but it was completely ice-bound, and declared
to be niet dobra (good for nothing). Finally, we selected
a spot where there was open water in two places. Geese
flew about in small flocks at intervals during the after-
noon, and we all expressed confident hopes of a bag
after sunrise. The horses were taken from the sledge, a
fire was lit, supper with unlimited tea followed, and was
over by eleven. We then selected places supposed to be
favourable for the cachets ; at each place a hole was dug
in the snow, which was piled up to the height of three or
four feet, and planted round with willow twigs. " Cock-
sure " (the nickname we gave to Piottuch, a bad pun on his
name),* who was in high glee, drove across the Petchora
with the postmaster, where he was "cocksure" of finding
plenty of geese.

After a final cup of tea and a smoke, we separated at
one o'clock, each departing to his cachet, to take, if he
felt so inclined, a sleep in the snow for a couple of hours.
I did not feel sleepy, and was curious to watch a whole
night on the banks of the Petchora ; so dofiing my
malitza, axe in hand, I set to work to turn my cachet
into a turreted castle, some six feet high inside. It was
a keen frost, and the surface snow was easy to hew out
into square blocks, which I joined together with soft
snow from below, and soon my castle was one solid mass
of frozen snow. The exercise kept me warm. I planted
my last piece of willow twig and put on my malitza just
as the sun appeared above the horizon, amidst lake and
vermilion clouds, behind the steep mudbanks on the
other side of the Petchora. Behind me rose a thick

* " Piatookh " is the Russian for a cock.

8o THE ADVENT OF SUMMER

wood of willow and decayed or decaying birch, a pine
showing here and there between. Presently I spied,
from between my turrets of snow, a marsh-tit silently
searching for food on a willow ; I changred one of mv
cartridges for dust-shot, put my feet into my snow-shoes,
sallied forth, and shot it. His mate soon began to call,
and in half a minute I secured her also, and returned to
my cachet.

An hour passed by ; now and then I heard the distant
" orae, orao^" of the oreese, or the wild cry of some far-off
sw^an, but nothing came within range of less than cannon-
shot of me. Fourteen large glaucous gulls slowly flew
up the Petchora ; I watched a pair of swans on the ice
through my telescope, and listened to the distant call of
some smaller gulls ; whilst redpolls and white wagtails
often passed over me, all flying up wind. At length I
o-ot tired of waiting and watching, and made an excursion
on my snow-shoes into the wood. All around was dead
silence ; nothing was to be heard but the gentle rattling
of the east wind amongst the leafless branches of the
willows. The wood seemed as empty of bird-life as the
desert of Sahara.

I returned to my cachet, and waited and watched
with no better result than before. A flock of snow-
buntings came fluttering up the Petchora and alighted
on some willow-trees ; this was interesting. I now made
an excursion to the cachet of my companions. I had
forootten to wind my watch, and made this an excuse for
my visit. Halfway to it, I came upon a small flock of
reed-buntings amongst some willows, and missed a shot
at one of them. My companion had stuck heroically to
his cachet, but had had no better luck than mine. As
we were chatting, we heard the note of a bird, which I
took to be a redstart.

A POOR BAG 8 1

I followed the sound to some distance, but could not
overtake the bird on my snow-shoes. Setting out to
return to my cachet, I was interrupted by a flock of
reed-buntings ; I got a shot at one, but the cap missing
fire, away they flew. I was returning disconsolately by
the side of a thick but narrow plantation, when I heard a
" gag, gag " through the trees, and descried seven geese,
apparently flying straight for my companion's cachet ;
and on returning I learnt that he had brought down a
bean-goose.

On my way back to my cachet I met another party
of reed-buntings, one of which I bagged ; then I sat in
my hiding-place for an hour, waiting for geese that never
came within range. At eight I found I had taken a
wink of sleep. I could stand it no longer, so set off
in search of my companions, and bagging another reed-
bunting and wagtail on my way, we returned together to
our encampment, where we soon had the kettle boiling
with tchai.

The postmaster and " Cocksure " turned up as we
were breakfasting, and reported a blank night. The
Preestaff, we found afterwards, had fared no better.
Decidinor that we had had enougrh of this wild-g-oose
chase we harnessed our sledges and returned home in
a steady rain. Our horse was done up, and we were six
hours on the road, through four of which we slept soundly,
waking up just in time to bag a score of shore-larks.

Notwithstanding its inglorious results, we enjoyed
our trip as a novelty, and had many hearty laughs over
divers "spills" out of and over the sledge; but as ours
was the only one that brought home a goose, the best of
the laugh was on our side. We had, moreover, bagged
a new migrant, and "Cocksure" had seen a black wood-
pecker and a common snipe.

F

THE BANKS OF THE ZYLMA

CHAPTER X.

THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE.

Gulls — Species new to Europe — Fresh Arrivals — Duck-shooting — Bird-
life in the Forest — Gulls perching on Trees — Break-up of the Ice on
the Zylma — On the wrong Bank of the River — Dragging the Boats
across the Ice — Final break-up of the Ice on the Petchora.

The same evening, as we sat at the window of our rooms
writing up our journals, and now and then looking up
to glance through the rain at the ever-impressive scene
before us, we suddenly descried upon the ice a flock
of, perhaps, 200 gulls. In the twinkle of an eye we
had donned our indiarubber boots and were wading
through the streets of Ust-Zylma. As we neared the
birds we made sure, from their note, that the larger
number of them were the common gull, with possibly
a dozen herring-gulls among them. We discharged four
cartridges of our goose-shot into them. Our broadside,

FRESH ARRIVALS 83

fired from a distance, left one dead and one wounded on
the field. The smaller bird was undoubtedly, the common
gull, but it was not at first so easy to determine to what
species the larger gull belonged. The colour of the
mantle was intermediate between that of the lesser
black-backed gull and the Mediterranean herring-gull,
but the wing pattern resembled that of the latter species.
Upon our return home, however, we cleared up the
difficulties surrounding our bird, and finding that it
had no colloquial name in our language we ventured
to christen it the Siberian herring-gull. The species
was not new to science, but we may claim to have
been the first to add it to the list of European birds.

Another species new to our list was the golden
plover, which also arrived in flocks. These birds were
special objects of our attention, partly because they were
a valuable addition to our larder, and still more so
because we were anxiously on the look-out for the
arrival of the grey plover, the eggs of which were one
of the possible prizes which we hoped to obtain. All our
efforts to obtain even a glimpse of the latter species on
migration proved, however, in vain. As we subsequently
met with them on the tundra, we can only suppose that
they migrate to their breeding-quarters by a different
route, probably following the coast-line. If they do fly
across country, they must travel at such a high elevation
that they are rarely observed inland.

Wild geese and swans increased in numbers daily,
and about this time flocks of wild ducks began to fly
up the Petchora. So far as we could judge, they seemed
to be principally pintail ducks, though we succeeded in
shooting a teal.

Pipits also began to arrive in great numbers. They
were wild and difficult to shoot, apparently all flying up

84 THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE

wind ; evidently eager to continue their journey and
rarely alighting on the ground. Both species were
represented, but they appeared to migrate in separate
flocks, and the red-throated pipit was much more abun-
dant than the meadow-pipit. We occasionally heard
both species singing, but they were by no means in full
song, being evidently intent on migration.

Fieldfares and redwings also arrived and soon became
very numerous ; and among the flocks of shore-larks
which- continued to pass through the district a few
Lapland buntings were generally to be seen.

The flocks of shore-larks had by this time become
more numerous, and consisted of males and females in
nearly equal numbers. These birds were very tame,
frequenting for the most part the fields at the back
of the village, feeding and running about in the stubble,
and occasionally attempting to sing on the ground. The
snow-buntings and redpolls had disappeared, and in the
streets their place appeared to be taken by white wag-
tails. Fresh flocks of these charming little birds in full
breeding plumage arrived daily ; and in a large flock
consisting of from thirty to forty birds we noticed an
Arctic yellow wagtail (Motacil/a borealis).

Three whimbrels passed over us. My companion
whistled to them, so cleverly imitating their note that
they approached within fifty yards of him, when he
shot them. A peasant also brought us a rook, the
only one we saw during our journey. At this time we
ascertained positively the presence of a bird which we
had long suspected to be on the roof of the Preestaff's
house next door to ours — a no less important bird than
the common sparrow. We shot two males and three
females. This is an extraordinary instance of the
extreme localness of birds. We never by any chance

A DUCK-HUNT 85:

saw these common sparrows among the tree-sparrows-
in our yard, nor had we any reason to think that they
were to be found elsewhere in the town.

On the 19th we received an invitation from our
friends who had assisted us in our late wild-gfoose
chase, to join them in a duck-hunt. M. Znaminski
had a maisoniiette a few versts up the Zylma, which
he turned to use on such occasions of sport. He and
M. Sacharoff were already there. We accepted the
invitation, and after sledging across the Petchora, and
perhaps four versts up the Zylma, we reached our host's
quarters at about 3 a.m. We had made a somewhat
circuitous road up the Zylma, for there were many
ugly-looking places in the ice which had to be avoided.
On arriving we dismissed our yemschiks, who returned
to Ust-Zylma with orders to come with five sledges to
fetch our whole party back on the following day at noon.

The shooting-ground was a flat piece of country lying
between the Petchora and the Zylma. It bore traces of its
annual submersion for a week or two under the waters of the
great river when it breaks up. The larger part was covered
with a forest of birch, willow, and alder ; many of the trees
were dead, perhaps in consequence of the flood, and drift-
wood was scattered or accumulated in piles all around.

It was heavy work walking in these woods, or rather
wading through the water and snow in them. Every
now and then we came to a lake or an open swamp, or
found ourselves on the banks of a kicria or creek where
the snow had melted, and the walking was easier. Few
or no trees grew by the side of these kurias ; the banks
of the Zylma also were bare, the forests near the rivers
being shorn ofl" by the ice, which sometimes mows down
the stoutest trees as a man mows grass with a scythe.
On the low ground between the Zylma and the forest

86 THE BREAK-UP OE THE ICE

land, pollard willows grew, many of which had been
knocked down by the floating blocks of ice.

It would be impossible to estimate the number of
ducks we saw. They seemed to fly over us by hundreds
and thousands. Small and large flocks continually passed
us on the wing. In the evening the shores of the Zylma
and a piece of open water opposite were almost black
with them ; sometimes they filled the air like a swarm
of bees. They were very wild, but the old pollard
willows gave excellent opportunities for concealment,
and a good shot would have made a heavy bag in a
short time. My companion shot seven in about an
hour : six pintails and one teal. Nearly all these ducks
were pintails ; we identified hundreds through our glasses,
and saw only a few teal.

My companion identified a small flock of shovellers,
one of which flew quite close to him. He also distinctly
made out a pair of golden-eyes, which came within shot
while we were dining. Through the glass he also
recognised a wigeon. We also saw a few geese and
swans. We met with the greenshank more than once,
and had a fine view of a peregrine falcon. A small
flock of shore-larks and a few red-throated pipits, too
busy migrating to stop to be shot, nearly complete the
list of birds we saw in the open country.

I spent most of my time in the woods. Three weeks
previously we had made a long round through them on
our snow-shoes and found them deserted ; not a bird to
be seen but a solitary marsh-tit or an occasional " hoodie."
Now, in the early morning, these woods were full of life
and abounded in interest for the ornithologist. In the
afternoon they were more quiet, and the interest v/as
not sufficient to repay the toil of wading through water,
snow, mud, and drift-wood. The commonest and noisiest

TREE AND MEADOW PIPITS 87

bird was the redpoll. Next to it, strange to say, was
the meadow-pipit. This bird behaved in every way
like the tree-pipit, being occasionally seen on the
ground, but mostly up in the trees ; sometimes singing
on the ground, sometimes when on the wing, but oftener
in the branches overhead.

We had just decided that these birds were, or ought
to be, tree-pipits, when we shot down half a dozen from
among the branches, and finally satisfied ourselves that
they were the meadow-pipit. Our astonishment was
still greater, however, when we beheld three gulls quietly
perched upon the top of a tall birch in the wood. We
watched them for some time, examining them through
our glasses ; at last they rose and flew over our heads,
and by their cry we recognised them to be the familiar
Larus canus. Shortly afterwards we shot one.

Fieldfares and redwings were sprinkled through the
woods ; we could almost always hear the song of the
latter bird, as well as the loose cry of the former, and
its starling-like note before alighting. My companions
saw a couple of redstarts chasing each other, and I
followed a willow-wren, which was in full song, for at
least an hour, but did not succeed in shooting it. Many
white wagtails flew past, and reed-buntings were also
common. Where the birches were largest we heard the
tapping of woodpeckers. We shot a pair of Siberian lesser
spotted woodpeckers (/^. pipra. Pall.); and of a pair of
three-toed woodpeckers that we saw we succeeded in
shooting the male. We also shot a pair of marsh-tits.

When I returned on the morning of the 20th after a
five hours' solitary ramble in the woods, I found the
sportsmen still fast asleep. My entrance roused them,
and we soon proceeded to make tea. We were sitting-
down to our pipes after our late breakfast, when we were

88 THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE

startled by the appearance of M. Znaminski, who had
just gone out, and now came hurrying back in a state of
great excitement, beckoning to us to come.

We seized our guns, expecting to see some great
or rare bird ; we rushed to the door, and there we paused
and stood still, gazing before us in mute astonishment.
Our road was in movement, and was going to Ust-Zylma
at the rate of two or three miles an hour. There was no
doubt about it, the Zylma was breaking up. The scene
was wild and picturesque. In a few hours it was very
impressive. The ice had broken into the Petchora at
the mouth of the Zylma. Here and there piles of it lay
upon the banks. Finally it had blocked, and gradually
the Zylma became a confused mass of jammed ice and tree-
trunks, while an occasional ice-floe, thicker than the rest,
formed where the water had been stiller and deeper,
risine above the level. While the ice moved the sound
was like that of a waterfall : as it cracked on the Petchora,
the noise was as that of rumbling thunder. The water
was rapidly rising, and our predicament was serious. It
was obvious that no horses could reach us. The Russians,
who at first did not realise the situation, soon began tO'
look grave. We took counsel together, and we decided
to transport ourselves and our baggage to some houses
that stood on higher ground, halfway towards the mouth
of the Zylma. It took us some hours to do this. We
were beginning to make preparations for a week's camping
in the midst of floods, when towards four o'clock we dis-
cerned in the distance the figures of our yemschiks.
They were coming, but they were coming without horses.
When they reached us we learned from them that the ice
had broken up on both shores of the Petchora. They
had come across in a boat, which they had dragged for
a couple of versts in a sledge across the central field

A NARROW ESCAPE 89

of ice, being forced to leave it on the shore five or six
miles off We determined to put the bulk of our baggage
under the charge of two yemschiks and to return with
the other men in the boat.

We felt rather nervous as we entered the boats and
put to sea on the open water across which we had sledged
so recently, and we had some little difficulty in finding a
solid piece of ice on which to land. The central ice of
the Petchora was evidently on the eve of breaking up.
Every nerve was strained to drag the boats across the
mile of ice, and relaunch them on the safe side of the
river without a moment's unnecessary loss of time. It
was past midnight, and at any moment the crash might
come. The ice was obviously under great pressure.
Cracks runninof for miles with a sound like distant thunder
warned us that a mighty power was all but upon us, a
force which seemed for the moment to impress the mind
with a greater sense of power than even the crushing
weight of water at Niagara, a force which breaks up ice
more than a mile wide, at least three feet thick, and
weighted with another three feet of snow, at the rate
of 100 miles in the twenty-four hours. It was eight
o'clock in the morning when we landed in Ust-Zylma,
and heartily thankful we were to find ourselves once
more safe in our quarters. We were hungry and dead
tired after the excitement was over, and after a hasty
breakfast we were glad to turn into our hammocks. We
slept for a couple of hours, and then, looking out of the
window, we found the crash had come ; the mighty river
Petchora was a field of pack-ice and ice-floes, marching
past towards the sea at the rate of six miles an hour.
We ran out on to the banks to find half the inhabitants of
Ust-Zylma watching the impressive scene.

DIFFICULTIES WITH SNOW-SHOES

CHAPTER XI.

PEASANT LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA.

Religious Processions — Costumes of the Peasants — A Russian Holiday
— Drunkenness — Prejudices of the Old Believers — Field Work — House-
building—New Birds— The Siberian Chiffchaff— Prices of Provisions —
Arrival of Waders.

The 2 1 St of May was St. Michael's Day, one of the
greatest holidays in this country. A long procession of
Old Believers, consisting mostly of women and children
■carrying banners and pictures, wended its way through
the town. The women were dressed in their best, and
decked with all the jewellery that they possessed, some
of which was very ancient and valuable. Many of the
dresses, too, were antique — heirlooms handed down from
mother to daughter. Some of these were gorgeous, none
were vulgar, the colours being always sober, rich and

ST. MICHAEL'S DAY 91

clear. The wealthier peasants' wives and daughters were
arrayed in velvet and gold, silk and satin ; those of the
poorer in linen and cotton, almost entirely of Russian
manufacture. The women, as a rule, wore the rubak/ia,
which is simply a skirt put over the fur malitza, coming-
down to within a few inches of the ground ; their
chausstLres consisted of high boots, and their head-dress
of an orientally coloured handkerchief, tied behind. We
had already noticed this Eastern taste for colour among
the peasantry. A few days previously an imposing-
wedding procession had passed our window. The larger
number of the party were on horseback, two on each
horse. All were brightly dressed : the men wore knots
of ribbons on their shoulders ; the women, gaily apparelled,
had on various and curious head-dresses, ornamented
with gold braid. Yet, for all their brilliancy, the colours
did not look garish, a little touch of grey being always
introduced to subdue the effect.

On St. Michael's Day it is customary to make presents
to the Church. The peasants brought various sorts of
offerings, cows, sheep, gloves, ribbons, etc., which were
afterwards sold by auction. Then the afternoon was spent
in merry-making, and, as is too often the case on a Russian
holidav, the revellers all oot more or less drunk.

We found the condition of things wonderfully altered
at Ust-Zylma by the breaking up of the ice of the Zylma
and the Pizhma. Despite the map, the latter river flows
into the Petchora, and is not a tributary of the Zylma.
The thaw of the two rivers together had been too much
for the Petchora. The ice was broken up for three or
four versts on either side of the town ; most of it had
disappeared, perhaps beneath the other ice. Already
several boats were out, and the men were fishing in open
water. The breaking-up of the ice went on steadily for

92 PEASANT LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

days. By the 25th of May the great river was entirely
free. Summer had come as suddenly as usual, and the
people were hard at work ; the women and children
carting manure on the land, using sledges, although the
snow had disappeared except where it lay in drifts ; the
men breaking up the ground with an antediluvian-looking
plough, sowing corn broadcast, or harrowing in the seed
with a wooden-toothed harrow.

A good deal of building was also going on. The
year before the peasants had made large earnings out of
the fisheries, and were now spending larger sums than
usual in erecting houses. We found the demand for
labour was great, and wages were high. Few men could
be got under 10s. per week. We spent our days, as
usual, on the look-out for the arrival of new migratory
birds, in watching the habits of those at hand, and in
adding to our collection. We saw no snow-buntings
after the i8th, and the merlins disappeared with them.
Nor did we see any gulls after the 21st. The shore-
larks and the Lapland buntings were also growing scarce.
Occasionally small flocks of them would appear in the
fields behind the house, sometimes so busy feeding as to
allow us to approach very near them.

On the 2 1 St of May we were surprised to find a pair
of wheatears. In England they are the earliest birds of
passage to arrive in spring, but of course they winter
farther south than the snow-buntings and shore-larks,
and we might reasonably expect them to arrive later in
such northerly breeding-grounds.

On the 22nd we added another familiar British
migrant to our list, the tree-pipit, a bird which usually
arrives rather late with us. A more important addition
to our list was, however, the Siberian chiffchaff {P/iy//o-
scopus tristis, Blyth), a little warbler which frequented

A GOOD HUNTING-GROUND 93

the low willows, uttering a plaintive call, a single note
repeated at intervals. We were under the impression
that we were adding a new bird to the European list,
but we afterwards found that our discovery had been
forestalled by M. Meves of Stockholm, who had found
it some years previously in the government of Perm. A
third specimen which we added to our list was a skylark.
On our return home we found that Znaminski had also
been out shooting, and had bagged some very interesting
birds for us — five green wagtails, three meadow-pipits,
two red-throated pipits, and a stonechat, the latter not
the European but the Indian species {Pratincola 7naura,
Pall.), a new and interesting addition to the European
fauna. Znaminski's hunting-ground had been a marshy
piece of land just behind the town, sprinkled over with
small spruce firs, bushes of stunted birch, juniper, and
dwarf rhododendrons (Ledum palustre). To this spot
we betook ourselves the next morning, and found it to
be a favourite resting-place of migratory birds. We
shot a red-throated pipit on the ground, solitary among
a company of meadow-pipits. We secured a green wag-
tail and a short-eared owl. In this favoured spot the
willow-warblers congregated and were in full song ; the
blue-throated warblers were also there, but their song
was not so full ; it resembled sometimes the warble of the
pipit and sometimes that of the whitethroat. We secured,
besides, a brace of golden plover and a reed-bunting.

During the afternoon we visited the skirts of the
pine-forest in the valley, and there I shot two male
wheatears. The day before, a male and female wheatear
had flown past me and perched on the summit of a tall
pine. Out of a spruce fir in the wood we now heard a
loud, clear " chiff-cheff-chaff." We thought it was the
cry of the chiffchaff; but we failed to find the bird.

94 PEASANT LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

Shortly after we heard a warbler singing. For a
moment we fancied it was a willow-wren, but before the
song was half finished we felt convinced that we were
unacquainted with it. It was not unlike the " chiff-cheff-
chaff " of our bird when it makes the third variation it
occasionally does in its notes, but these notes were more
musical, repeated rapidly without intermission, running
into a song. This bird was also perching in a spruce
fir, but a long shot brought it down. It proved to be
the Siberian chiffchaff. For days afterwards we heard
several of these birds singing, and, on further study of
their note, we found it very distinct from that of the
chiffchaff Our bird's note is not badly represented by
its name, with an equal accent on both syllables. The
note of the Siberian chiffchaff is better represented by
the word "chivit," with a decided accent on the first
syllable. It is seldom uttered singly, but generally
repeated " chiv-it, chiv-et," or oftener "chivit," followed
by two notes of its song. The bird seemed very partial
to the spruce fir, perching on its topmost bough. In
comparing its habits and those of the willow-warbler, we
found the Siberian chiffchaff easy to shoot, while the
latter was as wild as possible.

Another song that greatly roused our curiosity was a
melodious whistle, reminding us both of the song of the
blackbird and of the redwing. We expected the songster
would turn out to be some rare Siberian thrush. The
bird was by no means shy, so we had no difficulty in
following its song, and in approaching within easy shot,
as it perched sometimes on the top, sometimes near the
summit of a spruce fir. Once we observed it hopping
on the ground. We obtained six specimens, and were
somewhat disappointed to find such melodious and thrush-
like notes proceeded from the pine-grosbeak.

COST OF PROVISIOiNS 95

It is a curious fact that the day following, 011 returning
to the spot where we had seen and shot so many various
birds, we found it deserted ; there was nothing but
willow-warblers on it. Red-throated pipits passed over
singly and in flocks, but none seemed disposed to alight.
In a plantation hard by we heard a chaffinch sing, but
we did not get a shot at it. We fell in there with a
small flock of bramblings, and secured a male that w^as
not yet in full breeding plumage. On the following day
a thick mist came up the Petchora, which cleared up
about noon, and was followed by a north-west breeze
with orleams of sunshine and threatenines of rain. Birds
were few and sang little, the note of the warblers being
almost the only one we heard. We had an excellent
opportunity of identifying a white-tailed eagle, which
came almost within shot of us. Two cranes {Grus com-
munis, Bechst.) passed over us, and I recognised them
as birds I had seen two or three days before. By this
time all the hooded crows and magpies had gone into
the woods to breed, and the town was deserted by them.
During the week there had apparently been an arrival
of house-sparrows in Ust-Zylma, for they abounded in
Znaminski's yard. Strangely enough, we could not
meet with any in other parts of the town.

On the 26th the weather changed. A cold north-east
wind blew, and it was a day unpropitious for bird-shooting.
So little did we anticipate meeting with any, that we
spent the morning in buying provisions for our journey.
It may be useful to record the prices we paid :

Salt beef 1.70 rouble per poud {i\d. per lb.).
Butter 6.50 roubles ,, (4f(^. ,, ).

Tea 2 ,, per lb. (55. ,, ).

Coffee .55 rouble ,, (is. d^i. ,, ).

We also bought a nvelina, or white salmon, for our

■96

PEASANT LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA

present use. In its stomach were several small fishes.
It weighed 15 lb., and cost 10 kopecks per lb. We
were told that later the price would be 5 kopecks per lb.
This fish sometimes reaches the weight of 60 lb. We
found it very nice eating, but failed to recognise its
boasted superiority to salmon. We acknowledge, how-
ever, that the cooking may have been in fault.

In the afternoon we went out in the cold wind, not
expecting to shoot anything ; but to our astonishment
we found a number of new birds in the town itself We
secured a wood-sandpiper out of a flock of four, and a
Temminck's stint, of which there were several. We
saw a common swallow twice, and shot a pair of ringed
plovers. We had also an excellent view of two oyster-
catchers. All these were new arrivals. Many green
wagtails were to be seen, and we shot four males and
two females. In the village we met a shore-lark, the first
we had seen for many days in the streets.

The unfavourable-looking day proved one of the
most interesting we had yet had.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

\VI I, LOW-GROUSE

CHAPTER XII.

THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD.

Samoyede Names — The Blue-throated Warbler — Toads — Birds Resting
on Migration — Sparrow-hawk — The Petchora Free from Ice — A New
Song — Ceremony of Blessing the Steamer — Rambles in the Woods —
Appearance of the Mosquitoes.

Whilst we were waiting for the flood in the Petchora to
subside sufficiently to make it safe for us to proceed
down the river in a small boat, we met with a Samoyede
somewhat more intelligent than usual, and from him we
were glad to learn something more concerning the names
of various articles connected with reindeer and sledging
which we had collected. It is somewhat difficult to

G

98 THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD

express the exact sound in English characters, since
almost every Samoyede word is pronounced either nasally
or gutturally.

The Samoyede for sledge is khan, the kh pronounced
like ch in German, and the n like n in Spanish.

A reindeer is tu, the ti like the German //, There
are three sorts of reindeer : khora-tii, the entire male
reindeer; khdb-tii, the cut reindeer; ^^nA ydh-tii, the female
reindeer. These adjectives are also used in reference to
horses and other cattle.

The piece of leather over the body of the animal
which takes the place of our saddle is called the yode'-
yhia. The narrower band round the neck, in place of
the collar, is xhft pode'-yiir. The single trace attached to
the lower part of the collar, and passing between the legs
under the body, is called the sd. The blind pulley, or
pulley-block without a pulley through which it passes, is
t\\& Pyat' -say' . The halter, or bridle without a bit, is the
syahn. The halter of the leading reindeer is the nyes'-
min dye syahn. The halter of the other reindeer is the
pyelay syahn. The rein with which the leading reindeer
is guided is the metdnye. The hook on the side of the
saddle-band on which the rein rests is the khdlsoold.
The swivel or universal joint by which the rein is
attached to the halter is the siir'nye. A button which
serves to fasten the trace to the collar, or the belly-band
to the saddle, is \\\^ paysik. The long pole with which
the reindeer are driven is the toor, and the bone or ivory
knob at the end of it the tdor-ntahl. The rein connectinp-
the leading reindeer with the one next to it is the poo-
inye. A lasso is called a teeit-zdy, and the bone noose
through which it runs is the sah'nnk. The tent or choom
is the myah'-kdn, and a dog is called a vomyeko.

The Samoyede who gave us this information was one

A DOOMED RACE 99

of the poorer men of his tribe. All the richer families
had migrated north with their herds of reindeer before
the snow had melted. The poorer families remained
behind, hanging on to the skirts of the Russians, helping
them with their fishing, and receiving for pay such food
as their employers chose to give them. One cannot help
pitying these poor people. Their nation is gradually
dymg out. Like the North American Indians, they are
doomed to destruction, for, like them, they cannot refuse
spirits. In the struggle for existence they have no^
chance with the cunning Russian, who in all matters of
business has no more conscience than a Greek or a
Jew.

During this time the birds were few. On the 27th
we took a walk in the forest, and the only ones that were
singing were the willow-warblers, an occasional pine-
grosbeak breaking in now and then. We secured, how-
ever, a pair of bramblings out of a flock. We shot a
blue-throated warbler, a yellow-hammer, a female reed-
bunting, a Siberian jay, a stonechat, and a red-throated
pipit, and out of a number we brought down a brace of
golden plover. We saw a solitary shore-lark, a gull
(apparently the common species), and a fine male bull-
finch. In the town we got a couple of wood-sandpipers ;
then the green wagtails were common, and we came upon
a large party of Lapland buntings, all apparently females.
In the evening the wind dropped and a frost set in. At
midnight, when we went to bed, the thermometer marked
only 30°. The next day was bright, but cold, with a
light north wind blowing. We went for another long
tramp through the pine-woods, but very few birds were
to be seen. We shot a pair of grosbeaks, a fieldfare, and
a blue-throated warbler {Cyanecula suecica, Linn.). We
saw a Siberian jay, for whose nesi we had a long search,

loo THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD

which resulted in bur finding two old ones. Whether
these were nests of the Siberian jay or of the pine-gros-
beak we could not, however, determine. Twice we heard
the note of the Siberian chiffchaff, but we could not see or
get a shot at the birds.

The smart frost returned during the night. In the
morning, however, the wind veered round to the east,
and it was warm ; in the afternoon it was very hot.
Five hours hard walking through the woods in the early
morning resulted in nothing. I did not bring down a
single bird. My companion shot two blue-throated
warblers ; they had now grown as common as the willow-
warbler. The blue-throated warbler has been not inaptly
called the Swedish mocking-bird. Sometimes it is shy
and retiring, seeking food in the densest thickets and
bushes, haunting the marshy grounds sprinkled over
with small spruce fir, dwarf willows and juniper ; but
when newly arrived from its winter home, and beginning
to sing, it is an easy bird to see, and not difficult to shoot.
On its first arrival it often warbles in an undertone so
low that you fancy the sound must be muffled by the
thick tangle of branches in which you think the bird is
concealed, while all the time it is perched on high upon
the topmost spray of a young fir, this very conspicuousness
causing him to escape detection for the moment. His
first attempts at singing are harsh and grating, like the
notes of the sedge-warbler, or the still harsher ones of
the whitethroat ; these are followed by several variations
in a louder and rather more melodious tone, repeated
over and over again, somewhat in the fashion of a song-
thrush. After this you might fancy the little songster
was trying to mimic the various alarm-notes of all the
birds he can remember — the "chiz-zit" of the wagtail,
the "tip-tip-tip" of the blackbird, and especially the

SONG OF THE BLUE-THROAT loi

"whit-whit" of the chaffinch. As he improves in voice,
he sings louder and longer, until at last he almost
approaches the nightingale in the richness of the melody-
he pours forth. Sometimes he will sing as he flies
upward, descending with expanded wings and tail, to
alight on the highest bough of some low tree, almost
exactly as the tree-pipit does. When the females have
arrived, there comes at the end of his song the most
metallic note I have ever heard a bird utter. It is a sort
o( "ting-ting," resembling the sound produced by the
hitting of a suspended bar of steel with another piece of
the same metal.

Our afternoon walk was more fruitful of result than
that of the morning. I had followed for some time the
shore of the overflowing Petchora, when, after having
bagged a brace of wood-sandpipers and a ring-dotterel, I
crossed a sandbank to a marshy pool. The muffled
croak of numerous toads or frogs kept up a sound
resembling that of gurgling water. On my approach the
whole tribe disappeared and hid in the mud. After I
had waited a while, three slowly put up their noses above
the surface. I fired ineffectually upon the reptiles, but I
started seven or eight sandpipers and a red-throated
pipit, upon which I set off at once in pursuit of the last
bird. I presently found myself on a marshy piece of
ground, covered with grassy hillocks, in the narrow
trenches between which pipits were sitting. As I walked
on they rose at my feet on all sides, and I soon had half
a dozen within shot. I brought down a bird with each
barrel, reloaded, and, as I walked up to my victims,
there rose between me and them two or three pipits,
who evidently preferred being shot to being trodden
upon. Unfortunately I had but two cartridges left, so,
bringing down another brace, I went back to our quarters

I02 THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD

for more ammunition. On returning to the open marshy
ground, I found the birds still there, and very soon
secured another half-dozen. My last shot was a double
one. As I was getting over the soil upon which some
pipits had been sitting, a hawk rushed past clutching a
bird in its claws. A dozen wag-tails set off after it in
vociferous pursuit. I followed more quietly, and soon
had the satisfaction of laying a male sparrow-hawk upon
its back, with a half-eaten sparrow beside it. Some wag-
tails remained perched upon the railing behind which the
hawk had retired to finish the devouring of its prey.
They uttered cries, which might be interpreted either as
doubting the supposed escape of their foe, or as a paean
of rejoicing over its downfall. The sight of their enemy
lying motionless on its back rendered them deaf to the
sound of my gun and blind to my presence. They
remained undismayed within a few yards of me, not
stirring until I had packed away the hawk. At this
juncture my companion came up. He had been more
fortunate than I in his raid upon the reptiles, and had
secured a couple, which we found to be a species of toad,
with whitish and black spots and stripes on the back.
At this pool I now secured a Temminck's stint, and my
companion another pipit, making the eleventh shot that
day. For weeks we had never succeeded in shooting
more than one out of a flock. They had abounded
during the last fortnight in the fields and in the open
ground about the town. We had seen hundreds, and
yet, during those two weeks, we had not secured more
than five males and one female ; now in a couple of
hours we had bagged ten males and one female out of a
single flock. We had found them wild, and seldom
disposed to settle on the ground. It was curious that
these pipits should have been so different from the

THE LITTLE BUNTING 103

others ; but what was still more curious and interesting
was their behaviour during the raid we made upon them.
After repeated shots, bringing down several of their
numbers, the remainder would get up, settle on the
railings, on the adjoining house-roof, or perch upon the
slender branches of a willow-tree hard by.

The same day I saw again the barn-swallow, which
seemed to be the only representative of its species at
Ust-Zylma. I watched a flock of shore-larks and Lap-
land buntings on the stubble. As a rule, they ran along
the ground like the wagtails, but I also marked both
birds hopping for some distance.

For the first time, on Sunday, 30th of May, the Pet-
chora was free from ice. The steady march-past of the
frozen blocks had lasted just one week. The wind that
day was warm, blowing from the south, but the sky was
cloudy. A peasant brought us three young Siberian
jays, aid another rowed across the river, the bearer of a
ruff, the first we had yet seen ; and of some eggs — six
duck's eggs, doubtless those of the pintail, and four of
the hooded crow. The following day the warm south wind
continued, with sunshine and cloud. We took a lono-
round in the valley, where a few days before we had seen
so many Siberian chiffchaffs. The blue-throated warblers
were singing lustily, but we failed to hear or see the bird
we were specially in search of As we were making our
way home, through a swamp thickly studded over with
willows, birch, and fir, I heard a song quite new to me.
It closely resembled that of the yellow-hammer, whose
note is popularly supposed to say " Lit, lit, lit, little bread
and no cheese." This bird cried " Lit, lit, lit, in as tay."
I shot the strange songster, and brought down my first
little bunting {^Emberiza pusilla, Pall.). Twice during the
day we visited the marshy spot, upon which forty-eight

I04 THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD

hours previously the. red-throated pipits had swarmed,
but we found it utterly deserted. The flock was evi-
dently resting- after a long stage of migration, and had
now resumed its northward progress.

The next day a visit to the same spot brought the
same result ; not a red-throated pipit was to be seen
upon it. On the ist of June I saw a common scoter
for the first time, flying down the Petchora close past
Sideroff's steamer. I was on deck at the time, one of a
crowd waiting to witness the ceremony of sprinkling the
vessel with holy water ere it set out on its summer
voyage. The ship had arrived the evening before from
its winter quarters in the bay behind Habariki. The
ceremony was effective. Flags were flying, cannons
firing, guests assembled ; a breakfast was prepared, then
came the procession of robed priests, candles burning
and censers swinging; prayers were chanted, the crucifix
was kissed, and then the sprinkling began. Everybody
and everything was sprinkled with holy water from a
rod, apparently made of fine gilt wire. The paddle-
boxes were sprinkled, the deck was sprinkled fore and
aft, the cabins were sprinkled, the sailors were sprinkled ;
the captain and the engineer each received a whisk from
the brush, which made them wince, for at that moment a
detachment of ice, probably from the Ussa, was passing
down the river, chilling the water not a little. Then all
was over except the breakfast, when a practical joke was
played upon the guests, A course of bear-flesh was
served up incognito, so deliciously cooked that all ate of
it with gusto, suspecting nothing. Our amiable friend,
the wife of the public prosecutor, alone suspected, but
wisely kept her counsel.

After our dissipation we spent the evening packing
skins, and retired to our hammocks about midnight ; but

IN CHASE OF CHIFFCHAFFS 105

whether owing to Captain Arendt's hospitality or to the
effect of the arsenic in the skins, we could not sleep.
At three o'clock, finding that the sun had been up some
time, we bethought ourselves that we could not do better
than follow his example, so we accordingly arose, and
shouldering our guns, marched off" to the Siberian chiff-
chaff" valley. We chose good positions in the wood, and
disposed ourselves to watch and wait. Before long I
heard the distant chivit of the much longed-for bird,
rising from the bottom of the valley. I pressed forward
cautiously through the trees, and caught sight of the little
warbler's white throat glistening in the sunshine, as it
uttered its unpretentious song, perched on the top of a
pine. I could not approach it nearer than within sixty
yards without making a considerable ddtour to avoid
the stream with its high mud walls, crumbling down on
all sides, so I risked a shot. It was too far and missed.
Meanwhile a second Siberian chiffchaff set up its
chivit. I started off in pursuit of the cry and soon
came within shot of the bird, perched, as usual, on the
summit of a spruce fir. I fired, ran to the tree, searched
diligently through the moss at the foot, but found
nothing. Whistling for my companion to come up, I
began to run the tree over with my telescope, when, to
my great delight, I caught sight of my bird lying dead
on a spray within six inches of the top. We saw no
more of these birds during the morning, but shot two
wheatears, which had by this time grown common, a pair
of blue-throated warblers and a willow-wren. Nearly all
the green wagtails which we saw had more or less
brown on the breast ; they were doubtless last year's
birds which had not yet assumed the full mature plumage.
On our return a peasant brought us three young ravens
and some duck's eggs, probably pintail's. That day I

io6

THE PETCHORA IN FLOOD

recorded in my journal, with many groans, the first
appearance of the mosquitoes. Horrid-looking beasts,
with bodies a third of an inch long, monsters, the Culex
dainnabilis of Rae, with proboscis " infernali veiieno
niunitay I foresaw that we should have opportunities
enough to study the natural history of these bloodthirsty
creatures to our hearts' discontent.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

THE FLOODED BANKS OF THE RIVER

CHAPTER XIII.

A TRIP TO HABARIKI.

Trip to Habariki— Forest Scenery— Tarns in the Woods— Changeable
Weather— New Birds identified in the Forests— Golden Eagle— Osprey—
Hobby — Cuckoo— Yellow-headed Wagtail- Bohemian Waxwing— Great
Snipe— Terek Sandpiper— Goosander— Smew — Black-throated Diver.

We were fast asleep the next evening when we were
roused up by Captain Engel's invitation to go down with
him by the steamer to Habariki to stay there three days.
We had barely time to dress and fill our pockets with
■cartridores. The current of the river was in our favour ;
it was running at the rate of four miles an hour, and we
accomplished the twenty-seven miles in two hours.
Arrived at Habariki we scarcely recognised the place
again. The snow had disappeared, all but a patch or
two on the Timanski hills, fifty miles off. The Petchora,
freed from ice, had risen some twenty feet or more, and

io8 A TRIP TO HABARIKI

had flooded the island in front of the village, the willows
and pine-tree tops being just visible above the surface.
Inland, half the country at least was under water, a vast
network of lakes and swamps with forest between. In
some places the skirts themselves of the forest were
flooded. As we had not brougfht our wadino--boots we
had to confine our explorations to the woods. These
proved an inexhaustible source of interest to us, and one
in no wise lacking in variety. There was much beauty
in these woods. Under foot spread a carpet of soft green
moss and lichens, the thick moss predominating in the
older and thicker parts of the forest, while the reindeer-
moss and the many-coloured lichens abounded in the
younger and more open woods. Stray shrubs of arbutus
and rhododendron, bushes of bilberry, crowberry, cran-
berry, the fruit of which was preserved by seven months'
frost, clumps of carices, and other vegetation decked the
shady aisles. The monotony of the great pine forest was
varied by the delicate hues of willow and alder thickets,
by plantations of young pines and firs, by clumps of tall
spruce and haggard old larches, while here and there a
fine birch spread abroad its glossy foliage, or a gaunt
Scotch fir extended wide its copper-coloured arms. All
around lay strewn trunks and branches of timber, fallen
or felled, in every stage of decomposition, from the hoary
log, moss-covered and turned to tinder, to the newly
lopped branches of some lofty forest patriarch, whose
magnificent boughs had been wantonly cut up to furnish
firewood for Sideroff s steamer. The most curious features
in these forests were open and slightly hollow places, like
tarns, or half dried-up tarns, the bed carpeted with moss
and a network of last year's Potamogeton. The shallow
places were quite dried up, but the deeper ones had still
a lakelet glistening in the centre. These hollows are

ABUNDANCE OF BIRDS 109

doubtless jEilled with water when the Petchora reaches its
highest flood point in June, and many are not yet dried
up when an early winter sets in, and the remaining water
becomes ice-bound.

Our three days stay at Habariki was marked by very
variable weather. Thursday was calm and warm, with
bright sunshine. Friday was bitterly cold, with a strong
gale from the north, and only occasional gleams of sun-
shine, and slight storms of rain and snow. On Saturday
morning the gale had subsided, and the greater part of
the day the sun shone, but a violent hailstorm fell during
the afternoon, and in the evening we had a dead calm.
Notwithstanding the generally unfavourable weather we
saw a vast number of birds, and added to our lists in
these three days more than half as many species as we
had seen during the whole of our stay at Ust-Zylma.

We saw several eagles, but only one near enough for
identification. It showed no traces of white on the tail,
and we concluded it migfht be a ofolden-eaorle or a white-
tailed eagle of the first year. We identified an osprey as
it flew past us overhead. We fired at it, and it dropped
a large bunch of damp moss that it was doubtless carry-
ing for nesting purposes. On a bare larch-trunk tower-
inor hio-h above the surroundinor wood we could see, about
fifteen feet from the top, a large nest, which we presumed
was that of this bird.

I rose a dark-winged hawk trom the ground, which I
have no doubt was a hobby. Some hours later we saw a
similar-looking bird, perched high on the naked branch of
a dead larch, and a long shot brought it down. It proved
a fine male of this species.

Many of the ancient stems of the larches contained
old nest-holes of woodpeckers, and the bark of some trees
was riddled from top to bottom with small holes, evidently

no A TRIP TO HABARIKI

made by these birds when feeding. One of our sailors
shot a male. We saw soon after a pair of three-toed
woodpeckers, but did not then succeed in securing either
of them. On another occasion we heard the tapping
sound of the woodpecker's beak ; a tap, then a slight
pause, followed by a rapid succession of taps, and, after a
second slight pause, a final tap. I imitated the sound as
well as I could with a cartridge on the stock of my gun.
The bird immediately flew to a dead larch-trunk, close to
where we were standing, and perched, its head thrown
back listening, some fifty feet from the ground. In this
position it fell to my companion's gun. It was a female.

We heard the cuckoo's familiar note repeatedly every
day ; the first time it was near midnight, soon after our
arrival at Habariki.

The hooded crow and magpie were as abundant as
usual in this part of Europe. The Siberian jay was very
common ,in the wood, and very noisy ; all the more so,
perhaps, for the number of young birds among them. I
saw on one occasion an old jay feeding a young one. I
shot the latter ; it was in the full plumage of the first year.
The old birds were very tame and easy to secure, for they
were in full moult. The body bore no appearance of it,
but the wing and tail feathers were " in the pen." The
flight of the Siberian jay is noiseless, resembling some-
what that of the owl, sailing with wings and tail expanded
before alighting. These birds like ascending from branch
to branch, close by the stem of a birch or fir. When
they cannot hop from one bough to another they ascend
the trunk in the fashion of the woodpecker. This habit
we both of us specially noted. We did not hear their
song, but they were constantly uttering harsh loud cries,
some of which reminded us of those of the peregrine at its
nest, while others resembled the scream of the wood-

THE YELLOW-HEADED WAGTAIL iii

pecker. During the season of incubation the Siberian
jay seemed shy and silent.

A flock of tree-sparrows was always to be seen
among the few houses in the village, sometimes perched
on the railings, at other times gathered in a bunch on
the roofs. We saw no evidence of their havingf beeun
to think about building. The pine-grosbeak was one of
the commonest, if not the commonest bird at Habariki,
and the mealy redpoll also was common. The little
bunting was not rare, but its shy and retiring habits often
caused us to overlook it. We rarely heard it sing, yet
frequently noticed its quiet call-note. We also often
came upon it feeding on the ground near the swampy
edge of the forest tarns, in company with yellow wag-
tails, fieldfares, and bramblings. We saw several reed-
buntings, and shot a male. They usually frequented the
willows on the edges of the marshes and lakes. The
green wagtail was common, and still kept together in
flocks ; we constantly saw them in trees.

The yellow-headed wagtail {Motacilla citreola) was
a bird we had neither of us met with before. The
alighting of a small party of five on an alder-bush
surprised us. We secured a male, but the remainder
disappeared among some alders and willows growing on
an impassable piece of flooded land close to the Petchora,
which was also full of floating driftwood. So, unfortu-
nately, we saw them no more.

We noticed a few white wagtails, principally near the
village. Fieldfares were numerous, sometimes in flocks,
generally in pairs. They scarcely seemed to have yet
begun to breed. We had two nests brought us, how-
ever, each containing one ^%%. We found plenty of old
isolated nests, but no traces of colonies. The fieldfares
were singing far more in the woods about Habariki

112 A TRIP TO HABARIKI

than I had heard them doing during the breeding season
in Norway.

The redwing was decidedly commoner than the field-
fare, and its rich wild notes constantly resounded in all
parts of the forest. Its usually plaintive whistle was
only occasionally heard, the note which it more frequently
uttered resembled rather that of the song-thrush, but
was very short. We shot one, to make sure that it was
a bird of no other species. Its low warble often came
following the notes just mentioned ; but sometimes it was
given without the preliminary note, and once we heard
it utter a loose alarm-cry like that of the fieldfare. It is
evidently an earlier breeder than the latter bird. We
got four or five of its nests, containing four eggs each ;
one had five eggs. We found one nest in a spruce-fir
built nine feet from the ground, but in no instance did
we find a nest nearer than eighteen inches to the ground,
nor is it likely that there would be any built lower in
a country comparatively flooded. All the redwings were
in pairs ; we saw no signs whatever of their habits being
gregarious.

The blue-throated warbler was very common and tame,
allowing us to approach near as it sang perched on a low
bush or fed on the ground. It was in full voice, and
the variety of its notes formed a perfect medley of bird-
music. It frequented marshy ground, whether amongst
alders and willows, or in the forests of pines or other
trees. We saw several handsome male redstarts, and
came upon a pair or two of wheatears in the open sandy
pinewood near the village.

In the same locality we saw a few pairs of stonechats.
Willow-warblers were very abundant. At Habariki, for
the second time, I heard this bird utter a note different
from any I had heard in England. It is like the t-r-r-r

THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING 113

of the chiffchaff, but it is very difficult to describe it
exactly on paper. The nearest letters denoting it are
perhaps z-z-z ; it reminded me very much of the spitting
of a cat. We heard the song and also the "■ cJiiv-W of
the Siberian chiffchaff several times, and succeeded in
shooting one bird. When silent we always found it
busily engaged feeding like a tit. usually among spruce-
firs. Of the Lapp-tit {Parus cinctus, Bodd.) we saw two
pairs and a few solitary birds.

The note of the waxwingr had long been familiar to

O ft)

me, for I had once kept a pair in a cage for some
months. I was delighted to hear it once more resound-
ing from the lofty spruce and larch trees in the forest.
We succeeded in shooting one pair only ; nor were they
in very good plumage, having very few and small wax-
like appendages on the secondaries. The eggs in the
female were very large, and the testes of the male very
fully developed. It is therefore probable that they were
on the point of building, if they had not already begun.
As the yellow on the primaries was I -shaped and not
V-shaped, I judged it to be a )'oung bird.

We saw one solitary barn-swallow, and shot it, and
came upon many droppings of the capercailzie, but did
not see the bird. Several traps were set in the forest to
catch the hen, for the cock is not eaten. The peasants
call the latter gliikd, and the female taitaiora. Willow-
grouse and hazel-grouse, we were told, were abundant in
some seasons.

We saw one pair of golden plover on the newly sown
cornfields behind the village, and noticed two or three
pairs of ringed-plover frequenting the ploughed land
below Habariki and the grassy banks of a little stream
running out of the Petchora. We rose a pair of double
snipe from the young wood on the sandy ground beyond

H

114 A TRIP TO HABARIKI

the fields, and bagged one of them. These were the
first examples we had yet seen of the species.

We did not succeed in securing- a common snipe, but
we often heard their pecuHar tic-tuc note, and the sound
of their drumming high in the air. My companion
identified a snipe with his glass as belonging to this
species; it was uttering the characteristic note, and later,
when it dropped to the ground, it rose again with the
ziofzagr fliorht belonoing- to this bird. We were not a
little surprised the first time we saw a common snipe
perched upon the topmost upright twig of a bare larch
seventy feet above ground. We soon grew familiar to
the sight ; indeed, after what we witnessed of the
arboreal habits of birds we are not accustomed to see
perching in England, we ceased to feel surprise at the
circumstance. The origin of this habit is doubtless due
to the flooding of the great tracts of country by the
annual overflow of rivers at the time of migration. We
saw but one flock of Temminck's stint, feeding on the
marshy ground near one of the forest trees. We shot
them all, hoping to discover the Little stint amongst them,
but we were disappointed.

We found the greenshank and dusky redshank
iTotanus fuscus) abundant, but did not succeed in
shooting an example of either species.

Wood-sandpipers were common, frequenting the
edges of the marshes and the forest tarns. This bird,
like Temminck's stint, elevates its wings when alighting,
until they almost meet. There is a likeness also in the
song of the two birds. The note of the wood-sandpiper
is decidedly musical. We shot specimens from the
summit of high bare trees sixty-five feet at least from the
ground.

We shot half a dozen Terek sandpipers, the first we

DUCKS AND GEESE 115

had yet seen. The favourite resort of these pretty birds
was the grassy margin of the stream before mentioned,
where they fed on the edge of the water and on the
shoals of driftwood which Hned it in many places. We
also came upon them in the marshy ground round some
of the forest tarns. They were extremely tame. Like
the wood-sandpiper, they would allow us to come and
talk within a few yards of them, letting us take up a
position where, by a little patience, a double shot could
be obtained. We thoroughly identified the ruff on the
marsh, although we failed to obtain a specimen of it.

We saw a bean-goose, which had been shot a day or
two before our arrival. We also saw a pair of swans,
and identified the skin and head of one shot by a sailor a
week or two before our arrival as belonging to the common
wild species, Cygmts miisiczis.

Wigeons were by no means uncommon on the lake,
the larger forest tarns, and the open water in the marshes
We shot a female off the nest, and took from it five eggs
and the down : it was built under a couple of fallen trees
crossing each other. The nest had been used the previous
year, as old egg-shells were under the down. Several
other specimens of this bird were brought to us.

The pintail was the commonest duck about Habariki.
We shot a female from the nest, taking nine eggs and the
down. This nest also was under a prostrate tree, and
not far from the wigeon's. We had one nest of teal
with down brought us, together with a male bird. They
were not rare. The golden-eye was a common duck,
generally seen in pairs on the open water in the marshes
and larger forest tarns. We shot a female, and took
a perfect ^'g'g from her. A nest in the hollow stump
of a tree some twenty feet from the ground was shown
to us, and we were told that these birds bred there

ii6 A TRIP TO HABARIKI

every year. The nest contained ten eggs and plenty of
down.

We saw several goosanders, distinctly identifying one
pair on the water of the marsh behind Habariki. The
smew was rather a common duck ; we saw many pairs on
the pools, the large marsh, and the woodland tarns, and
secured a fine male. We were told that they breed in
low stumps of trees.

We identified the black-throated diver for the first
time on the 2nd of June. We saw it several times and
heard it fiying overhead.

We occasionally saw one or two common gulls and
one pair of Siberian herring-gulls. In addition to the
above-mentioned birds we frequently saw others that we
were unable fully to identify. Thus we often came upon
large sandpipers on the marsh whose cry was like that of
the redshank ; they were probably the dusky redshank.
We also sav/ a large fiock of ducks of a heavy species
flying overhead which we imagined to be the eider-
duck.

In the woods and forests of Habariki we did not once
meet with the raven, the bullfinch, or the yellow-hammer,
or with any species of pipit or lark.

THE DELTA OF THE PETCHORA

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA.

Return to Ust-Zylma — Wedding of the Engineer's Son— Scarlet Bullfinch
—Last Days at Ust-Zylma— Our Boat— We Sail to Habariki— Birds' Eggs
— Smew's Eggs — Snipes in Trees — Down the Petchora — Sedge-warbler —
Blackcock — Arctic Tern — Willow Swamps — We Cross the Arctic Circle
—A New Bird— Arrival at Viski— The Delta— Double Snipe— Pustozersk
• — The Tundra — Arrival at Alexievka.

We returned to Ust-Zylma on Sunday, the 6th of June,
and attended the wedding of the son of the engineer of
Sideroff's steamer. It took place in the church of the
Old Believers, but the ritual did not differ much from
that of the orthodox ceremonial. The bridal party after-
wards sat in state in the house of Sideroffs manager.
Coffee was hrst served, then sherry, afterwards cham-
pagne. All the quality, as an Irishman would say, were
present, except the public prosecutor. It was an exceed-

ii8 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

ingly formal and slow affair, the only feature of interest
being the assemblage of villagers outside, who sang a
melancholy tune, while two or three couples slowly
walked round each other in a depressed fashion, the
gentleman taking hold of one of the lady's arms by the
elbow, the other arm interlaced in hers. The girls wore
their hair plaited in a pigtail behind, at the end of which
a cross-bar was attached, from which dangled half a dozen
broad ribbons like a banner screen. They kept their
eyes fixed on the ground as they danced, and lifted a
handkerchief of many colours to their mouths. All the
time vodka was served from a tin can, and through the
afternoon and evening the part of the room near the door
was filled with an ever-changing crowd of peasant maidens
who came to have a good stare at the bride and bride-
groom and, having gazed their fill, retired to make way
for others, who entered and did likewise.

The next morning a stroll up the chiffchaff valley
resulted in nothing, but as we were returning home I
heard the song of a bird that was quite new to me — four
notes loud and clear. 1 shot the little songster, and it
proved to be a male scarlet bullfinch [Carpodacus
erythrinus). It was in company with another j, bird, but
this one escaped us. We heard the cuckoo in our
morning ramble. Four eggs of the wood-sandpiper were
brought to us, and the next day four eggs of the oyster-
catcher, one of which was slightly set. All that day we
worked hard at our eggs ; we had blown 143 in all,
including the ^<gg of a peregrine falcon which a Samoyede
brought us on the 27th of May. He said he found it in
a nest built on the ground, containing three others, which
he had the clumsiness to break. At night we turned out
for a breath of fresh air alongf the banks of the g-reat
river. During our walk we shot a pair of Terek sand-

WE START DOWN STREAM 119

pipers, the first we had yet seen in Ust-Zylma. We
also brought down two Temminck's stints, and afterwards
secured our soHtary example of the Little ringed-plover
(C Tfiinor). I shot at it as it rose from and again alighted
upon a swampy, hummocky strip of tundra land. The
next day a peasant brought us a fine cock willow-grouse,
our first, clothed in about half its summer costume. We
had also a nest given to us of the wheatear, with one ^^^
in it, and the female bird caught upon it.

We had for some time been on the look-out for a boat
in which to make the journey down the river, and by the
exertion of Piottuch and the kind help of M. Znaminski,
who was much interested in our expedition, we succeeded
in obtaining one which suited us very well. A wooden
cabin, not unlike a large dog- kennel, occupied the centre,
and was just large enough for us to recline in at full
length ; and at the back of it was a covered space, where
our baggage could be packed secure from the heavy rains
which occasionally occur in summer. It had one mast,
on which we could hoist a square sail whenever the wind
was favourable. The current would of course usually be
in our favour, but we were also provided with four oars,
which, though incapable of propelling the boat at much
speed, would be useful in crossing the stream, and in
giving her way enough to make the rudder of some use
in a calm. We engaged four boatmen, two Russians, a
Samoyede, and a half-breed, all of whom possessed
some knowledge of the river, while the latter had the
additional advantage of being what passed in this district
as an enthusiastic sportsman. We left Ust-Zylma on
Thursday, the loth of June, and sailed down to Habariki
with a fair wind and a strong current. The banks of the
river were covered with birch and spruce woods, alter-
nating with willow-swamps. On our way we landed at

120 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

several places, but met with nothing of special interest.
Everywhere we found the bluethroat, the redwing, the
brambling, the fieldfare, the little bunting, and the
willow-warbler common. We saw a solitary sand-martin.
The peasants at Habariki had collected eggs for us ;
among them those of the redwing, the redstart, the hooded
crow, and various ducks. The best nest contained eight
eggs. It had been found by two boys, who had divided
the eggs and the down between them. Four of these
eggs, cream coloured, of a smaller size than the pintail's,
were first brought to us, and with them some pale grey
down. The lad who brought them said he had found
the nest in the old stump of a tree, and the fragments of
rotten wood scattered in the down seemed to corroborate
his statement. We then sent for the other sharer of the
spoil ; he had already sold the eggs, along with another
duck's nest, containing six eggs. On our inquiry as to
what he had done with the down, he immediately went
off for it, and soon brought it to us. It was very pale
down, containing small fragments of wood, the exact
counterpart of the other portion in our possession. We
found, however, that the down of the second nest was
mingled with it. We had no difficulty in separating it,
for it was brown, and evidently that of the pintail. Ulti-
mately we purchased the batch of ten eggs from Sideroff's
manager, who had bought them from the lad. Four
exactly matched the four we had secured from his com-
panion ; the other six were the same in size but greenish
in colour, and similar to eggs of the pintail duck which
we afterwar.ls obtained. Upon shewing the boys some
skins of ducks, they at once identified the smew as the
duck which belonged to the whiter eggs with the pale
grey down. These eggs are extremely rare in collections,
and we were not a little elated with our prize.

SNIPE ON TREES 121

At three the following^ morniiio- we shouldered our
guns and went on shore. We had sat up late blowing-
eggs, but the excitement of finding ourselves in a locality
where rare eggs and birds might be expected made any
attempt to sleep fruitless, and we decided to gratify our
curiosity without further delay. We shot a Siberian
chiffchaff singing and " chiviting " lustily amongst the
pines, and heard several cuckoos. The snipes were
drumming on the marshes, and three times we marked
th m perched high up on trees ; once upon a dead trunk,
and twice on the slender dead branches near the summit
of larches. These trees were at least seventy feet high.
To put an end to all dispute concerning their species, we
settled the question by dropping a common snipe with a
No. 4 cartridge. It was shot from the topmost twigs of
a lofty larch, just budding into leaf. My afternoon walk,
which was a long round on the marsh, resulted in very
little. I rose a reeve from her nest, and shot her as
she was silently shuffling off. The nest was a rather
deep hole upon a grass tussock, lined with dry grass,
and in it were four eggs and two feathers. A quantity
of yellow wagtails were running along the swampy
ground, and perching freely upon the birches growing on
the islands formed in the marsh. Their usual cry was a
loud nc or ns, but what seemed the call-note to the female
resembled the sound i-i-i-k ; the song is a low chatter
like that of the swallow. Ducks were constantly coming
and going to and from the open places on the swamp.
The wigeon, judging from the frequency of its cry,
seemed the commonest species; its loud vi-e-ee'-yjc was
continually to be heard.

In the evenino we left the little villag^e of Habariki and
proceeded down the river. All the next day we crept
slowly down the mighty Petchora, a strong current in our

122 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

favour, but the wind contrary, and with only a couple of
oars propelling us along. The scenery was often inter-
esting. The west bank, lofty and steep, was now and
then clothed to the water's edge with forests of birches
and pines ; the east bank at that part was a dead flat
covered with willows. Numberless islands studded the
water, kurias running up amongst them, sometimes of
great picturesqueness. The th^m'-'-eef^ of the Terek sand-
piper resounded continually ; and sometimes we heard
the cry of the common sandpiper. We shot a brace of
the latter, the first we had secured ; we found the species
very wild. Two or three times during the day we pulled
up on an island or on the mainland. On a sandy island
thinly covered with grass we came upon a party fishing
with a seine net ; we watched and saw the net twice
drawn without result. On this island we shot a hen-
harrier, a cuckoo, and a short-eared owl. A few gulls
were flying about — the common gull and the Siberian
herring-gull. As we pulled on, I saw a party of six
waxwings flying north. Willow-warblers abounded ; I
watched one for some time that allowed me to approach
within six feet of it. I noticed that some appeared to
have a whiter throat and a more rapid song than usual.
One I heard vociferously uttering a note unlike any that
I have heard from the willow-warbler, tuz-Z2ik. These
observations convinced me that two species of willow-
warblers exist in these parts, and upon a careful examina-
tion of our skins afterwards, I found that I had shot an
Arctic willow-warbler i^Phylloscopus boi^ealis). Swans,
geese, and ducks, especially the latter, were to be seen in
the ponds behind the fringing belts of willows ; amongst
these we clearly identified the scaup and the black scoter.
We found six ducks' nests, most of which were those of
the wigeon. In one of these dense willow-swamps lining

THE YORSA RIVER 123

the east bank of the river I found for the first time the
sedge-warbler. On several occasions, especially at night,
we heard its harsh notes, but the bird kept very close,
and was very difficult to see. I shot two ; one was flying
out of a birch-tree, in which it had descended, singing
after the manner of the bluethroat. We also secured a
red-throated diver, the first added to our list. We saw a
rough-legged buzzard, the only one of the species we
clearly identified. It was sitting in a low willow-tree,
and we shot it, as we silently drifted past, about mid-
night. We stopped soon after, anchoring in a little
creek. A steady rain began to fall, which continued all
the following day ; we just managed to creep down to the
river Yorsa, where again we pulled up en route. We
saw very few birds, but in the evening we got on shore,
and a turn in the rain was not without result. We
seemed entangled in a network of willow swamps, lakes,
and kurias running out of the winding Yorsa. Here and
there rose a few taller willows and birches. After a
while we came upon a little house, the abode of the hay-
cutters in autumn, which our boatmen were now glad to
make use of for the night. All around it were long
straggling meadows, upon which the grass was just
beginning to come up. My companion shot a second
yellow-headed wagtail, a male ; he saw the female also,
but lost her. He also saw a small owl, probably Teng-
malm's owl. I secured a fine male goshawk, the only
one we identified on our journey. It was in a thick
alder-bush when I disturbed it, in the act of devouring a
female wigeon. In the same place I shot a short-eared
owl. Reed-buntings abounded. I took a nest containing
four eggs ; it was built inside an old fieldfare's nest, and
was nine feet from the oround, in a willow-tree. This is
another example of the manner in which birds accommo-

124 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

date themselves to the circumstances of a flooded country.
We found the Httle bunting very common, and just
beginnino- to build. Once or twice a white-tailed eaorle
hovered overhead. In long- grass covering the raised
bank of the island we discovered a blackcock's nest con
taining five eggs ; also a wigeon's nest, with seven eggs,
and a teal's with six.

The next afternoon we left the Yorsa River : the day
was hne, but the wind contrary. We stopped for an
hour at Churvinski Ostroff, and had a short stroll on
shore armed with walking-stick guns. My companion
shot a tree-sparrow, and I a small spotted woodpecker.
We also started a three-toed woodpecker out of its hole
in a tree ; I shot it, when immediately the female came
up, and I secured her also. We whistled for our boat-
men, who, by our orders, cut down the tree. The bird's
hole was about fifteen feet from the ground, descending
nine inches perpendicularly ; there was no lining in it,
except plenty of saw- or rather beak-dust. It contained
two newly hatched birds and one egg. On our way back
we shot a pair of yellow-headed wagtails ; the female had
dry grass in her beak, which she was evidently carrying
to build her nest. The male was not fully mature, having
the nape brown, and dark feathers amongst the yellow of
the crown. The yellow of the hen-bird was much less
brilliant than that of her mate, and the head and cheeks
were greenish- brown, with the exception of a pale yellow
streak over each eye, meeting across the forehead. A few
miles lower we brought down two little buntings and an
oyster-catcher ; we also took a brambling's nest and a
duck's, both containing eggs. That evening we saw our
first Arctic tern. We spied them from a distance, and
brought them within range by imitating their notes. We
suspected this species by the ash-grey colour of the lower

ARRIVE AT ABRAMOFF 125

parts. Later in the night we had the opportunity of
procuring both birds and eggs, and verifying our previous
recognition. We had pulled up at one of the islands to
boil the kettle for tea and cook some fish. After this
meal we began to explore. We shot three terns, and
found three nests, securino" five eofg-s in all. As I was in
the act of taking up one of these nests, a hare ran up,
stood in mute amazement gazing at me for a second or
two, and then turned and bolted. On this island we shot
an oyster-catcher ; it was evident the nest was there, but
we could not find it.

Rain and contrary winds accompanied us all the next
day ; and at night we stopped at Abramoff. We got
from the peasants there eggs of the common gull and
some of the white wa^rtail, besides those of the wieeon,
golden-eye, fieldfare, and redpoll. We also saw a couple
of young ravens. We shot a ringed-plover, a Temminck's
stint, and a pair of yellow-headed wagtails. We were
now leaving the more hilly country and the forests of
pine, and were entering a waste of willows. Far as the
eye could reach, on all sides of us, stretched this never-
ending, almost impenetrable willow-swamp, with winding
kurias and lakes. The only break in the monotony was
here and there a straggling bit of pasture-land, on which
stood a house or two, where a cow fed and the peasants
fished, and where, in the autumn, they would make hay.
Terns, gulls, and oyster-catchers were now not unfre-
quently seen, in addition to the almost numberless ducks
that were breeding everywhere. On the shores would
occasionally appear a Terek sandpiper, a Temminck's
stint, or a dotterel. In the thickets the bluethroat was
giving way to the sedge-warbler, but the willow-wren
remained the commonest bird. The notes of the redpoll,
the brambling, and the redwing still sounded. The

126 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

fieldfare and the reed-bunting, as well as the yellow-
headed, yellow, and white wagtails were still often to be
met with, the little bunting being especially plentiful.
That day I took my first nest of the Terek sandpiper. I
was walking in a wood of tall willows, when the bird rose
at my feet and silently fluttered away. There were four
eggs laid in a slight hollow, lined with broad grass. We also
found the nest of an oyster-catcher, containing four eggs.
We were now a little to the north of the Arctic Circle,
and at three in the morning moored our boat on the
shores of an island among whose willows grew an
occasional birch or alder. I spent five hours upon it.
Sedge-warblers were singing lustily, and sometimes so
melodiously that we almost took them to be bluethroats.
Soon, however, my attention was arrested by a song
with which I was not familiar. It came from a bird
singing high in the air, like a lark. I spent an hour
watching it. Once it remained up in the sky nearly
half an hour. The first part of the song was like the
trill of a Temminck's stint, or like the concluding notes
of the wood-warbler's song. This was succeeded by a
low guttural warble, resembling that which the blue-
throat sometimes makes. The bird sang while hovering ;
it afterwards alighted on a tree, and then descended to
the ground, still continuing to sing. I shot one, and my
companion an hour later shot another. Both birds
proved to be males, and quite distinct from any species
with which either of us was previously acquainted. The
long hind claw was like that of the meadow-pipit, and
the general character of the bird resembled a large and
brilliantly coloured tree-pipit. It was very aquatic in its
habits, frequenting the most marshy ground amongst the
willows.

On our return home five skins of this bird were

"ANTHUS GUSTAVI" 127

submitted to our friend Mr. Dresser, who pronounced it
to be a new species, and described and figured it in a
work which he was then pubHshing on the birds of
Europe, In honour of my having been the first to
discover it he named it after me, Anthus seebolnni,* but,
alas for the vanity of human wishes, I afterwards
discovered that the bird was not new, but had been
described some years before from examples obtained
on the coast of China, I had subsequently the pleasure
of working out its geographical distribution, as the reader
who cares to peruse the accompanying footnote may
learn. The honour of havino- added a new bird to the
European lists still remains to us, and is one of the
discoveries made upon our journey on which we pride
ourselves.

In the evening we reached Viski, a small town with a
church built upon a flat piece of pasture-land. It was
the first villaofe containino^ more than half a dozen houses

&

* The Siberian pipit {Anlhus gustavi, Swinhoe) was perhaps the most interesting
discovery which we made during our journey. It was first described by Swinhoe
in 1863, from specimens obtained at Amoy, in South China, on migration. It is
seldom that the history of an obscure bird is so suddenly and completely worked
out as has been the case with this species. In 1869, G. R. Gray, of the British
Museum, redescribed the species as Anthus batch ianensis, from skins collected by
Wallace on the island of Batjan in the Moluccas. In 1871 Swinhoe announced
the identity of Gray's birds with the species with which he had previously described
from South China. Three years later he identified the species in North China
on migration, and also obtained a skin from Lake Baikal. The year after our visit
to the Petchora, Drs. Finsch and Brehm found it in the valley of the Ob, a little
to the north of the Arctic Circle, and I afterwards found skins in the British
Museum from Borneo and Negros in the Philippine Archipelago, and also obtained
information that it had been procured in winter at Manila and in Celebes. In
1877 I found it breeding in considerable numbers in the valley of the Yenesei
in latitude 70^°, and on my journey home I identified skins in the Museum
at St. Petersburg, collected by Baron Maydell in Tschuski Land, north of
Kamtschatka, and on Bering Island to the east of the peninsula, collected by
Wossnessensky. We may therefore conclude that the Siberian pipit breeds on
the tundras beyond the limit of forest growth, from the valley of the Petchora
eastwards to Bering's Strait, that it passes through South-Eastern Siberia and
East China on migration, and winters in the islands of the Malay Archipelago.

128 OUR voyagp: to the delta

and the first church that we had seen since leaving Ust-
Zylma. It is reputed to be the residence of several rich
peasants, one of whom is the owner of 10,000 reindeer
valued at a sovereign each. Without exception it is the
dirtiest place I have ever been in. The peasants keep
cows, but as they have no arable ground the manure is
valueless and is thrown outside the house to be trodden
under foot. There was an excellent shop in the place,
where we laid in a store of tobacco, white flour, etc. In
the village we saw a sand-martin and a magpie, but no
sparrows.

On leaving Viski we entered upon the true delta, a
labyrinth of water and islands, one almost as dead a flat
as the other. The islands — which but a little while ago
had lain three or four feet deep under the overflow of the
great river — were almost all alike. They were monotonous
willow-swamps, with here and there narrow strips of sandy
land appearing, thickly covered with grass and sparingly
sprinkled with willows and alders. Everywhere were
the winding kurias and chains of lakelets. On the dry
places ducks of various sorts were breeding. We identi-
fied a shoveller, and there were wigeons, scoters, and
teal. On one island we found two pintails' nests with
eggs, and I shot our first tufted duck, a species which we
found very rare in the Petchora. As soon as I fired there
rose between me and it a flock of red-necked phalaropes,
which alighted between me and the floating body. I
shot five : they were the first we had yet secured, but
later in the day we brought down four more. My com-
panion meanwhile was exploring another island, where he
fell in with a flock of ruffs at their " lecking " place. He
shot two. Geese were becoming more and more plen-
tiful ; in one instance we marked aflock of fifty at least.
Swans often passed us by twos and threes. The sand-

BIRDS IN THE DELTA 129

pipers, the Terek, and Temmlnck's stints were as common
as ever. We watched one of the latter to its nest, shot it,
and secured the four eggs. Early next morning I brought
down a skylark, the second only that we had seen. I
also shot a blue-throat, a species which by this time had
grown very rare. The commonest warbler, abounding
in some places, was the sedge-warbler, next to it was the
willow-warbler. Now and then also we heard the red-
wing, and generally where we stopped there would greet
us the song of the new pipit pouring down from the sky.
The bird would remain up in the air for a long time, then
fly down and alight in the middle of a dense willow
swamp, rendering it impossible for us to secure another
specimen. A red-throated pipit that my companion shot
out of a tree furnished us with the best possible evidence
that this species is much more arboreal in its habits than
the meadow-pipit. The yellow-headed wagtail had now
become quite a common bird, but occasionally we still
saw the white wagtail. At one island we shot a pair of
small spotted woodpeckers, which must have found the
alder and willow-trunks very small for their nests. I
found also two fieldfares' nests, one with four, the other
with six eggs. Late in the evening we came upon a
large flock of great snipe, and in the course of half an hour
we had shot ten. They were flying about in companies
of about six, continually alighting on the ground, where
the sound of their feeding was often heard. One or two
common snipe were also hovering overhead and frequently
drumming. On one island we saw signs that the breaking
up of the Petchora did not take place so silently in the
delta as it had done at Ust-Zylma. On the flat shore we
discovered a small rang-e of miniature mountains some
eighteen to twenty feet high. We took them at first
from a distance to be low sandhills, but on nearer

I

130 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

approach found them to be a pile of dirty blocks of
ice.

We arrived at Pustozersk at midnight on June i8,
and spent the night shooting. The country was a sort
of rolling prairie, rising here and there into dry moorland,
on which grew birches, junipers, and a few pines. The
lower land remained a willow-swamp. Among the sand-
hills we found a couple of terns' nests and one of the
Terek sandpiper. Plenty of Temminck's stints were
about, but we failed to find any nests. We shot a couple
of sand-martins preparing to build. In a walk that I
took on the dry moorland I stalked a couple of willow-
grouse sitting upon a birch-tree, very conspicuous objects
for a mile around. I also rose a shore-lark from its nest,
in which I found four young birds, and secured a golden
plover, one of whose axillary feathers was blotched with
brown. In this part of the moor the yellow-headed
wagtails abounded. Down in the marshy ground I shot
a ruff, and saw several others, besides a number of red-
necked phalaropes ; but of all the birds the most interest-
ing were the pipits. Our new pipit was here by no means
uncommon ; two or three would sometimes be singing
together. We secured two more specimens, one of
which must have been trilling its roundelay up in the air
for nearly an hour before we were able to shoot it. These
pipits poured their song indifferently from the sky, or
perching on a bough, or down upon the ground. The
red-throated pipit we also found settling freely in trees.
In the swampy ground we saw many sedge- warblers,
fieldfares, and redwings, and one or two blue-throats.
The next night we again spent shooting in a willow-
covered island just opposite Kuya. We had grown very
weary of these islands, and somewhat disappointed in the
result of our ornithological experience of the delta. We

BIRDS ON THE ISLAxNDS 131

had indeed secured some interesting species of birds, but
each island had proved almost a repetition of the others
— the same landscape, the same conditions, the same
bird-life. We were nearinof Alexievka, however, and on
the eastern side of the river we could almost distinguish
the low outline of the skirts of the great Zemelskaya
Tundra, stretching away, we knew, on the east to the
Ural Mountains, on the north-east to the gates of the
Kara Sea ; and the tundra was the unexplored land, the
land of promise.

On this island we took the nest, containing seven
eggs, of a pintail, shooting the bird as she was flying off.
We found also those of the red-necked phalarope, the
great snipe, and the reed-bunting. Our most exciting
nest-discovery was that of a swan. It was a large nest,
made of coarse grass lined with a little down and a few
feathers, and containing three eggs. It was placed upon
a bank between two marshes, half-concealed by willow-
scrub. The most interesting birds we shot were a black
scoter, a herring-gull, and a long-tailed duck, the first
we had yet seen on our travels. Its cry was not unlike
the word " colguief." Of all species of ducks it is the
tamest and yet one of the most difficult to shoot, for it is
an expert at diving, and eludes the sportsman's aim by
its rapid and repeated plunges under the surface of the
water.

Just before reaching Alexievka we anchored for an
hour at another island, about which seven swans were
sailing. The graceful birds, however, did not give us
the chance of a shot. Upon this island we had an
excellent view of our first great black-backed gulls, and
also of Buffon's skua. The former were sitting amidst
several Siberian herring-gulls, but their superior size
allowed us to identify them at a glance. The Arctic tern

132

OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA

was breeding on this island, while ruffs, phalaropes, and
Temminck's stint abounded upon it. Cn one part,
covered with dwarf willows, interspersed with taller trees,
I heard to my astonishment the warble of the Siberian
chiffchaff, two specimens of which I secured. The red-
throated pipits were there perching, as usual, in the
boughs, and I noticed also one or two of our new pipits
and a number of reed-buntings.

This bird-haunted island was our last stoppage before
reaching Alexievka. We arrived at our destination on
the evening of the 19th of June, after ten days voyage
down the great river and through the intricacies of the
monotonous delta.

PLOUGHING AT UST-ZYLMA

ALEXIEVKA FROM THE TUNDRA

CHAPTER XV.

ALEXIEVKA.

Alexievka — The Timber Rafts — The Island — Nests and Eggs — Buffon's
Skua — SaiUng for the Tundra — Description of the Tundra — Its Vegeta-
tion — Nests of Lapland Bunting and Red-throated Pipit — First Sight of
the Grey Plover — Its Nest — Omelette of Grey Plover's Eggs — Birds seen
on the Tundra — Eggs collected during the Day — Nest of Anthus gustavi.

Alexievka is the shipping-port of the Petchora Timber-
trading Company. It is a group of houses built upon
an island in the delta of the great river, where the ships
are laden with larch for Cronstadt. The larch is felled
in the forests 500 or 600 miles up the river, and
roughly squared into logs varying from two to three
feet in diameter. It is floated down in enormous rafts,
the losfs beincr bound toQether with willows and hazel-
boughs. These rafts are manned by a large crew, some
of whom help to steer it down the current with oars and

134 ALEXIEVKA

poles, while others are hired for the season to assist in
loading the ships at Alexievka. Many of the men bring
their wives with them to cook for the party ; sleeping
huts are erected on the raft, and it becomes to all intents
and purposes a little floating village, which is frequently
three months in making the voyage down the river.
Marriages have been known to take place on these rafts.
Occasionally a funeral has to be performed, and sometimes
all hands are engaged in helping to keep the raft under the
lee of an island or a promontory to avoid the danger of
having it broken up by the violence of the waves. With
the greatest care in the world this will sometimes happen.
The Russian has a good deal of the fatal facility to blunder
which characterises the Englishman, and shiploads of
stranded logs of larch are strewn on the islands of the
delta and on the shores of the lag^oon of this orreat river.
When we landed on the island of Alexievka it was
a rapidly drying-up willow-swamp of perhaps half a
dozen square miles, some six feet above the level of the
Petchora, which swept past it with a rapid current. In
some places the willow-swamp was impenetrable, in
others bare grassy oases varied the flat landscape, and
there were one or two largish lakes on the island. During
the floods which accompanied the break-up of the ice,
the whole of the island was under water, and men were
busily clearing away the mud which had deposited itself
on the floors of the houses. An extensive series of
wooden fortifications protected the various buildings from
being carried away by the ice. For four months of the
year the village was a busy scene, full of life and activity,
but for the remaining eight months a solitary man and a
dog kept watch over the property of the Company, and
even they had to desert their charge and escape to the
shore during the breaking-up of the ice.

AT ALEXIEVKA 135-,

Three rooms were generously placed at our disposal,
and we proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as
the circumstances would permit. Our first care was to
buy a brace of willow-grouse and a bean-goose for the
pot ; our next to purchase eggs of the yellow-headed
wagtail, bean-goose, willow-grouse, and long-tailed duck.
A nest of the white wagtail which we found contained
remarkably brown eggs ; it was made chiefly of roots and
a little stalky grass, and was lined with reindeer hair.
The next day peasants brought us two nests of the
yellow-headed wagtail, which were also composed of fine
roots and dry leafy grass, the inside lined with reindeer
hair ; one had, besides, two small feathers and a piece of
duck-down.

The mosquitoes, which of late had tried us severely,
were now giving us a respite, driven back by the cold
north wind and occasional snowstorms. All day I kept
indoors, going out but for half an hour, when I bagged a
Siberian chiffchaff and a red-throated pipit perched in a
tree. The nests came in plentifully. The first day of our
stay there were brought to us those of the blue-throat,
the redpoll, the reed-bunting, the willow-warbler, two of
the bean-goose, with the goose snared upon it, and one
of the pintail duck. With these were brought two
wigeon's eggs. The weather continued very cold ; the
Petchora looked sullen and tempestuous under the dark
sky and bleak w ind. The next clay we again kept indoors,
profiting by our enforced captivity in having a general
overhauling of our skins. We found the Siberian chiff-
chaff the commonest warbler amongst the willows of
Alexievka. Its note is a " ching-chevy " repeated three
or four times in rapid succession with the accent laid on
the " ching," and the warble generally, but not always,
ending with a final " ching." Probably owing to the

136 ALEXIEVKA

coldness of the weather we did not then hear it in full
song, as we did at Ust-Zylma and Habariki. We found
Buffon's skuas numerous in Alexievka ; they were usually
in flocks of five or six. There seemed to be only one
common sparrow in the place, and this I shot.

The 22nd of June was inscribed in our journal as a
red-letter day. We were dead tired when we turned
into our hammocks at half-past ten the night before, and
slept the clock round and an hour over, rising at half-
past eleven. When we woke we found it was a bright
warm day, the wind had dropped, and the great river
looked no longer like an angry sea. We decided to
cross it, ordered our men to get the boat ready, made a
hasty breakfast, and set sail at last for the land of promise,
the mysterious tundra. We pictured this great land to
ourselves as a sort of ornithological Cathay, where all
sorts of rare and possibly unknown birds might be found.
So far we had been just a little disappointed with the
results of our trip. July would soon be upon us, and we
had not yet solved one of the six problems that we had
proposed to ourselves as the main objects of our journey.
We had not seen the least trace of the knot, the curlew
sandpiper, the sanderling, or the grey plover. Some
birds that we had at first fancied might be Little stints in
full breeding plumage, we were now thoroughly con-
vinced were nothino- but Temminck's stints, and as we
had hitherto met with but one species of swan, we had
reluctantly come to the conclusion that we had not yet
seen Bewick's swan. We congratulated ourselves that
our observations on the arrival of migratory birds at
Ust-Zylma were not without interest. We were much
pleased that we had shot one specimen of the Arctic
willow-warbler. The abundance of yellow-headed wag-
tails, and the prospect of bringing home many of the

ON THE TUNDRA 137

eggs of this rare bird, was a source of considerable
satisfaction to us. Our two best things were undoubtedly
the new pipit and the Siberian chiffchaff. We hoped
that both these birds might be new, but our acquaintance
with the various Indian species that might possibly migrate
into this resfion was not sufficient to warrant us in enter-
taining more than a hope. We therefore looked forward
to our first day on the tundra with more than usual anxiety
and interest.

The tundra forms the east bank of the Petchora, and
we anchored our boat under a steep cliff, perhaps sixty
feet high, a crumbling slope of clay, earth, sand, gravel,
turf, but no rock. We looked over a gently rolling
prairie country, stretching away to a flat plain, beyond
which was a range of low rounded hills, some eight or
ten miles off. It was in fact a moor, with here and there
a large flat bog, and everywhere abundance of lakes.
For seven or eight months in the year it is covered with
from two to three feet of snow. Snow was still lying in
large patches in the more sheltered recesses of the steep
river-banks, and on one of the lakes a large floe of ice,
six inches thick, was still unmelted. The vegetation on
the dry parts of the tundra was chiefly sedges, moss, and
lichen, of which the familiar reindeer-moss was especially
abundant. In some places there was an abundance of
cranberries, with last year's fruit still eatable, preserved
by the frost and snow of winter. Here and there we met
with a dwarf shrub, not unlike a rhododendron, with a
white flower and aromatic-scented \^2M^^{Led2U}i palustre),
a heath-like plant with a pale red flower {^Andromeda
polifolid), and dwarf birch [Bettila nana) running on the
ground almost like ivy. The flat boggy places had evi-
dently been shallow lakes a few weeks ago after the
sudden thaw, and were now black swamps ; water in the

138 ALEXIEVKA

middle, grown over with yellow-green moss, and sedges
towards the edge. They were separated from each other
by tussocky ridges of moor, which intersected the plain
like the veins on the rind of a melon. We found no
difficulty in going where we liked ; our indiarubber
waterproofs were all-sufficient. We crossed the wettest
bogs with impunity, seldom sinking more than a foot
before reaching a good foundation, a solid pavement of
ice. Birds were but thinly scattered over the ground,
but there were sufficient to keep our curiosity on the qiii
vive. The commonest bird was the Lapland bunting,
and we took two of their nests in the tussocky ridges
between the little bogs. The next commonest bird was
the red-throated pipit, and we found two of their nests in
similar positions. As we marched across the tundra we
fell in with some dunlins, and took a couple of their nests.
This was encouraging. The dunlin was a bird we had
not seen at Ust-Zylma, and one possibly that migrated
direct across country to Ust-Ussa. We had not walked
more than a couple of miles inland before we came upon
a small party of plovers. They were very wild, and we
found it impossible to get within shot of them ; but a
distant view through our binocular almost convinced us
that we had met with the grey plover at last. On going
a little farther other plovers rose, and we determined to
commence a diligent search for the nest, and offered half
a rouble to any of our men who should find one. Our
interpreter laughed at us, and marched away into the
tundra with a " C'est impossible, monsieur." We appealed
to our Samoyede, who stroked his beardless chin and
cautiously replied, " Mozhna." The other men wandered
aimlessly up and down, but the Samoyede tramped the
ground systematically, and after more than an hour's
search found a nest on one of the dry tussocky ridges

NESTS OF THE GREY PLOVER 139.

intersecting the bog, containing four eggs about the size
and shape of those of the golden plover, but more like
those of the lapwing in colour. The nest was a hollow,
evidently scratched, perfectly round, somewhat deep, and
containingr a handful of broken slender twios and reindeer-
moss. Harvie-Brown concealed himself as well as he
could behind a ridge, to lie in wait for the bird returning
to the nest, and after half an hour's watching shot a
veritable grey plover. Soon afterwards another of our
men found a second nest, also containing four eggs, in
an exactly similar situation. Harvie-Brown took this nest
also in hand, and in about an hour succeeded in shooting
the female. The third nest was found by the Samoyede.
This time I lay down behind a ridge some thirty yards
from the nest, and after waiting a quarter of an hour
caught sight of the bird on the top of a distant tussock.
Presently she ran nearer to another ridge, looked round,
and then ran on to the next, until she finally came within
fifty yards of where I was lying. I had just made up my
mind to risk a shot when she must have caught sight of
me, and flew right away. In a quarter of an hour I
caught sight of her again, approaching by short stages as
before, but from an opposite direction. I must have been
in full sight of her. When she had approached within
fifty yards of me, as near as I could guess, I fired at her
with No. 4 shot and missed. I remained reclining where
I was, with little hope that she would try a third time to
approach the nest, and whiled away the time with watch-
ing a Buffon's skua through my glass as it cautiously
approached in my direction. Turning my head round
suddenly I caught sight of the grey plover running
towards the nest within fifty yards of me. I lifted my
(jun and fired aoain but was so nervous that I missed
her a second time. I was so vexed that I got up and

140 ALEXIEVKA

walked towards the skua, which still remained in statu quo.
I missed a shot at it too, spent some time in a vain search
for its nest, and returned to my old quarters. In ten
minutes I saw the grey plover flying up. It took a wheel
in my direction, coming almost within shot, and evidently
took stock of me, and satisfied itself that I was a harm-
less animal practising with blank cartridge, and having no
evil design upon its eggs. It alighted about fifty yards
beyond the nest, and approached less timidly than before.
When it came within fifty yards of me I fired, this time
with No. 6 shot, and laid the poor bird upon its back.
As we returned to our boat Harvie-Brown found a fourth
nest, and, after watching as before, secured the bird. We
accidentallv broke two of the eeafs belonging; to the third
nest, but reached Alexievka at midnig-ht with fourteen
identified grey plover's eggs. Two sittings were quite
fresh, and made us an excellent omelette for breakfast
the next morning. The other two were very slightly
incubated.

On the tundra we saw several Buffon's skuas, and
shot two. I also shot a willow-grouse on a piece of
swampy ground near a lake, where a few dwarf willows
were growing. On the lakes we saw many pairs of long-
tailed ducks. A few pairs of yellow-headed wagtails,
which evidently had nests, a redwing, a Temminck's
stint, a few pairs of bean-geese, a redpoll, and a hawk,
which, as far as I could make out with my glass, was a
male peregrine — this completed the list of birds we saw
on the tundra.

On our return to headquarters we found that the price
we had paid for the eggs to the workmen had induced
many of them to go out bird-nesting, and at night our
bag for the day stood as under, as far as eggs were con-
cerned : —

OUR EGG LIST 141

Grey plover ......... 14

Dunlin .......... 7

Great snipe ......... 4

Lapland bunting ........ 25

' Red-throated pipit 39

Yellow-headed wagtail ....... 10

Mealy redpoll 16

Reed-bunting ......... 12

Redwing .......... 3

Bean-goose . . . . . . . . . . ir

Wigeon (with down) . . . . . . . .17

Temminck's stint ........ 4

162

This was a grand haul. Any little lingering feeling of
disappointment which we had experienced was now com-
pletely gone. The grey plover eggs alone would have
made our trip a success. They were unquestionably the
first that had ever been taken in Europe. We spent the
next two days in blowing our eggs and writing up our
journals, occasionally strolling out among the willows
on the island to bag a few yellow-headed wagtails and
other birds to keep Piottuch employed. We found that
the swans' eggs that we had brought from Kuya were
perfectly fresh. The eggs of the bean-goose, on the
contrary, some of them more than a week old, were
mostly considerably incubated. The ducks' eggs were
all fresh, or nearly so. Most of these were wigeon's,
pale cream-coloured eggs ; the down large, dark brown,
very distinctly tipped with white and with pale whitish
centres. The red-throated pipits and Lapland buntings'
eggs were, many of them, too much sat upon to be easily
blown, as were also the dunlins' eggs. The eggs of
Temminck's stint, red-necked phalarope, yellow-headed
wagtail, and most of the redpolls were all fresh or very
slightly sat upon. The eggs of the gulls, both those of
the common species and of the Arctic herring-gull, were
quite fresh, whilst some of those of the Arctic tern were

142

ALEXIEVKA

fresh, and some considerably incubated. During these
two days we found several nests of the fieldfare on the
island, a nest of the willow- warbler, and one of the yellow-
headed wagtail. The latter was on the ground, concealed
amonest the old tano-led ofrass which the floods had
twisted round a stake. It was principally composed of
dry herbage, with one or two feathers in the lining. Our
two rarce aves, which we christened the Petchora pipit,
and the Siberian chiffchaff, were by no means uncommon,
but we failed to find either of their nests. Amongst the
nests, however, which our excellent coadjutors the Zyriani
brought us was one which we at once concluded could
belong only to the Petchora pipit {Anthus gustavi). It
contained five perfectly fresh eggs, larger than those of
the red-throated pipit, and similar in colour to those of
the meadow-pipit. The nest was somewhat larger than
that of the red-throated pipit, composed of more aquatic-
looking flat-leaved grass, and containing fragments of
Eqtiisetum in the lining. Our collection of eggs increased
rapidly. We had now 145 sittings, numbering 681

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

STANAVIALACHTA

CHAPTER XVI.

STANAVIALACHTA.

The Tundra near the Yushina River — Golden Plover's Eggs — Abundance
of Nests — Lapland Bunting — Richardson's Skua — Means of Propelling
our Boat — The Tundra near Stanavialachta — Eyrie of a Peregrine Falcon
— More Nests— Abundance of Willow-grouse — Nest of the Willow-grouse
—Visit to two Islands in the Delta.

The next day we left Alexievka in the morning to spend
a few days exploring the tundra in the neighbourhood of
Stanavialachta, the old loading-place of the Petchora
Timber-trading Company, about forty versts down the
river, where we learnt there were several wooden houses
that we could occupy. We sailed about twenty versts
down to the mouth of a small tributary called the
Yushina. The tundra here was less marshy, the ground
more hilly, and upon it were more willows. The
country looked so inviting that we cast anchor and went

144 STANAVIALACHTA

on shore for a stroll. We soon saw some plovers, and
were in hopes of a second haul of grey plovers' eggs.
After a time our Samoyede discovered a nest, but the
eof2fs in it were of a much liofhter orround colour than
those we had found before. We waited and shot the
bird, but to our disappointment it turned out to be a
golden plover. We afterwards saw several more. We
could not detect any difference in the habits of the two
species at the nest. We secured a bean-goose off its
nest with seven eggs, and were very successful in finding-
nests of small birds. We took eg"o"s of reeve, rinoed-
plover, willow-warbler, Lapland bunting, red-throated
pipit, blue-throated warbler, redwing, Temminck's stint,
and willow-grouse. The redwing's nest contained six
eofos. It was in a willow about four feet from the oround.
Redpolls were common, and oftener to be met with on
the oTound than in the willow and birch-bushes. The
Lapland bunting we constantly saw both running and
hopping on the ground. These charming birds were very
tame and very numerous. They perched freely in the
bushes. They were busily employed in the duties of
incubation, and we rarely, if ever, heard them sing. In
Finmark I used to hear their song constantly ; but then
they were only just beginning to breed. We saw many
red-throated pipits, carrying flies in their mouths, evi-
dently destined to feed their young, and if we came
inconveniently near their nests they would fly uneasily
from bush to bush. Near a couple of deserted turf huts
we noticed the white wagtail and the wheatear. The
yellow-headed wagtail was also frequently met with on
the tundra, but not in anything like the numbers in which
we found it on the islands of the delta. On the banks
of the orreat river numerous Siberian herrino-o-ulls were
slowly sailing past, and we shot four. I shot a Richard-

AT STANAVIALACHTA 145

son's skua, which heedlessly flew within range of my
gun. This was the first example of this species which
we had yet seen. It was as white underneath as the
Buffon's skuas, but the centre tail-feathers were much
shorter. Curiously enough we never met with the dark-
bellied variety of Richardson's skua in the Petchora. It
must be the western form. I found it by far the
commonest variety in Finmark. We saw a few Arctic
terns, and got one egg. On the lakes the long-tailed
duck was common, and I shot two males. These birds
are very quarrelsome, and by no means so shy as the
other ducks. My companion identified a red-breasted
merganser, but did not succeed in shooting it. I saw a
great snipe, a large flock of red-necked phalaropes, a few
pairs of fieldfares, and several black-throated divers.
Every day the tundra became gayer with flowers, and we
continually regretted that we were not botanists. I
noticed Equisehmi variegatimi for the first time. The
evening^ or what oug-ht to have been the evening-, turned
out so cold, with a strong contrary wind, against which
our stupid keelless boat could make little headway, that
finding the tide was also against us, we cast anchor in a
creek for a night's rest. In the morning, by dint of hard
rowing for some time, then of thrusting with a pole, as is
done in the flat-bottomed boats on the Grecian lapfoons,
then turning out two of our men, and making them drag
us alonof, canal-boat fashion, we at lensfth arrived at
Stanavialachta. We spent the day in making the
Company's deserted houses sufficiently waterproof to
afford us good shelter for a few days. In the evening we
turned out for a stroll ; the tundra in this locality was
much more hilly, and was diversified with more lakes
than in the neig^hhourhood of Alexievka. The hig-h
ground was very dry, and we seldom came upon any

K

146 STANAVIALACHTA

impassable bog. The vegetation also was more abundant,
the flowers more varied, and the willows and dwarf birch-
trees more numerous. The weather was very unfavour-
able ; a stronor orale was blowino- from the west, and it
was very cold, with occasional attempts at rain, yet we
saw many birds. The red-throated pipit was by far the
commonest. My companion shot a meadow-pipit from a
tree, and caught another sitting on its nest. We saw
several golden plover, a flock of seven or eight Buffon's
skuas, a pair of dotterel, and one or two shore-larks,
besides securing the nest of a bean-goose containing two
eggs. On the grassy top of a mound, half-way down the
mud cliffs overlookinor the gfreat river, and within sio^ht
of the Arctic Ocean, I came upon the eyrie of a peregrine
falcon. It contained four egfors, one of which was much
liofhter in colour than the others. This mound had
probably been used for some years as a nesting-place by
the falcons, since the grass was much greener upon it
than upon the surrounding places. A little way off there
rose another mound, just similar to it, and this was
apparently the falcons' dining-table, for scattered all
about it were feathers of grouse, long-tailed duck, and
divers small birds.

While I remained near the nest, the two falcons
hovered around, uttering sharp cries ; when I approached
nearer still, they redoubled their screams, hovered over
me, closed their wings, and descended perpendicularly
till within a few yards of my head. Their movements
were so rapid that I wasted half a dozen cartridges in
trying to secure them, and had at last to leave them,
baffled in the attempt. My companion and I returned
to the charge on the following day ; but again we were
defeated. A mile up the river, however, we found a
second eyrie upon an exactly similar green-topped

THE WILLOW-GROUSE 147

mound. The nest contained three egrors, and the behaviour
of the birds as we neared it was the same as had been
that of the falcons of the day before. My companion
succeeded in shooting the male. We found many nests
of other birds. Our Samoyede in the morning brought
us one of the black-throated diver, containing two eggs,
and in the course of the day we found a second. We
also secured nests of the golden plover, long-tailed duck,
wheatear, Temminck's stint, blue-throat, and Lapland
bunting ; in the latter were young birds. Our most
interesting find, however, was the nest with two eggs of
Richardson's skua, placed on a tussock of mossy ground.
It was lined with some reindeer moss and leaves of the
surrounding plants. The devices of the birds to deceive
us, as we came near it, attracted our attention and revealed
its vicinity. They often alighted within fifteen yards of
us, shammed lameness and sickness, reeled from side to
side as if mortally wounded, then when we persisted in
our onward course they flew boldly at us and stopped
repeatedly.

We again saw the dotterels, but apparently not yet
nesting. Willow-grouse were as plentiful on this part of
the tundra as red erouse on the Bradfield moors on
the 1 2th. Their white wings and their almost entirely
white bodies made them very conspicuous objects. They
usually rose within shot from a patch of willow cover.
Sometimes we saw a pair knocking about the tundra like
two big white butterflies, with a peculiar up-and-down
flight, then they tumbled into a willow-grown knoll
on the hillside. It might be owing to their extreme
conspicuousness that their flight always seemed so much
more clumsy than that of the red grouse. One of their
nests, which we found on the ground, contained a baker's
dozen of eggs. It was a mere hollow scraped in the turf.

148 STANAVIALACHTA

lined with a leaf or two, a little dry grass, and a few
feathers. The next day we succeeded in shooting the
female peregrine on the first eyrie we had discovered,
then, after taking a sketch of the place, we set out for
Alexievka, visiting on our way a couple of islands on the
delta. The first on which we disembarked was very
marshy, and covered with small willows. On this island
the willow-warblers were rare, but we occasionally heard
the Siberian chiffchaff, and we noticed one almost inces-
santly repeating " chi-vit' -che-vet' .'' The yellow-headed
wagtail was common, the shore-lark had disappeared
altogether, the Lapland bunting was represented by a
solitary bird. Red-throated pipits were still numerous ;
but we did not see the meadow-pipit. The sedge-warbler
abounded. We also saw several Temminck's stints,
phalaropes, a flock of eight Buffon's skuas, and ducks
of various sorts. The other island was almost entirely
a grassy marsh, interspersed with spaces of open water.
A flock of Siberian herring-gulls hovered about a party
of fishermen, who were catching with a seine net a small
fish exactly resembling the herring. Temminck's stints
congregated in great numbers on the dry or drying mud,
but we could find no trace of their nests. Phalaropes
single and in flocks were common ; we took three of their
nests, also one of a tern. Ducks as usual abounded ; we
noticed among them a pair of shovellers, and carried off
a nest, containing three eggs and a little down, which
belonged to this bird. On the river we continually passed
flocks of scaup and black scoter.

The sketch of Stanavialachta at the head of this
chapter was taken from one of the peregrines' eyries ; the
second eyrie was half-way down the point to the extreme
left. To the right in the distance is the eastern boundary of
Bolvanskaya Bay ; to the left, the outer islands of the delta.

GREY PLOVER S NEST AND YOUNG

CHAPTER XVII.

AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA.

Examination of our Nests — Excursion to Wasilkova — Search for Breeding
Haunts of Bewick's Swan — News from England — Grey Plover's Eggs —
Flock of Buffon's Skuas — Black Scoter's Nest— Watching for Skuas' Nests
— Another Nest of Grey Plover — Scaup's Eggs — The Zyriani.

On the 29th of June the weather was very wet. We
spent the clay in blowing- eggs and examining our nests.
We had now five nests which we were pretty sure were

I50 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

those of our new pipit ; they were entirely distinct from
that of the red-throated pipit. Instead of being composed
of fine round grasses they were made of flat-leaved grass,
knotted water-plants and small leaves, and in two of them
were Equiseta. The eggs in them were larger, more lark-
like, a dark ring circled the larger end, and they were all
more or less mottled, especially those of the lighter variety.

Buffon's skua, we found, had been feeding upon
beetles and cranberries. Another fact worth noticing was
that the ten great snipes which we shot near Pustozersk
were all males.

The following morning proving fine we set ofi^ on an
excursion to Lake Wasilkova, which at high flood was
but a bay of the Petchora. The tundra inland was the
usual stretch of rolling moorland, swamp, and bog,
interspersed with lakes and ranges of low sandy hills.
On the swamps we found dunlins, on the moors golden
plover, and once we saw a grey plover. In both localities
we met the Lapland bunting and the red-throated pipit,
and the dry grassy hills were haunted by shore-larks.
On one of the lakes and along the coast we came upon
Siberian herring-gulls ; longtailed ducks abounded on the
stretches of open water, but we failed to find a nest. We
came to a spot on the shore where a pair of peregrines
had built their eyrie, but the peasants had taken the eggs
away for food. Under a low willow bush we shot a black
scoter as she sat on her nest. Once we saw a hen-
harrier beating up the hillsides, and caught sight of a
white -tailed eagle as it flew overhead. Among the
willows in the low swampy ground we shot a pair of
wood- sandpipers, and caught three of their young,
apparently a couple of days old. We also saw a
raven and many Buffon's skuas. During the day the
mosquitoes were very troublesome in the sheltered parts

SWANS' NESTS

i^i

of the tundra, but a cold north wind kept the hilltops
clear.

Hitherto, we had been unable to identify the swans
that during our voyage had flown overhead, or settled on
the ice in the river. We w^ere convinced that there were
two different sizes, but had been unable to establish the
fact. On an island near Kuya we had found one nest

»

V..-U

A SWAN S NEST

containino- four laro^e eo-as, but we had failed to secure
the bird. To determine the breeding haunts of Bewick's
swan was one of the principal objects of our journey, but
as yet the offer of five roubles reward for any swan's
eggs accompanied by the parent bird had resulted only
in two or three nests beino- brouoht to us without the
bird. Our Samoyede now brought us two swan's eggs
that he had found thrown out of a nest, and advised us
of a second nest containing four eggs. We despatched
him at once to the latter with a trap to try and catch the

152 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

bird. That day we also bought two very small swan's
eggs, smaller than those of the ordinary wild swan, from
a fisherman. He told us that his mate had the skin of
the parent bird, which he had caught at the nest. The
fishing encampment from which he came was lower
down the river, on an island opposite the hamlet of
Stanavialachta. We could not think this was a made-up
story, for the man could not have heard of the reward
we had offered for eggs accompanied with the captured
parent bird, as we were the first to speak to him on his
arrival. We therefore at once determined that if we did
not discover Bewick's swan in the neighbourhood of
Alexievka, we would make an excursion to Stanavialachta
for the express purpose of obtaining the head and skin of
the bird whose eggs we had just bought.

The following day our Samoyede returned from his
excursion in quest of the swan. He had failed to secure
her. From the appearance of the trap it seemed as if the
swan had shuffled up to her nest on her belly, after the
manner of a diver, for the trap had gone off and only
secured a few breast- feathers. Simeon set off on a second
expedition. The first time the nest had been discovered
the eggs were exposed to view, this time they were care-
fully covered with down. Simeon now reset the trap,
this time laying it over the eggs, and carefully concealing
it with the down. His hope was that the bird would
remove the down with her beak and be snared by the
neck. On the morrow he came back to us, however,
with the four eggs and no swan ; she had never returned,
having apparently forsaken her nest, as we had feared
she would. Simeon brought with him four ducks' nests,
but the down was all mixed and the find was therefore
valueless. These are some of the disappointments
caused by the clumsy mismanagement of untrained men.

HOME MAILS AT LAST 153

A cold east wind that blew all day prevented us doing
much ; we went out for an hour only, and shot a few
yellow-headed wagtails and a phalarope. We had plenty
to interest us, however, in reading the letters and papers
that had reached us from England. The steamer had
arrived from Ust-Zylma the day before, bringing us
tidings of home from April 4th to May 13th, inclusive.
The post had reached Ust-Zylma on the 26th ; the last
letters had therefore been five weeks en rotUe, and so far
as we know they had not been delayed in Archangel.
From Ust-Zylma to Alexievka they would have taken
more than another week to travel had it not been for the
steamer. On the 13th of May the Consul at Archangel
wrote that the ice on the Dvina was expected to break up
in seven days. A letter dated the 26th described the
Dvina as quite free from ice for some days past, showing
that it and the Petchora broke up within a day or tw^o of
each other.

The cold north-east wind that continued blowing kept
us near home, but as it also kept the mosquitoes at bay
we did not complain very bitterly of it. In the face of
the cutting gale we crossed over to the tundra on the
following day, in search once more of the grey plovers.
On the way we visited an island and took a nest of the
ringed plover. Soon after landing at our destination we
heard the note of the birds we were in search of, and saw
two or three, but could not discover any signs of their
having a nest. After our previous experience we decided
to vary our tactics. Hitherto we had found the nests by
sheer perseverance in searching, and had afterwards
watched the female to the nest and shot her. We now
decided to watch the female on to the nest in the first
instance, and, having by this means found it, to secure
the female afterwards as a further and more complete

154 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

identification of the eggs. It was also perfectly obvious
that the extreme care we had taken not to alarm the bird
was unnecessary. Our little manoeuvre of walking- away
from the nest in a body, leaving one behind lying flat on
the ground to watch, under the impression that the bird
could not count beyond three, and would think that we
had all gone, was clearly so much artifice wasted. The
birds were evidently determined to come back to their
nests in spite of our presence ; nor was there any cover
to hide us if the contrary had been the case. Our care
not to handle the eoxrs until we had secured the bird was
also of no use, as we often proved afterwards. On a
marshy piece of ground I shot a reeve ; and then we
struck across a very likely piece of land — little flat pieces
of bog with mossy ridges between. Presently Harvie-
Brown, who was in front, whistled, and as I was coming
up to him I saw a grey plover to my left. He called out
to me that he had put up a pair near where he was
standing. I soon caught sight of another bird on the
ground, lifting its wings as if to attract me from its nest.
It then quietly ran off, and I went to the spot, but finding
nothing lay clown to watch. Harvie- Brown did the same
about eighty yards off. It was not long before I caught
sight of both birds at some distance. One, which I at
once concluded must be the male, remained in one spot,
the other was running towards me, stopping on some
elevation every few yards to look round. By-and-by it
flew between Harvie- Brown and me, and alighted on the
other side of me. The other bird soon followed, and
remained as before, apparently watching the movements
of the restless bird, which I now felt sure must be the
female. To this latter bird I now confined my attention,
and kept it within the field of my telescope for more than
half an hour. It was never still for more than a minute

GREY PLOVERS' NESTS i55

together ; it kept running along the ground for a few
yards, ascending the ridges, looking round, and uttering
its somewhat melancholy cry. It crossed and recrossed
the same ridges over and over again, and finally dis-
appeared behind a knoll about forty yards ahead of me,
and was silent. I now adjusted my telescope on a tussock
to bear upon the place in case I lost its position, and was
just making up my mind to walk to the spot when I again
heard its cry, and saw it running as before. The male
was still stationary. The crossing and recrossing the
ridge upon which my telescope was pointed then continued
for another quarter of an hour, and at last the bird dis-
appeared behind the same ridge as before. I gave her a
quarter of an hour's grace, during which she was perfectly
silent, and then sat up to see if Harvie- Brown was satisfied
that she was on the nest. His point of sight was not so
favourable as mine ; and, thinking I had given up the
watch as hopeless, he fired off his gun as a last resource,
and came up to me. As soon as he fired both birds rose
almost exactly in front of the knoll upon which my
telescope pointed. Upon his arrival to learn what I had
made out, I told him the nest was forty or fifty yards in
front of my telescope. We fixed one of our guns pointing
in the same direction, so that we could easily see it. We
then skirted the intervening bog, got our exact bearings
from the gun, and commenced a search. In less than a
minute we found the nest with four eggs. As before, it
was in a depression on a ridge between two little lakes of
black bog. The eggs in this, our fifth nest, were con-
siderably incubated, which was probably the reason why
the birds showed more anxiety to lure us away.

On our way back towards the river we crossed a
marsh where we saw some dunlins, and secured one
young one in down. On the higher part of the tundra.

156 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

nearer the water's edge, were several golden plovers : we
shot one, and noticed a pair of grey plovers amongst
them. The two species were quite easy to distinguish
even at some distance without the help of a glass. On a
piece of low tundra near the Petchora we came upon a
large flock of Buffon's skuas. My companion stopped to
watch the grey plovers, and I marched after the skuas.
We had usually seen these birds hawking like terns over
the tundra, in parties of seven or eight, and now and then
we had met a pair alone on the ground. They were
always wild and difficult to approach, and hitherto we
had succeeded in shooting a few only. As I neared the
spot where the large flock was assembled I watched them
aliehtincr on the banks near the oreat river. I walked
towards them, and soon caught sight of a score of herring-
gulls on the shore to the right. Before I had got within
a hundred yards of the latter they all rose and flew
towards me, the skuas also rose and followed them. I
let the gulls go by and aimed at the nearest skua as soon
as it came within range. Fortunately I brought it down,
for in a moment I was surrounded by about 100 or
I 50 skuas, flying about in all directions, generally about
ten of them within shot. They were very noisy, uttering
a cry like "hack, hack" as they darted towards me, or
screaming wildly as they flew about. This lasted about
twenty minutes, during which I finished what remaining
cartridges I had, some of which were dust. I missed
several birds, but left seven killed and wounded on the
field. My companion now joined me ; he brought down
four more and a Richardson's skua ; the birds then all
retired except one that kert flying from one to the other
of us, every now and then making a downward swoop,
like a tern, over our heads. We soon discovered the
cause of its anxiety ; a young skua in down, a day or two

CROSSING THE RIVER 157

old, lay on the ground at our feet. Our search for nest
or eggs was vain. As it was getting late, after shooting
a pair of dunlins on a space of marshy ground, and a
willow-grouse among some dwarf willows, we returned
to our boat, resolving^ 10 renew our search for eofSfs of
Buffon's skua and grey plover on the morrow. We
turned to look towards the place of our encounter with
the former : the whole flock had returned to it ; they
looked like great black terns on the wing as they hovered
over it with their peculiar kestrel- or tern-like flight. On
several occasions afterwards we observed that the skuas
have many habits in common with the terns.

The north-east wind continued to blow the next day,
but the sunshine was bright and warm. When evenino-
came and the sun got low down in the horizon — for of
course it never set — the wind increased and we felt it
very cold. We spent our morning blowing eggs. In the
afternoon we sent Cocksure on another expedition after a
swan, whose nest with four eggs had been found and
brought to us by one of our men. Towards four we
crossed the river to the tundra. Our crazy old flat-
bottomed boat could only sail with the wind dead on her
stern, so we had to row with the stream for about a mile
down the river, and then sail up again with the wind.
By the appearance of the surrounding landscape we
calculated that since we had last been on that part of the
Petchora, the water must have fallen four feet at least.
Some of the islands had doubled in size, and new sand-
banks lay bare. We landed near a deserted house called
Bugree, and soon afterwards shot a black scoter off her
nest. It contained six eggs and an abundance of down
and lay in a little hollow sloping towards the river,
entirely concealed amongst dwarf birch. The scoter
apparently does not breed on the islands, but prefers a

158 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

drier situation on the tundra, upon some sloping bank
overlooking a river or a lake, and sheltered by dwarf
birch or willows.

We first paid a visit to the marshy ground and saw
many dunlins, Lapland buntings, and red-throated pipits ;
one of the latter was carrying in its bill a caterpillar at
least an inch long. Our next resort was to the sandy
banks, where we found a ring dotterel's nest. We then
visited the Buffon's skua ground. The large flock had
left, but about a dozen remained behind. We watched
them for an hour, and shot one. They were mostly
hawking up and down the moor, occasionally resting on
the ground. Suddenly, a skua uttered its alarm note ; it
sounded as if we had approached too near its nest. I
whistled for my companion to come, and we lay down,
about 1 20 yards apart, for an hour. The skua did not
run about on the ground, but kept uneasily flying from
one spot to the other, seldom remaining long in one
place. One spot, however, it visited four times, and
rested longer on it than on the others. The third time
it visited it I made up my mind the nest was there, and
carefully adjusted my gun on a hillock to cover the spot
in case I lost it. The fourth time the bird visited it,
Harvie- Brown and I got up together, each followed our
bearines, and in about a minute we crossed each other at
the nest, in which were two eggs. The bird was near at
hand, shamming lameness to attract our attention. My
companion walked up to it and shot — to our disappoint-
ment and disgust, not a Buffon's, but a Richardson's
skua.

After this we turned our attention to the grey plover
ground. We found one of our men trying to watch one
of these birds to the nest. We lay down, one fifty yards
to his rio^ht, and the other as much to his left. The birds

A GOOD DAY'S WORK 159

behaved exactly as those we watched the day before.
After the female had crossed and recrossed one hillock
many times, and finally disappeared behind it, I made up
my mind that the nest was there, and rose. My sudden
appearance alarmed the male, who flew up, showing his
black axillaries very distinctly in the evening sunshine as
he skimmed over my head. We then all three rose, and
in less than a minute met at the nest, which contained
three eggs. I sat down to pack the eggs ; and Harvie-
Brown followed the male, who came up as we found the
nest. Whilst I was packing the eggs and warming my
hands, and talking " pigeon-Russ " with the man, the
female came within range, and I took up my gun and
shot her, thereby completing the identification of the
eggs. On our return home we found that Cocksure had
sent word that the swan had not revisited her nest as yet,
and begged one of us to go to relieve guard. My
companion accordingly, after a substantial meal, set off
at midnight ; meanwhile the men we employed to help us
brought in the results of their day's work : a red-throated
diver, trapped on the nest, with two eggs ; half a dozen
phalaropes" eggs, a duck's nest, containing seven large
olive-grey eggs, with down which was almost black.
These, they assured us, were the eggs of the bolshaya
tchoi'uaya ootka (the great black duck). We recognised
them, however, to be the same as those our Samoyede
had brought home on the 2nd, and on which he had shot
a female scaup. The next take was a long-tailed duck's
nest, with five ep'S^s. Then a man came in brinorino- us
four small nests of nialenkya peteetza (small birds), a
sedge-warbler's, a red-throated pipit's and two willow-
warblers'.

The men who had collected these spoils were in
the employment of the Company, to whom belong the

i6o AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA

steamers, the yacht or cutter, everything upon the island
of Alexievka, and even the island itself. The Company
has a large and profitable trade in timber, which is shipped
principally to Cronstadt for the Russian Government.
Whether the company be Mr. Sideroff or Mr. Iconikoff,
or both, or neither, remains one of those commercial
secrets so common in Russia, which nobody can ever get
to the bottom of These employes in Alexievka were all
Zyriani from Ishma, a race of people said to be of Finnish
origin. Some were reported to be very rich, the pro-
prietors of large herds of reindeer. Like the people of
Ust-Zylma, they are peasants, but were described to us
as being- more luxurious in their living" and in the furniture
of their houses. They were also said not to get drunk
so often as the Ust-Zylma folk, but when inebriated, not
to be good-natured and obtrusively affectionate as these
are prone to be, but quarrelsome and given to fighting.
They have the reputation of being better workmen, and
certainly beat the Ust-Zylmians hollow at birds'-nesting.
In feature or size the two do not differ much ; perhaps
the eyes of the Zyriani are more sunken and their cheek-
bones a little more prominent ; and there may be a greater
number of red- and yellow-haired men among them.
There were several fishing encampments of these peasants
in different places down the river, and we found that it
was customary in the wealthier families for one son to go
in summer on the tundra, with the reindeer and the
Samoyede servants. The language of the Zyriani is
totally different from Russian, and belongs to the aggluti-
native family of languages. The tribe belongs to the
Orthodox Greek Church, and not to that of the Old
Believers.

CHAPTER XVIII.

STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED.

Second Visit to Stanavialachta — Peregrine Falcons — Plague of Mosquitoes
— Midnight on the Tundra — Nest of the Velvet Scoter — Little Feodor
sent in Quest of the Swan's Skin — A Russian Bath — Feodor's Return —
Identification of Eggs of Bewick's Swan — Mosquito Veils — Our Eighth
Nest of Grey Plovers — Our Servants — Our Ninth Nest of Grey Plovers
— The Tenth and Eleventh Nests.

On the following morning, when my companion returned
from his watch at the swan's nest, which had turned out
a complete failure, we consulted with Piottuch as to what
was to be done. The swan had evidently forsaken her
nest. Time was rapidly flying, and we feared the
breeding: season would be over before we had obtained
identified eggs of the smaller species. It did not appear
as if we could do anything at Alexievka ; we had evi-
dently yet to learn how swans could be trapped at their
nests on the Petchora ; and we came to the conclusion

L

i62 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

that our wisest course was to go in search of the peasant
who owned the skin of the swan belonging to the two
small eggs we had bought some days ago. When we
last heard of him he was fishing at one of the islands in
the delta which we had visited, not far from Stanavialachta,
and we determined to make a second expedition to this
locality. Fortunately for us, an opportunity occurred on
the following day to run over to this place in the steamer
belonging to the company. Outside the bar in the
lagoon the cutter was cruising about with pilots to bring
any ship which arrived up the river to Alexievka. The
steamer had to visit this cutter to take the men a fresh
stock of provisions, and we were delighted to make
arrangements with Captain Engel to take us with him, to
drop us at Stanavialachta, and pick us up on his return.

We left Alexievka on the 6th of July and landed at
our old quarters, but learnt to our disappointment that
the peasant we were in quest of had found the fishing so
bad that he had given it up in disgust and returned to his
native village of Mekitza, some miles north of Alexievka.
We were determined to settle the question if possible ;
we ascertained that he had not sold the swan's skin, but
had taken it with him, so we decided to send one of our
men to Mekitza as soon as we returned to Alexievka.
In the meantime we started for the tundra to revisit our
previous shooting-grounds. We stopped a few minutes
on the shore to watch a family of Samoyedes fishing
with a seine-net. They seemed to be catching nothing
but a small fish resembling a herring, and even these did
not appear to be at all plentiful. Leaving the shore, our
curiosity led us first to visit the eyries of the two pairs of
peregrine falcons, at each of which we had shot one of
the birds. We found that the male of the first had
paired with the female of the second ; a fresh lining of

THE MOSQUITO PLAGUE 163

feathers had been put into the latter's nest, and doubtless
there would soon be eesfs- The dotterels still haunted
the hillsides. We shot some near each of the deserted
houses — two by one, three by the other. Doubtless the
riofht thinor to have done would have been to lie down
and watch the birds to their nests and to have taken the
eggs. But in the first place a dotterel is very difficult to
see through a mosquito-veil, and in the next to lie down
and become the nucleus of a vast nebula of mosquitoes is
so tormenting to the nerves that we soon chose to adopt
the consolatory conclusion that the grapes were sour and
not worth the trouble of reaching after ; or, in plain words,
that the birds had not beeun to breed, and it was no use
martyrising ourselves to find their eggs. The mosquitoes
were simply a plague. Our hats were covered with
them ; they swarmed upon our veils ; they lined with a
fring-e the branches of the dwarf birches and willows ;
they covered the tundra with a mist. I was fortunate in
the arrangement of my veil, and by dint of indiarubber
boots and cavalry gauntlets I escaped many wounds ; but
my companion was not so lucky. His net was perpetu-
ally transformed into a little mosquito-cage ; his leggings
and knickerbockers were by no means mosquito-proof;
he had twisted a handkerchief round each hand, but this
proved utterly insufficient ; had it not grown cooler on
the hills, as the sun got low, he would certainly have
fallen into a regular mosquito fever. We were told that
this pest of mosquitoes was nothing as yet to what it
would become later. " Wait a while," said our Job's
comforter, "and you will not be able to see each other
at twenty paces distance ; you will not be able to aim
with your gun, for the moment you raise your barrel half
a dozen regiments of mosquitoes will rise between you
and the sight." When the coolness of evening set in we

164

STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

had pretty good shooting for an hour or two ; but after
nine or ten o'clock we found nothing. There is very
little to be met on the tundra or anywhere else at mid-
night, for in spite of brilliant sunshine, the birds retire to
roost at the proper time and all is hushed. Our best find
was the nest of a velvet scoter. We shot the female as
she rose from it ; there were eio"ht eo-o-s in it and a Qrood
supply of down. It was placed under a dwarf birch, far
from any lake or water. We shot three willow-grouse

WATCHING GREY PLOVERS THROUGH A CLOUD OF MOSQUITOES

and caught three young birds in down. While we were
seeking for them the male frequently flew past within
easy shot, and the female ran about with head depressed
and wings drooping, coming sometimes within two or
three yards of us. We saw two pairs of wood sandpipers
who had established themselves in a small space of
marshy ground. They evidently had young, for they
were continually flying round and alighting upon the
willows. To search for young in down, through long
grass, wearing mosquito-veils must prove a vain quest
and we did not long pursue it. We caught the young of
the Lapland bunting, and shot one of this year's shore-

A RUSSO-TURKISH BATH 165

larks, a very pretty bird. We saw a few divers, a large
harrier or eagle, and on the shore of the Petchora we
watched a flock of Siberian herring-gulls stealing fish
from the nets of the Samoyedes, and as we went down
river we came on another flock similarly employed. We
saw no swans on the tundra, but they were common on
the islands in the river ; one or two pairs were frequently
in sight, and still there continued to fly overhead flocks
of migratory ducks, always going north. All the day it
had been a dead calm, but for the slight southerly breeze
that had risen towards evening. The next morning a
long-unfelt pleasant breath of wind was blowing down
the river ; it was not enough, however, to drive back the
visitation of mosquitoes that was almost making us wish
for the blustering north gale back again.

Despatching little Feodor, our most intelligent man,
by the steamer to Kuya, we bade him walk over to
Mekitza, then ferret out the peasant and the swan's skin,
and bring us home the latter. Meanwhile we spent the
day blowing eggs. In the evening we took a Russian
bath — an experience worth describing. We lay down
upon a platform in a wooden house ; a primitive stove
was in it, built of stones loosely piled one upon the other ;
a hole in the side of the house with a sliding door let out
the smoke. A wood-fire was kindled in the stove ; it
was allowed to go out when the stones were thoroughly
heated ; the steam resulting from the pouring of a glass
of cold water upon them soon cleared the room of all foul
air and smoke. As we lay stretched on the platform we
occasionally threw water upon the hot stones, and flogged
ourselves with a small broom composed of birch-twigs,
still clothed with leaves ; after which we rubbed ourselves
down with matting, sponged all over with cold water,
and then went into another apartment to cool ourselves,

i66 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

smoke a i&v^ papyros, and dress. The peasants frequent
these bath-houses, and often walk out of the hot steam
naked, the colour of boiled lobsters, to plunge into the
Petchora.

The next day was one of our red-letter days. Little
Feodor, our boatman, returned, bearing with him the
longed-for trophy- — the swan's skin. He told us he had
gone to Mekitza, only to learn there that the peasant
whom he sought had departed to another island to fish.
Going to his house he found, however, that the man had
left the skin with his wife, and she, ofood soul, had cut off
the beak and given it to her children for a plaything.
Feodor paid her a rouble for the skin, with the feet still
attached to it, and got the beak into the bargain. There
was no other swan's skin in the house, nor, as far as we
could ascertain, was there another in the village ; this
one was still soft and greasy, showing the bird had been
but recently killed. This, undoubtedly, was the skin of
a Bewick's swan ; the beak also was equally indisputable.
The eggs in our possession were exactly the size one
would expect a swan so much smaller than the wild swan
would lay. We had every reason to believe and none to
doubt that this was, indeed, the skin of the bird caught
upon the nest containing the two eggs we had purchased.
The chain of evidence connecting them was complete,
and the identification of the eggs satisfactory. Let us
recapitulate and go over the links of the narrative, the
more fully to establish the conclusion we had arrived at.
Two peasants are fishing together at Pyonni, an island
near the mouth of the delta of the great river, twelve
versts north of Stanavialachta. They find there a swan's
nest, containing two eggs, and they set a trap for the
bird, which they succeed in catching. In the division of
spoil, one takes the eggs, the other the swan. One peasant,

BEWICK'S SWAN 167

wearied out by the pertinacity of the cold north-east wind,
goes up stream to fish in smoother waters. On his way he
stops at Alexievka, where we are, and we buy from him
a number of ducks' and gulls' eggs, also two swans' eggs
unusually small. As we purchase these we tell him that
we shall be glad to pay the price of any swan's skin he
can get us. He replies that the skin of the swan whose
eggs he has just sold to us is in the possession of his
partner, that the bird was trapped at the nest before they
were taken out of it, adding that he has left his mate
fishing on an island opposite Stanavialachta. On inquiry
we find that two of our boatmen know this man, that we
have seen him ourselves on the island where we found
the two shoveller's esfors ; we remember that he made
a haul with a seine net of a small basketful of fish
resembling herrings, which he presented to one of our
men. We now take the first opportunity to go down to
Stanavialachta and learn there that this peasant, dis-
gusted as his comrade was by the prevalence of the cold
north-east wind, has returned home to Mekitza. We
send our most intelligent man to his house and get the
skin.

The relative size of the two birds is very different, as
may be appreciated at a glance, without the help of
measurements. The bill of Bewick's swan is more than
half an inch shorter than that of the larger species ; the
lengths of the wing, measuring from the carpal joint, are
respectively 20:^ inches and 23 J ; the lengths of the
middle toes 5-15 and 6-i. Our eggs of Bewick's swan
were about ^^q inches long. We have eggs of other
swans, doubtless of the large species, which measure
4tV' 4A' 4t*o' ^"^ 4ro inches ; these measurements
make it seem probable that exceptionally large eggs of
Bewick's swan might be of the same size as exceptionally

i68 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

small eggs of the common wild swan. The eggs appear
to vary very little in shape.

That afternoon I took a walk on the island, armed
with my walking-stick gun. Birds were extremely tame.
The yellow-headed wagtail seemed more abundant than
ever. Reed buntinofs also were common. I grot a shot
at a swan, but the distance was a trifle too great. The
weather was very hot, and the mosquitoes were swarm-
ing. Our home-made mosquito veils proved a great
success ; they and our cavalry gauntlets just made life
bearable in these Arctic regions ; still we longed for
the cold winds back again to expel the plague of
blood-sucking insects. Veils are necessary evils, but
they interfere sadly with work, and much increase the
difficulty of finding the shot birds among the long
grass.

The next mornino- a swan's egfo- made us an excellent
omelette for breakfast, after which I turned out for half
an hour amongst the willows to shoot a few yellow-headed
wagtails. They abounded on the marshy ground. I also
secured two or three redpolls, some reed buntings, and a
phalarope.

We set sail at noon, with a north-east wind, to visit
the tundra eight or ten versts higher up the great river.
For some distance before we landed the coast was very
fl^t, with willows down to the water's edge. Amongst
these dwarf trees we repeatedly heard our two especial
favourites, the Petchora pipit and the Siberian chiffchaff.
As soon as we got beyond the willows we landed on the
tundra, and started in pursuit of a large flock of Buffon's
skuas, but were soon stopped by a pair of grey plovers,
which showed by their actions that we were near their
nest. We lay down as before, forty or fifty yards apart,
and watched the birds. They ran about, up and down,

GREY PLOVERS AGAIN 169

and all around us ; and at the end of half an hour we
were no wiser than at first. There was evidently some-
thing wrong. Harvie-Brown then shouted to me, " Have
you marked the nest ? " I replied by walking up to him
and comparing notes. We then watched together for
another half-hour with exactly the same result. I sug-
gested that we must be so near the nest that the bird
dare not come on, and advised that we should retreat to
the next ridge, which we accordingly did. We had not
done so many minutes before the female made her way
on to the ridge where we had been lying. She then ran
along the top of the ridge, passed the place where we had
been stationed, and came down the ridge on to the flat
bog towards where we then were. I whispered, " She is
actually crossing over to us." Suddenly she stopped,
lifted her wings and settled down on the ground. We
both whispered, almost in the same breath, " She is on
the nest." I added, " I saw her lift her wings as she
settled on to the eggs." Harvie-Brown replied, " So did
I," and added, " I can't hold out any longer against the
mosquitoes." I replied, " I am perfectly satisfied ; she is
within ranofe, take her." He lifted his g^un to his shoulder.
She ran off the nest to the top of the ridge and stood
there until my companion shot her. We then walked up
to the nest, the first we had seen on the flat. The eggs
were quite fresh, or nearly so ; and the nest must have
been made nearly a fortnight later than those we had
previously taken. During that time the bogs had become
much drier, so that we could cross them without much
difficulty ; and this was probably the reason why this nest
was placed lower down. The eggs had all the appearance
of a second laying, being less blotched than usual, one of
them remarkably so. It is worth noticing that whilst we
were watching in our first position, very near the nest,

I70 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

the birds were almost quite silent, and did not call to each
other as they usually do.

After carefully packing the eggs, we walked on, and
speedily started another pair. This time we lay down
together, as nearly as we could tell, on the spot from
which the birds rose, which seems to be generally from
forty to fifty yards from the nest. The clouds of
mosquitoes formed such a mist on the tundra that we
had some difficulty in marking our birds ; but by raking
the horizon with our binoculars and getting well bitten
through our veils in the process, we soon found the
female, and watched her to a ridge just opposite to us.
She soon settled down ; and within a quarter of an hour
after we had lain down we were both perfectly satisfied
that she was on the nest. We gave her a few minutes
grace, and then walked up to the nest, without making
any effort to shoot the bird, having perfectly identified
her, and being almost tired out by the mosquitoes. The
eggs in this nest were considerably incubated. The nest
was placed, as before, in a hollow on a ridge. The
ground on this ridge was not so mossy as usual, and
there was much bare brown turf to be seen. Whether
this had anything to do with the colour of the eggs it is
difficult to say ; but the fact is that these eggs are quite
brown in ground-colour.

It was very late, or rather very early morning when
we returned to our quarters, and we had to spend an hour
slaughtering mosquitoes before we could make the room
habitable ; then we had our dinners to cook and our pipes
to smoke before we could retire to rest. At noon I
turned out of my hammock and spent the day indoors.
The wind was north-west, and there were continual hints
of rain. Our men were tired after the long row the day
before. They were not in good condition, nor could it

OUR COLLECTORS 171

be expected they should be. They had now reached the
last day of a four weeks' fast, during which they were
supposed to eat nothing but bread and water, with fish if
they could get it. During the period of probation it was
intensely ludicrous to watch the expression on our steers-
man's face when he held up as many fingers as there still
remained days of fasting to be gone through, opening his
mouth wide the while, then grinning all over as he said,
" Moi skaffum." " Skaffum " is pigeon-English for " eat,"
derived, we were told, from the Swedish {skaffa, to
provide).* This fellow's name was Feodor ; he was a
good-natured simpleton, indescribably lazy and always
thinkinor of his stomach — we had nicknamed him " Moi
skaffum." Gavriel, our other Russian, was not very
much sharper, but was by no means lazy when directed
in his work, thoug-h he had not the sense to discover for
himself what wanted doing. Our half-bred Samoyede,
also called Feodor, — Malenki Feodor we dubbed him —
was a sharp, active lad, always finding out something to
do ; with a little traininsf, indeed, he would have made an
excellent servant. He learnt while with us to skin birds
well, and was by this time a fair nester, Simeon, our
thorough-bred Samoyede, was a philosopher — stolid,
phlegmatic, and a good worker. He was our birds'-nester
paj'- excellence. He knew the tundra well and the birds
upon it ; for three years he had lived in Varandai, and in
his palmier days had reindeer of his own. Nothing
moved Simeon ; success did not elate him, nor failure
depress him. He would take the extra rouble we always
grave him when he brought us a rare bird's nest as a
matter of course, without a "thank you." And when, as
we witnessed once, he steadied the boat for a drunken

* The universal sAojf ( = "food" and " to eat ") of the British sailor seems a
more probable derivation. — Ed.

172 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

German captain, who brutally trod upon his hand,
evidently thinking it a fine thing to show his contempt
for the poor Samoyede, Simeon equally took the insult as
a matter of course, did not offer to withdraw his hand nor
move a muscle of his face. If Simeon had any hot blood
in him, the veins of it must have run very deep under his
sallow skin.

The next day I did not do much either, but Cocksure
being out of birds, I turned out amongst the mosquitoes
and got him a few. I shot several yellow-headed wag-
tails, which were as abundant as ever, and also three
Terek sandpipers, the first we had secured, although we
had occasionally heard their notes on the island. A nest
of shoveller's eggs, quite fresh, was brought to us during
the day.

Our ninth nest of the grey plover we took on the
1 2th of July. A stiff warm gale from the east, with
occasionally a smart shower of rain, kept the air clear of
mosquitoes in the morning. In the afternoon the wind
fell, and the mosquitoes were as bad as ever ; but we
were too busy to heed them much. At eleven we crossed
to the tundra. We soon came upon a pair of grey
plovers, which rose a couple of hundred yards ahead of
us, their wingrs crlitterino- in a o-leam of sunshine after a
smart shower. These birds have frequently a very curious
flight as they rise from the nest, tossing their wings up in
the air, reminding one somewhat of the actions of a
tumbler pigeon. We lay down as near as we could to
the spot from which they rose, and were somewhat
puzzled at their behaviour. The male seemed equally,
if not more anxious than the female, running about as
much as she did, continually crying, and often coming
very near us, and trying to attract our attention by pre-
tending to be lame. The female rarely uttered a note.

WAITING AND WATCHING 173

We suppose this must have been because one of us was
too near the nest. Harvie- Brown moved his post of
observation after we had spent some time without being
able to discover anything ; and then the female behaved
as usual, and I soon marked the position of the nest. We
walked straight up to it, and found the four eggs chipped
ready for hatching. We had no difficulty in shooting
both birds, and afterwards hatched out two of the eggs,
obtaining a couple of good specimens of young in down.
With a little practice this mode of finding birds' nests
becomes almost a certainty. One has first to be quite
sure which is the male and which is the female. When
the birds are near enough, and one can compare them
tosrether, the orreater blackness of the breast of the male
is sufficient to distinguish him ; but we found that the
females varied considerably in this respect, and that it
was better to notice the habits of the birds. The female
generally comes first to the nest, but she comes less
conspicuously. She generally makes her appearance at
a considerable distance, on some ridge of mossy land.
When she has looked round, she runs quickly to the next
ridge, and looks round again, generally calling to the
male with a single note. The male seldom replies ; but
when he does so it is generally with a double note.
When the female has stopped and looked round many
times, then the male thinks it worth while to move ; but
more often than not he joins the female by flying up to
her. The female very seldom takes wing. She is very
cautious, and, if she is not satisfied that all is safe, will
pass and repass the nest several times before she finally
settles upon it. The female rarely remains at one post
of observation long ; but the male often remains for ten
minutes or more upon one tussock of a ridge, watching
the movements of the female.

174 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

We walked some distance before we came upon a
second pair ; but at length we heard the well-known cry,
and got into position. We spent nearly two hours over
this nest, and were quite at sea at the end of the time.
We changed our position several times, but to no purpose.
The female went here and there and everywhere, as much
as to say, " I'm not going on to the nest as long as you
are so near." By-and-by the mosquitoes fairly tired us
out, and we gave up the watching game and commenced
a search. At last we found out the secret of the bird's
behaviour. We picked up some broken egg-shells, and
concluded at once that the bird had young. We tried to
find them, but in vain. These two hours, however, were
not wasted. The birds came nearer to me than they had
ever done before. I often watched them at a distance of
not more than ten yards, and was able to hear their notes
more distinctly. The note most frequently used is a
single plaintive whistle, kop, long drawn out, the o pro-
nounced as in German, and the consonants scarcely
sounded. This I am almost sure is the alarm-note. It
is principally uttered by the female when she stops and
looks round and sees something of which she disapproves.
If the male shows any anxiety about the nest, which he
seems to do more and more as incubation progresses, he
also utters the same note. The double note, kl-ee or
kleep — the kl dwelt upon so as to give it the value of a
separate syllable — is also uttered by both birds. It is
evidently their call-note. I have seen the female, when
she has been running away from the male, turn sharp
round and look towards him when he has uttered this
note, exactly as any one might do who heard his name
called. Whilst we were watching this pair of birds a
couple of other grey plovers came up, and called as they
Hew past. The male answered the call and flew towards

PLOVER LANGUAGE 175

them. On the winor this whistle is leng-thened out to
three notes. I had some difficulty in catching this note
exactly. It is not so often uttered as the two others I
have mentioned, and is generally heard when you least
expect it ; but I am almost sure it is a combination of
the alarm-note with the call-note- — kl-ee-kop. If I wanted
to make a free translation from Ploverski into Eng^lish I
should say that kl-ee means " Hallo ! old fellow," and kop
means " Mind what you are about !"

We procured our tenth nest of the grey plover the
same afternoon. It was found by our Samoyede, who
brought us three eggs and the male and female shot at
the nest. He accidentally broke the fourth ^%%. As it
contained a live young bird, we placed these three eggs
in our hatching basket, where we had made a snug nest
of bean-goose-down.

By this time we were pretty well tired with tramping
the tundra. The ceaseless persecution of the mosquitoes,
and the stifling feeling caused by having to wear a veil
with the thermometer above summer heat, had taxed our
powers of endurance almost to the utmost ; and we turned
our faces resolutely towards our boat ; but a most anxious
pair of grey plovers were too great an attraction to us to
be resisted. We watched them for some time, during
which a pair of ringed plovers persisted in obtruding
themselves impertinently between us and the objects of
our attention. This pair of grey plovers also puzzled us,
and we concluded that they possibly had young, and
consequently we gave up the search. We had each
marked a place where we thought a nest might be ; and
we each of us went to satisfy ourselves that it was not
there. The two places were about fifty yards apart.
The birds first went up to Harvie- Brown and tried to
draw him away by flying about and feigning lameness.

176 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED

Then they came to me and did the same. They were so
demonstrative that I fek perfectly certain of finding the
nest, and shot at the female. She dropped in the middle
of a wet bog. I then shot the male, walked up to him,
and left him with my basket and gun to struggle through
the bog to pick up the female. Before I got up to her, I
saw her lying on the turf on her breast with her wings
slightly expanded. I was just preparing to stoop to pick

MOSQUITO VEIL

her up, when she rose and flew away, apparently unhurt.
I must have missed her altogether, as she was evidently
only shamming to draw me away. I returned to search
for the nest, and was unable to find it. Whilst I was
looking for it Harvie- Brown came up; so I gave up the
search, and we again turned towards the boat. When
we had got about halfway towards the spot where Harvie-
Brown had been looking, I caught sight of a young grey
plover in down, almost at my feet. Stooping to pick it
up, I saw the nest with three eggs not a yard from me.

YOUNG GREY PLOVERS 177

This was the last and eleventh nest of these rare birds
which we found. The young in down are very yellow,
speckled with black, and are admirably adapted for con-
cealment upon the yellow-green moss on the edges of the
little bogs, close to which the grey plover seems always
to choose a place for its nest.

Our attempt to hatch the highly incubated eggs, and
thus obtain specimens of young in down, was successful.
We soon had five young grey plovers well and hearty,
and secured three or four more afterwards.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

M

LITTLE stint's NEST, EGGS AND YOUNG

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS.

Trip to the Golievski Islands— Shoal of White Whales— Glaucous Gull-
Dunlins and Sanderlings — Black Scoter — Dvoinik — Little Stint — Curlew
Sandpiper — Snow Bunting — OverhauUng our Plunder — The Company's
Manager — Discussions concerning the Stints — Probable Lines of Migra-
tion followed by Birds.

On the 13th of July an opportunity presented itself of
visiting the Golievski Islands at the entrance of the

ISLAND No. 4 179

lagoon. These islands are little more than sandbanks,
and the beacons erected upon them for the guidance of
vessels entering the river are washed away every spring
by the ice. To re-erect these beacons and to inspect
others on various promontories on the shores of the
lagoon, the steamer makes a trip every July. Captain
Engel asked us to accompany him, and we gladly ac-
cepted the invitation.

Passing Stanavialachta and Cape Bolvanski, we sailed
almost due north to the bar, where the lead announced
scarcely thirteen feet of water. We then steered nearly
east to within three miles of the shore, whence we after-
wards kept in a north-easterly direction. A few miles
after passing Cape Constantinovka we altered our course
to north, and made Island No. 4 about midnight. Off Cape
Constantinovka we came upon a shoal of white whales or
beluga, which played like porpoises round the steamer.

We stayed a couple of hours on Island No. 4, erecting
the beacon upon it. The night was foggy at intervals, but
the midnight sun shone bright. The island is a flat
desert of sand, unrelieved by a blade of grass. It may
be a couple of square miles in extent in the summer time,
and is not much affected by the tide, which rises only four
or six inches. We found a large flock of glaucous gulls
upon it, but we could only discover two nests. They
were heaps of sand, hollowed slightly at the apex and
lined with some irregularly disposed tufts of seaweed.
The young in down were running about on the flat sand-
bank. We secured half a dozen and shot four old birds.
The young were less spotted than those of most gulls ;
the old birds were pure white, with delicate, dove-
coloured mantles, paler than those of our herring-gull.
The legs and feet were pale flesh-tinted pink ; the beak
and the line round the eye were straw-yellow. The

i8o THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS

point of the beak was horn-colour, with the usual dark
vermilion spot on the angle of the lower mandible. The
pupils of the eye were blue-black, and the irides very pale
straw-yellow. The interior of the mouth was of the same
colour as the legfs and feet. The birds to whom the two
nests belonged were easily shot ; they made repeated
downward darts upon us like terns. The rest of the flock
kept well out of range, soon settling down at a point on
the extreme end of the island, and, on being fired at there,
flew right away. Among these glaucous gulls were two
immature birds and, one or two Siberian herring-gulls.
After the dispersion of the flock that had engaged all our
attention, we began to notice the presence of small parties
of sandpipers feeding about the island. They were very
wild, running about on the low, wet sandbanks which
rose hardly a couple of feet above high-tide level, and
about the margins of the little pools in the lower parts
of the island. Amono- them were some dunlins ; we
succeeded in shooting a couple of these, and one or two
sanderlings. These birds were peculiarly interesting to
us. We had scarcely hoped to come across them. We
saw no evidence, however, of their breeding upon the
island ; they seem to have settled upon it merely to feed.
The only nests we found were those of the glaucous gull.
The shores of the island were devoid of all material for
nest-building, except sand and a very slight quantity of
seaweed. A few whelks, some broken mussels, and
other bivalves lay sparingly scattered about ; with here
and there a few pieces of driftwood, and near the south
shore the decaying body of a seal, probably the harp seal.
At two o'clock we returned on board, and after a
couple of hours' sleep, we woke to find ourselves lying at
anchor in a thick fog that completely hid Island No. 3
from us. The sun, however, was shining brilliantly over-

"BEAUCOUP D'AROMA" i8i

head. After an early breakfast we watched the fog
lifting, and gradually we caught sight of the island, over
which a flock of thousands of black ducks was whirlinof
and circling. This island we computed to be some eight
or ten miles in length. It appeared to be exactly the
same sandy desert as Island No. 4, but we were told that
some persons who had visited it declare that grass grows
upon it. Unluckily for us its beacon had not been carried
off, only laid upon its side by the ice, so that in an hour's
time it was repaired and set up on its legs again and all
hands ordered back on board. Near it lay another dead
seal, apparently the common one, in a condition described
by Cocksure as having " beaucoup d'aroma." A few
herring and glaucous gulls were upon the island, and we
found two empty nests ; but what interested us most was
the presence of large parties of dunlins and small iiocks
of sanderlings. Numbers of black ducks continually
passed like clouds overhead. The large flocks did not
come near enough for identification, but we made out
amongr smaller ones the lono-tailed duck and the black
scoter, and were inclined to think that the laro-e flocks
were composed of the latter species.

At eigrht o'clock we had a more substantial breakfast
than that partaken of in the earlier hours, and then went
to lie down on sofas in the cabin. All day we drifted
down a sea almost as smooth as a mirror ; not a breath
of wind stirred during the night or day. We had also
left the mosquitoes behind, and only saw one or two after
leaving the delta of the Petchora. The steamer returned
to No. 4 Island as we slept to get into the right course
and deposit a " carabas " on the William Bank, and a long
pole (with a besom on the top and a stone at the foot)
upon the Alexander Bank.

We commenced our next day at 4 p.m. It was a very

i82 THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS

short one, but it proved very eventful. After a refreshing
wash and a promenade on deck for half an hour, we
dined and smoked a pipe. By that time the boats were
ready, and we went on shore a couple of versts south of
the river Dvoinik, there to erect another beacon, which
we were afterwards told the Samoyedes had pulled down.

Harvie-Brown and I struck off at once for the tundra
in the direction of the Pytkoff Mts. (580 feet high),
about fifteen miles distant. The tundra was very flat,
and we soon came upon ground exactly similar in
character to that tenanted by the grey plovers near
Alexievka. We had not walked far when we heard the
well-known cry, and there rose four j^rey plovers. My
companion soon after met with another pair and lay down
to watch them. We parted company here, and I heard later
that, feeling ill — the effect probably of irregular meals and
sleep — he soon after returned to the ship, having met with
nothing of interest, except the grey plovers and a few
Buffon's and Richardson's skuas, and also picking up the
feathers of a snowy owl.

After leaving him I went on for about a quarter of an
hour, then finding the tundra "flat, stale, and unprofit-
able," I turned sharp to the north, towards what I took
to be a large lake, but which in the maps is set down
to be a bay of the sea. En ro2Ue I saw nothing but an
occasional Lapland bunting or red-throated pipit. Arrived
at the water's edge, however, I spent an interesting hour.
A large flock of sandpipers were flying up and down the
banks. They looked very small and very red, and in
order to watch them I hid amongst some dwarf willows,
teeming with mosquitoes. I did not heed their bites,
for my hopes and doubts and fears made me for
the time mosquito-proof Presently some birds swirled
past, and I gave them a charge of No. 8. Three

A RED-LETTER DAY 183

fell — three Little stints — the real Simon Pure at last. I
now waited a few minutes, and soon heard their notes
again. This time a small flock passed me over the
water, and I dropped a couple into it. I endeavoured to
wade in after them, but the mud was too much for me ; a
smart north wind was blowing also, so I turned back and
waited on the shore ; there I spent the time examining
every dunlin that came within the range of my glass in
the hopes of discovering one without a black belly. After
a while I walked on, not caring to shoot more, but
desirous of finding some evidence of the Little stint's
breeding haunts. At a short distance before me rose
sandhills sprinkled over with a sort of esparto grass, and
towards these I now walked. The intervening ground
was covered with thick, short, coarse grass, and was
studded with little pools of water. I had not gone far
before I came upon some sandpipers feeding on the edge
of a small island in the bay. There was no kind of cover
near ; so approaching as close as I dared, I fired. There
must have been six or seven birds ; all rose but one, who
tried to follow the rest, but was wounded, and he dropped
into the water, fluttering feebly on till he reached another
island. The mud on the banks was so deep and sticky
that it was with difficulty I again got within range, and
with a second shot laid him upon his back. When I
managed to reach him, my pleasure was great on picking
him up to find a curlew sandpiper. This was the single
specimen of the species that we obtained on our journey.
I now hastened on to the sandhills. The mosquitoes had
by this time forced me to wear my veil, but when on
reaching- the hills I saw a number of small waders runninof
hither and thither, I threw it back ; still I could detect
nothing but ringed plovers. I shot one to be certain of
my identification, and hoping also that the report would

1 84 THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS

rouse rarer game. A shore-lark in first plumage was the
only other bird that rose at the sound. I secured it.
Wandering on farther I was still disappointed. Beds of
wild onion and large patches of purple vetch had replaced
the coarse grass. I returned on my footsteps to the edge
of the bay, and missed a shot at a swan ; a snowy owl
also flew past out of range. The curlew sandpipers had
disappeared. The flock of Little stints was still there,
but I left them to follow a snow-buntinof, the first I had
seen since leaving Ust-Zylma. I shot it. Then to my
consternation I discovered through my glass that the last
man had left the beacon, and that I must return. A pair
of black-throated divers were sailing about the bay, one
or two herring-gulls were flying about, but my time was
up. I was a good mile from the ship, so turning by the
sandhills I made my way to the beacon, bagging a fine
male grey plover as I went. As soon as I got on board
we started for Alexievka.

My wonderful success at the last moment determined
us by some means or other to return to this land teeming
with rare birds. We marked, as we steamed along, that
the sandhills continued on the north side of the river
Dvoinik as far as Cape Constantinovka. It was probable
that the breedino--oround of the Little stints mioht be
found on these coasts or on the mountains. Those I had
seen might be last year's birds, not breeding this year, but
haunting the neighbourhood of the older ones, as is the
case with the flocks of dunlins. It was tantalisino; to have
to hurry away from what seemed the Promised Land,
and as we looked at the old washing-tub that usually
carried us on our trips to the tundra, and knew that for
its life it could not dare cross Bolvanskaya Bay, we
felt inclined to parody Richard II I. 's cry, and exclaim
aloud, " A boat ! a boat ! my kingdom for a boat ! "

THE LITTLE AND TEMMINCK'S STINTS 185

Our young grey plovers in down, when we visited
them, we found thriving. There were five small birds in
excellent condition.

The five sanderlings that we had shot on the islands
were three males and two females. The testes of the
former were small, the latter had eggs about the size of a
pin's head. Both males and females showed signs of
moult ; they had some bare places almost like sitting-
spots, but no recent ones.

The curlew sandpiper turned out to be a female, with
very small eggs, and showed no signs of having been
breeding this year.

The five Little stints in our possession proved to be
all males. Temminck's stints were very common at
Alexievka. They were breeding abundantly : sometimes
we found them in single pairs, sometimes almost in
colonies, but we had never met with flocks of these birds
since leaving- the neighbourhood of Habariki. Those
that we had come upon afterwards had never failed to
show us by their ways that we were intruding upon their
breeding quarters. When Harvie- Brown visited Arch-
angel in 1872 he found Temminck's stints breeding on
one of the islands of the delta of the Dvina. This was
probably not far from the southern limit of their breeding
range. He also continually observed this species in
other localities, congregating in small flocks together, and
evidently not breeding. These might have been the
birds of the preceding year. If, as it is pretty well
established, few sandpipers breed until the second year,
and the young birds flock, during their first summer,
somewhere near the southern limit of the breeding-
stations, it might also be augured that the Little stints I
had seen were probably breeding at no great distance
from the spot I had visited the previous day. The

i86 THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS

thought of the probable vicinity of the nests, the discovery
of which had been one of the strong motives of our
journey, excited us so much that we did not go to bed,
but spent the night plotting and planning the possibilities
of getting to Dvoinik again. There were difficulties in
the way. Unluckily for us the company's manager was
a very impracticable man. It was his first year in office ;
he was young, inexperienced, and comparatively un-
educated. For the nonce he was absolute monarch of
Alexievka, and the absoluteness of his power was too
much for him. A German from Revel, he had yet so
much of the Russian in him that, when scratched, the
Tartar would out. He was very unpopular, and one
glimpse behind the scenes revealed to us rebellion
"looming in the distance." There were allowances to
be made for the man. No gentleman would come to
such a place as Alexievka, or face the existing muddle,
for the sake of the miserable pay " la pauvre compagnie,"
as Cocksure calls it, gives. The Provalychik had a
plentiful crop of cares under his crown. So far as we
could see he was plotting and being plotted against. He
was not backed up by the Bureau at St. Petersburg. His
domestic affairs looked ugly, and amongst his subordinates
he had scarcely one reliable man he could trust. The
whole situation was a specimen of what the Germans call
" Russische Wirthschaft." We knew the man could
render us an invaluable service without exposing the
company to the slightest loss, but as yet we had not
been able to make him see with our eyes. We longed
for the arrival of Sideroff, fearing, however, he would
come too late. Meanwhile we tried to work the oracle,
and had not yet given up the task in despair.

Whether the birds that I had seen in flocks on the
tundra were those of the year before or not continued a

MIGRATION HYPOTHESES 187

matter of discussion between my companion and myself.
He considered that maritime birds that feed principally
when the tide falls, have consequently a periodical dining-
hour and a special dining-room, and therefore get into
the habit of flocking together at dinner-time. I remained
still of the opinion that birds of the same species were
breeding not far off, probably on the coast between
Bolvanskaya Bay and Varandai, or it might be on the
Pytkoff mountains. We had also many debates concern-
ing the probable line of migration followed by the grey
plover, the Little stint, the curlew sandpiper, and the
sanderling ; and in this we began to question the usually
received theory that these birds migrate up the Baltic and
along the coast of Norway to their breeding haunts. My
own notion had long been that birds migrate against the
prevailing winds ; that they migrate to their breeding-
orround in a narrow stream, returnina^ from them in a
broad one. If these birds, therefore, winter on the
shores of the Mediterranean, they probably leave by way
of the Black Sea, cross by the Sea of Azov to the Volga
near Sarepta, follow the Volga to Kasan, thence along
the Kama to Perm, then over the low hills of the Ural to
the Ob, and so on to the Arctic Ocean. Some breed
near the mouth of the Ob, others on the eastern or the
western coast. The stragglers who wander off as far as
Archangel and the North Cape maybe barren birds with
nothinor else to do.

After starting this hypothesis we bethought ourselves
that we had with us a list of the birds of Kasan, in a
book lent to us by M. Znaminski. These chapters are
headed " Materials for making a Biography of the Birds
of the Volga," and the work itself is entitled, " Descriptive
Catalogues of the High School of the Imperial University
at Kasan," edited by MM. Kovalevski, Levakovski,

i88 THE GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS

Golovinski, and Bogdanoff; published at Kasan in 1871.
From this book Cocksure drew for us the following
information : —

''Little and Temminck's stints are seen in flocks
during the first fortnight in May on the Volga, from
Simbirsk to Kasan, and on the Kama as far as Uffa.
They are not seen during the summer, but are found
aofain at Simbirsk in the middle of Autrust.

" Curlew sandpipers are seen in Kasan in spring and
autumn only, both on the Volga and Kama.

" Sander lings are seen in autumn at Kasan, and have
been seen in spring on the Sarpa.

" Grey plovers are seen in small flocks in May and
vSeptember near Kasan, but are not to be met with every
year.

" Yellow-headed zvactails arrive at Kasan with the
common species, viz., middle of April ; a few pairs are
seen until the beginning of June."

These extracts prove that part of the migration of
these species takes place across country ; but probably
the main stream follows the coast, especially in autumn,
as I was myself an eye-witness, the year after my return
from the Petchora, on the island of Heligoland.

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT

HELIGOLAND ON
A MIGRATION NIGHT

CHAPTER XX.

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS.

Hybernation of Birds — Migration of Birds — Reed-warblers — Origin of
Migration — Transvaal Warblers — The Mammoth Age — Insect Life —
Lines of Migration — Heligoland and its Ornithologists — Variety of Birds —
Wind and Weather — The Throstle-bushes — Migration by Sight — Order of
Migration — Stray Migrants — The Yellow-browed Warbler — Migration on
Heligoland — Skylarks — Migratory Instincts — Other Facts of Migration.

It is very difficult to realise the fact that no longer ago
than towards the close of the last century the belief in
the hybernation of swallows was held by many ornitholo-
gists. That certain species of mammals spend the winter
in a torpid state is proved beyond all possibility of doubt ;
but there is no evidence of the hybernation of any species
of birds. Never was theory founded on more flimsy
substratum of supposed facts, or supported by weaker

logical

aro^ument.

Swallows made their appearance in

190 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

spring, no one knew how or whence. During the
summer they were remarkable for being almost con-
stantly on the wing, but late in the autumn a noticeable
change took place in their habits. They were observed
more and more to congregate in large flocks, and towards
evening to perch in numbers on houses, and frequently
in trees. Finally they collected in thousands on the reeds
and willows on the banks of the Thames, and disappeared
durinor the nieht. In the mornino- not a swallow was
to be seen, and ornithologists came to the startling
conclusion that they had plunged into the dark waters of
the river, and buried themselves in the mud at its bottom,
to reappear the following spring, refreshed by their
winter's sleep. And this theory was gravely accepted
as one among many other unfathomable secrets of
Nature! After a time it was, however, discovered that
the disappearance of many of the summer resident birds
from their breeding-grounds in this country was the
signal for their appearance in some parts of Southern
Europe or Northern Africa, and the theory of migration
was accepted as resting upon a basis of indisputable fact
when birds were seen in the act of migrating. At certain
stations, such as Gibraltar and Malta, and notably on the
island of Heligoland (all, curiously enough, under British
rule), birds were seen passing over, not in small flocks
only, but by thousands and tens of thousands, so that
no possible doubt could remain as to the great fact of
migration. The periodical disappearance of the swallow
remained, however, almost as great a mystery as before.
The impulse of migration was called an instinct, but did
not the less remain an unfathomable secret of Nature,
and the only cause that could be assigned for it was that
it must have been originally implanted in certain species
at their creation and denied to others.

THE HABIT OF MIGRATION 191

The discoveries of Darwin and Wallace have placed
the facts of migration in an entirely new light, and added
a new interest to a subject which has always been one of
the most fascinating departments of ornithology. The
origin of the habit of migration is still involved in much
mystery. It is probably a fact in the history of birds of
comparatively modern date. It is not confined to any
one geographical region, nor to any one family of birds,
nor can we assume that it will be present or absent
in every species of the same genus. The birds of the
Nearctic region are as migratory as those of the Palsearctic.
Many birds visit South America and Australia only during
the breeding-season. If we include as birds of the tropical
regions those species which visit them after having bred
in the cooler regions, they will also contain a considerable
proportion of migrants, even though no bird migrates
there to breed. We may lay it down as a law, to which
there is probably no exception, that every bird breeds in
the coldest regions of its migrations. No bird migrates
to the tropics to breed because there is no hotter region
for it to migrate from. The stories of birds breeding a
second time in the place of their winter migration
probably have the same scientific value as the stories
of swallows having been found hybernatincr in caves and
hollow trees, or of toads having been found in the recesses
of otherwise solid rocks.

Many birds, such as the robin, the blackbird, and
others, which are for the most part resident in England,
are migratory in Germany. There is every probability
that it is only within comparatively recent times that
these birds have ceased to migrate in England, and we
may fairly conjecture that, should the English climate
remain long enough favourable to the winter residence
of these birds, they will develop into local races, which

192 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

will eventually have rounder and shorter wings than
their continental allies.

In some genera of birds it is comparatively easy to
determine the geographical range from an examination of
the shape of the wing. In the genus Acrocephalus, or
reed-warblers, for example, A. turdoides is noticeable
for its very pointed wing. Its migrations extend from
South Sweden to the Transvaal. A. orientalis, again,
is scarcely distinguishable except in having a slightly less
pointed wing. Its migrations extend from Japan to
Borneo. A. stentoreus has a decidedly more rounded
wino-, and the limits of its mig^rations are from Turkestan
to India ; whilst A. syrinx has the roundest wing of all,
and appears to have become a resident in the island of
Ponape. In the smaller species of the genus the fact
is equally striking. The sharp- winged A. schoenobcenus
ranges from the Arctic Circle to South Africa, whilst the
more rounded-winged A. dtimetorum and A. bcBticatiis have
very limited ranges.

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the
origin of migration, some ornithologists holding that the
original home of a species was its winter quarters ; others
supposing that before the instinct of migration was formed
the species was a resident in the district where it now
breeds. Both views have their difficulties ; but the pre-
ponderance of evidence seems to me to be largely on
the side of the latter theory. In turning over a box of
Transvaal skins, shot during the breeding season between
September and March, it seems impossible to come to
any other conclusion. Throwing aside the brilliant birds
of the district, we shall find, especially if the box comes
from Potchefstroom, a variety of reed-warblers and allied
birds, which speak of swamps abounding with insects,
where birds of this kind delight to breed and find

FROM AFRICA TO THE ARCTIC 193

unlimited food. As a matter of fact most of these
birds do breed there, and, because the winter is so
mild, remain there all the year round. But mixed up
with these African types we shall find a fair sprinkling
of our own reed-warblers, who have gone down there to
avoid our cold winters. These birds are not breeding ;
they have migrated to the Transvaal to enjoy the
mosquitoes of the Potchefstroom swamps, and when
the Potchefstroom birds have finished breeding and begin
their six months rest from family cares, they will some
of them migrate to the Arctic regions of North Europe
to breed amongst the mosquitoes which swarm on the
river-banks on the outskirts of the tundra. We can
scarcely conceive it possible that these species were ever
resident birds in the Transvaal. It seems much more
rational to conclude that they were once resident birds
in the subarctic regions of Europe, and now by the
change in the winter temperature of their original home
have come to South Africa as migrants, apparently out
of season in regard to their breeding habits, to mix
amongst birds, many of whom are closely allied to, if
not congeneric with, themselves. The cause of migration
is want oi food, not want of warmth. The feathers of a
Siberian jay or a Lapp tit are proof against any cold.

Admitting that the various species of birds that breed
in countless thousands in the Arctic regions were once
residents there in the days when the climate was much
warmer than it is now, we still find some difficulties to
explain. In the first place, the Mammoth age does not
appear to have been so very much warmer than the
present. It is said that the remains of the foliage of
conifers, such as now exist in Siberia, have been found
in the stomachs of frozen mammoths. In the second
place, the question may be fairly asked : How about the

N

194 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

three months' niofht ? Would that be no bar to the
wintering of so many birds in the Arctic regions ? But
are we sure that there was three months night ? May it
not be possible that the obliquity of the earth's axis to
its orbit was much less in those ages, and that this was
one cause of the comparative mildness of the winters,
whilst the summers were for the same reason cool enough
for the growth of conifers ? An increase in the obliquity
of the earth's axis would possibly account for the glacial
period which destroyed the mammoths and compelled the
birds to migrate.

It is alleged that many birds leave their winter
quarters because in southern climates the heat dries up
everything, and lessens the production of insect life.
Many of our European birds winter on both shores of
the Mediterranean. In wandering through the valleys
of Asia Minor, or the mountain-gorges of the Parnassus,
or on the islands in the lagoon of Missolonghi, in May
and June, I noticed no absence of insect life. On the
contrary, insect life appeared to be superabundant.
Vegetable life appeared to be threatened by innumerable
grasshoppers. One of the prominent features of the
district was the countless thousands of beetles which
swarmed on every plant ; and, if we may judge from the
number and size of their webs, the countries I have
named must be a perfect paradise for spiders. That
these districts are suitable for the maintenance of insecti-
vorous birds during summer is proved by the fact that
soon after the Phylloscopi which have wintered there
have left, their place is filled with birds belonging to the
allied genus Hypolais, so that the olive-trees are well
supplied with insect-eating birds both winter and summer.
One species of swallow winters in Greece, one is found
there all the year round, and three other species are

NOCTURNAL MIGRATION 195

summer migrants to that country. In some cases no
doubt the weaker birds are turned out by the stronger.
Swallows arrive in Dlisseldorf early in April. For some
weeks they circle over the town, like a swarm of bees.
Early in May the swifts arrive, and soon become as
abundant as the swallows were, whilst the latter birds are
rarely seen during the summer.

Too much has probably been made of the great lines
of migration, the highways which lead from the summer
to the winter quarters.* It has been asserted that there
is a connection between these routes and the position of
submerged continents across which the birds migrated
in past ages. Probably there is some such connection,
but in all probability an accidental one. To prove the
case it would be necessary to show that migratory birds
chose a longer route across a shallow sea in preference to
a shorter route across a deep sea. It would be necessary
also to prove that the habit of migration is older than the
subsidence of the submergfed land.

I venture to think that the modus operandi of migra-
tion has been to a largfe extent misunderstood. Few
birds migrate by day. By far the greater number of
species migrate by night. The number of places where
nocturnal migrations can be systematically observed is
very small. Two circumstances are requisite to make
such observations successful. First, a sufficiently large
population sufficiently interested in the event to permit
no nocturnal migration to pass undiscovered. Second, a
sufficiently intelligent naturalist to record the sum of
many years' observation. Probably in no place in the
world are these desiderata so exactly fulfilled as upon the

* This and the following paragraphs have been left intact, but how much
Mr. Seebohm was afterwards led to modify his views on the subject of migration
may be seen by reference to page 418 in Part II. of this volume. ^ — Ed.

196 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

island of Heligoland. Soon after my return from the
valley of the Petchora, Mr. Gatke, the celebrated orni-
thologist and artist, who resided for so many years
on Heliofoland, invited me to visit the island, to renew
the acquaintance of the grey plover, the Little stint, the
blue-throat, the shore-lark, the little bunting, and others
of my Petchora friends, and to see something of the
wonderful stream of migration which sets in every autumn
from the Arctic regions to the sunny South, and flows
abundantly past the island. Heligoland is a very small
place, probably not much more than a hundred acres in
extent. It is an isolated triangular table of red sand-
stone, with perpendicular cliffs two or three hundred feet
in height, dropping into a sea so shallow, that at low water
you can scramble round the island at the foot of the cliffs.
Most of the surface of this rock is covered with rich soil
and grass. About a mile from the island is a sandbank,
the highest portion covered over with esparto grass, and
the lower portions submerged by the sea at high tide,
reducing the island from perhaps fifty acres to twenty-
five. The resident birds on Heligoland and Sandy
Island probably do not exceed a dozen species ; but in
spring and autumn the number of birds that use these
islands as a resting-place during migration is so large,
that as many as 15,000 larks have been known to have
been caught there in one night, and the number of species
of birds obtained on these two small plots of land equals,
if it does not exceed, that of any country of Europe.
There are several species of Siberian and American birds
which have never been obtained in any part of Europe
except upon the island of Heligoland. The list of
Heligoland birds is so varied, that many ornithologists
have doubted its accuracy. No one can visit the island,
however, without being convinced of the bona fides of all

MIGRATION IN HELIGOLAND 197

concerned. The authenticity of the Heligoland skins is
beyond all possible question. During the time I spent
on the island, from the 23rd of September to the i8th of
October, I either shot or saw in the flesh such a variety
of birds that I could almost agree with my friend Mr. Gatke
when he stated that he would willingly exchange his col-
lection of rare birds shot in Heligfoland for those which
had passed over the island without being obtained. It is
probable, however, that the latter bear a much smaller
proportion to the former in Heligoland than in any other
place.

The fact is that this little island is the only part of
the world of which the ornithology has been properly
worked. Every little boy in the island is a born and
bred ornithologist. Every unfortunate bird which visits
the island has to run the gauntlet of about forty guns, to
say nothing of scores of blowpipes and catapults. The
flight and note of every bird is familiar to every islander.
Each bird has its own local name in the Heligoland
language. A new bird is instantly detected. The fisher-
man steers with a gun by his side ; the peasant digs his
potatoes with a gun on the turf, and a heap of birds on
his coat. On an island where there are no cows, and
sheep are kept for their milk only, meat is of course very
dear, especially as it has to be brought by steamer from
Hamburof, one of the dearest cattle-markets on the
continent of Europe. Birds therefore naturally form an
important article of diet to the Heligolanders. Every
bird which appears is whistled within range with mar-
vellous skill. The common birds are eaten, the rare
ones sold to the bird-stuffer, and the new ones taken to
Gatke. Many of the Heligolanders are clever shots.
Long before sunrise the island is bristling with guns ;
and after dark the netters are busy at their throstle-

198 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

bushes ; whilst at midnight the birds commit suicide
against the Hghthouse. When we consider that this has
been going on for a quarter of a century, and that the
results have been most carefully chronicled for that
length of time, the wonder is not that so many species of
birds have occurred on Heligoland, but that so many
have hitherto escaped detection. This must be accounted
for on the theory that, after all, the appearance of birds
on Heligoland is only accidental. Comparatively little
migration is observed by the casual visitor who frequents
the restaurant to enjoy the oysters and the lobsters, or
rows across to Sandy Island to bathe on the shore, and
take a constitutional on the "dunes." Now and then a
flock of waders may be detected hurrying pasr ; flocks of
pipits occasionally land on the island, feed for an hour or
two, and then pass on ; and sometimes a scattered and
straggling stream of hooded crows, of heavy and
laborious flight, will continue all day long. But by far
the most important migration will be found to have
taken place "while men slept." Every flock which
passes over probably drops a few tired or hungry birds,
and a walk through the potato-fields in the morning after
a migration night sometimes turns up the most curious
and interesting variety of species which have sought the
only cover on the island to feed or rest. Perhaps the
first bird you flush is a skylark ; the report of your gun
starts a golden plover, or a jack snipe ; then you observe
some small birds skulking in the potatoes, and you pre-
sently secure a little bunting, an aquatic warbler, and a
shore-lark. Your next shot may be a corncrake, followed
by a ring ousel or a Richard's pipit.

Every night, however, is not a migration night.
Sometimes for a week together you may diligently tramp
the potatoes without finding a bird. Migration is a

THE THROSTLE-BUSHES 199

question of wind and weather. Aeuckens, the bird-stuffer
on Heligoland, told me that birds migrate north-east in
spring, and south-west in autumn. Gatke, on the other
hand, maintains that the directions are due east and west.
Both agree that birds dislike an absolutely favourable
or absolutely contrary wind. The former ruffles their
feathers and chills them ; the latter, if too strong, impedes
their progress. They prefer a side wind, and probably
alter their course slightly to accommodate themselves
to it. It is even said that they will sometimes tack.
Weather is perhaps as important as wind. Under or-
dinary circumstances a bird does not require to rest on
Heligoland, and the arrivals for the most part are said
not to be from any point of the compass, but perpendicu-
larly from the sky. The islanders describe with great
2"usto the sudden arrival of thrushes in this manner.
There are scarcely any trees on the island, so the
peasants make artificial bushes with a net on one side
into which the poor thrushes are driven with sticks and
lanterns as soon as they alight. Some hundreds are thus
frequently caught in one night. By long experience the
Heligolanders know when to expect an arrival of birds.
Aeuckens related to me how they would watch on favour-
able nights by the throstle-bushes, when on a sudden,
without a moment's warning, a rush and whirl of wings
would be heard, and the throstle-bush would swarm with
thrushes, not dropped, but apparently shot like an arrow
from a bow, perpendicularly down from the invisible
heights of mid air. It is supposed that migration takes
place for the most part at a high elevation, beyond the
range of our vision ; that the birds migrate by sight, and
not, as has been assumed, by blind instinct ; that they
are guided by prominent landmarks with which they have
gradually become familiar ; and that many birds which

200 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

are not gregarious at any other time of the year become
so during the periods of migration, in order to avail
themselves of the experience of the veteran travellers of
their own or of other species. The desire to migrate is
a hereditary instinct originally formed and continually
kept up by the necessity to do so, in order to maintain a
struggle for existence against the changes of temperature,
but the direction in which to migrate must be learned
afresh by each individual. The theory that migration
ordinarily takes place at high elevations is supported by
the fact that it is only in dark or cloudy weather that
migration on a large scale is observed. It is supposed
that the landmarks being obscured by clouds, the birds
are obliged to descend to see their way, for it is observed
that as soon as the clouds begin to break, the migration
apparently comes to an end. On dark nights the stream
of migration suddenly stops when the moon rises. Each
bird has its time of migration. Weather has, apparently,
nothinof to do with this date. Good weather does not
seem to hasten the birds to their breeding haunts, nor
bad weather retard their starting. If the suitable con-
junction of circumstances occur during the season of a
certain bird's migration, that bird visits the island. If
the season goes by without such conjunction, the bird
does not visit the island. The period of its migration is
over. The migration of this species has taken place at
high altitudes, it may be, or by other routes ; and it is in
vain to look for it until the next season of migration
comes round, when, given the necessary wind and
weather, the appearance of the bird may confidently be
expected.

The period of migration of each species lasts about a
month. In spring, during the first week, the flocks con-
sist principally of adult males ; during the second week.

THE ORDER OF MIGRATION 201

they principally consist of adult females ; in the third
week, follow the birds of the year ; whilst finally, during
the last week, arrive the cripples — birds which have lost
their toes, birds with half a tail, birds with one mandible
abnormally long, or birds with some other defect. In
autumn the order of migration is somewhat different.
For weeks before the regular period of migration is due
stragglers in various stages of plumage arrive, loaf about
in a desultory manner for a few days, and then disappear.
Some of these birds are in summer plumage, some of
them in their winter dress, whilst others are in a tran-
sition stage, moulting as they migrate. These avant-
coureurs are supposed to consist of barren birds, odd
birds who have been unable to find a mate, or birds
whose nests have been destroyed too late in the season
to allow of a second nest to be made. Having nothing
else to do, the hereditary instinct to migrate not being
checked by the parental instinct, they yield to its first
impulses, and drift southwards before the general body of
their species. When the period of migration sets in in
earnest, astounding^ as the fact is, it is nevertheless true
that the birds of the year are the first to migrate, birds
which of course have never migrated before. This
circumstance, which all the Helio'olanders with whom I
conversed agreed in corroborating, may to a large extent
account for the fact that the rare stragglers recorded as
visiting- Helisfoland and other countries are for the most
part birds of the year on their first autumn migration. It
is not to be wondered at that on their first journey they
should frequently stray from the direct course. Probably
the mortality amongst birds of the year is very great,
especially amongst those who take the wrong road on
their first migration. The yellow-browed warbler [Pkyl/o-
scopus superciliosus, Gmel.) breeds in immense numbers

202 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

on the Arctic circle in Siberia. The main line of
migration of this, as well as of several other species of
birds breeding in the same district, is eastwards, passing
through North China and conducting them to South
China, Burma, and the eastern portion of India, where
they winter in abundance. Several birds, some nearly
allied, and one concreneric, miorrate west instead of east
from the same breedina-.a-rounds, and with these a few
yellow-browed warblers appear annually to mix anci find
their way to Europe, passing Heligoland in small numbers
nearly every autumn. Probably most of these wanderers
perish during the winter, as they have been observed in
spring on Heligoland only once every few years. This
charming little bird has once been recorded from the
British Islands. I saw one or two during my short stay
on Heligoland, and was fortunate enough to shoot one.
For nearly a week, whilst I was visiting this interesting
locality, the weather was unfavourable. There were
scarcely half a dozen birds on the island. I used to take
a constitutional with my gun twice or thrice a day, spend-
ing most of the rest of the time in Mr. Gatke's studio,
chatting about his birds, visiting regularly Aeuckens, the
bird-stuffer, to inquire if any one else had had better luck.
On the iith of October I shot three shore-larks.
Aeuckens told me that the appearance of this Arctic
species was a very good sign, that he had often noticed
that a few birds always preceded the favourable weather,
and that we might soon expect a change and plenty of
birds. The next day the west winds, which had pre-
vailed for a week, slackened a little. In the afternoon
it was a calm, with a rising barometer ; in the evening
a breeze was already springing up from the south-east.
I called upon Gatke, who advised me to go to bed, and
be up before sunrise in the morning, as in all probability

BIRDS AT THE LIGHTHOUSE 203

I should find the island swarming with birds. Accord-
ingly I turned in soon after ten. At half-past twelve I
was awoke with the news that the migration had already
beo-un. Hastily dressing myself, I at once made for the
lio-hthouse. As I crossed the potato-fields birds were
continually getting up at my feet. Arrived at the light-
house, an intensely interesting sight presented itself.

hp:ligoland

The whole of the zone of light within range of the
mirrors was alive with birds coming and going. Nothing
else was visible in the darkness of the night, but the
lantern of the lighthouse vignetted in a drifting sea of
birds. From the darkness in the east, clouds of birds
were continually emerging in an uninterrupted stream ; a
few swerved from their course, fluttered for a moment as
if dazzled by the light, and then gradually vanished with
the rest in the western gloom. Occasionally a bird
wheeled round the lighthouse and then passed on, and

204 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

occasionally one fluttered against the glass like a moth
against a lamp, tried to perch on the wire netting and
was caught by the lighthouse man. I should be afraid
to hazard a guess as to the hundreds of thousands that
must have passed in a couple of hours ; but the stray
birds which the lighthouse man succeeded in securing
amounted to nearly 300. The scene from the balcony
of the lighthouse was equally interesting ; in every direc-
tion birds were flying like a swarm of bees, and every
few seconds one flew against the glass. All the birds
seemed to be flying up wind, and it was only on the lee
side of the light that any birds were caught. They were
nearly all skylarks. In the heap captured was one red-
start and one reed-bunting. The air was filled with the
warbling cry of the larks ; now and then a thrush was
heard : and once a heron screamed as it passed by. The
night was starless and the town was invisible, but the
island looked like the outskirts of a gas-lighted city,
being sprinkled over with brilliant lanterns. Many of
the larks alighted on the ground to rest, and allowed the
Heligolanders to pass their nets over them. About
three o'clock a.m. a heavy thunderstorm came on, with
deluofes of rain ; a few breaks in the clouds revealed the
stars ; and the migration came to an end or continued
above the range of our vision.

The conclusion I came to after my Heligoland expe-
rience was that the desire to migrate was an hereditary
impulse, to which the descendants of migratory birds
were subject in spring and autumn, which has during the
lapse of ages acquired a force almost, if not quite, as
irresistible as the instinct to breed in spring. On the
other hand, the direction in which to migrate appears to
be absolutely unknown to the young birds in their first
autumn, and has to be learnt by experience. The idea

INSTINCT, OR HEREDITARY IMPULSE? 205

that the knowledge of where to migrate is a mysterious
gift of Nature, the miraculous quality of which is
attempted to be concealed under the semi-scientific term
of instinct, appears to be without any foundation in fact.
It appears that each individual bird has to find out its
own proper winter quarters for itself, and learn the way
thither as best it may. That birds have keen organs of
sight is a fact well known to all who have watched them
obtainino^ their food or eluding their enemies. That they
must have wonderful memories for place is shown by the
distance they roam from their nests which, however well
concealed, they seem to have no difficulty whatever in
finding again. Amongst true migratory birds, that is
amonofst birds which have a winter as well as a summer
home, as distinguished from gipsy migrants who per-
petually loaf about on the outskirts of the frost during
winter, continually changing their latitude with the tem-
perature, it appears to be a general rule that the farther
north a species goes to breed the farther south it goes to
winter. It is not known if this applies to individuals as
well as to species. The various times of arrival of many
species of birds in most latitudes of Europe are well
known and carefully recorded, but of the dates of
departure from the various latitudes of Africa where
they winter we know little or nothing, otherwise this
question might easily be settled. It is obviously much
easier to record the date of arrival of a bird than of its
departure. In the one case a single entry is sufficient ;
in the other, memoranda may have to be daily recorded
for weeks. At Valkenswaard, in Holland, I noticed that
the earliest migrants were those with the widest range.
Birds whose breeding- range extended to or beyond
Britain were the earliest to breed, whilst those whose
eggs I was most anxious to obtain, those whose breeding-

2o6

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

range did not extend to our islands, were very late in
arriving. It seems to be a curious fact that, as a general
rule — though subject, no doubt, to many exceptions — the
birds who have come from the lonoest distance arrive
the earliest. The facts of migration are, however, so
many, and the theories which they suggest are so various,
that we must brino- this ramblinof, if not irrelevant
chapter to an end, and return to the narrative of our
doings in the valley of the Petchora.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

DOIXi; ROBINSON CRUSOE AT DVOINIK

CHAPTER XXI.

IN CAMP AT DVOINIK.

Trip to Kuya — The Prahms— Travelling in a Rosposki — The Birds en
route — Arrival of the Triad at Alexievka — We Win over the Manager —
The Ino — Doing Robinson Crusoe in a Wrecked Ship — Nest of the Long-
tailed Duck — Our First Little Stint's Nest— The Tundra— Sunset and
Sunrise — Little Stint's Eggs — The Tundra near Bolvanskaya Bay —
Phalaropes — Interior of the Tundra — Change of Plumage in Phalaropes
— An Early Morning Start — Confusion of Time — The Snowy Owl — Two
more Nests of Little Stint^A March of Geese on the Tundra — An Old
Grave.

A DAY or two after our return from the Golievski islands,
a chance suddenly turned up of making a trip up stream
to Kuya. The rafts, which ought by this time to have
reached Alexievka, had not arrived, and ill-natured
rumours of their having run aground were brought down
by some fishermen. The manager of the company had
also run out of various arlicles de luxe, which his soul

2o8 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

lusted after ; so the steamer was ordered to Kuya, and
we gladly accepted berths in her. On the way we met
one of the rafts coming down from Kuya. We drove on
to Mekitza to visit the prahms ; queer-looking vessels,
something like canal-boats, carrying a gigantic mast in
the centre, and an arched roof above. Each vessel is
a shop, where miscellaneous merchandise is sold or
bartered, and the owners who come down every summer
from Tcherdin, near Perm, are sometimes very wealthy
men. The goods fetch high prices on board. We paid
elevenpence per pound for sugar, and six shillings for
tea. The merchant from whom we bought our provisions
was reputed to be worth a million sterling. Nor was
it extraordinary, considering the amount of trade he
managed to secure. He had come down to Mekitza
with three prahms, had cleared the cargo of two, and
sold the vessels, and very few goods now remained in
the one in which he intended to make his journey home-
ward. In the villages the prices were much lower than
those asked on the prahms. Thus we paid only i^d.
per lb. for excellent fresh beef

At Kuya several timber-rafts passed us, proceeding to
Alexievka ; these we waylaid. They were carrying a batch
of letters for us, up to June 7th. Having secured this wel-
come prize, we set our faces towards our headquarters.

The five versts between Kuya to Mekitza and back
we travelled in a rosposki, a machine composed of
four wheels, about two feet in diameter, the axle-trees
of which are connected by three parallel poles, upon
which we sat. This vehicle is, without exception, the
most uncomfortable carriage it has ever been my ill-luck
to travel in. There is no support for the back, nothing
to hold on by at the sides ; only three bare poles to sit
on, and not height enough from the ground to swing one's

ARRIVAL OF THE "TRIAD" 209

legs about in peace. On the way we saw sand-martins,
hooded crows, arctic terns, common gulls, ringed plover,
and Temminck's stints. We got young in down of the
ringed plover and arctic tern, and shot a long-tailed duck
with her brood of ducklings. At Kuya we saw both the
common and the tree sparrow.

The morning had been intensely hot ; in the after-
noon the wind rose, veered round to the north, and the
night was stormy and cold. The next day the chill
continued, and for the time being the plague of mos-
quitoes was stayed. It was a pleasant surprise, on
reaching Alexievka, to find an English schooner, the
Triad, Captain Taylor, anchored in the river. She had
come over from Iceland, whither she had carried coal, and
was now chartered for larch to Cronstadt. We at once
secured berths in her. She intended to sail in ten days,
hoping to make Elsinore in a month.

The cold weather continued the next day. We spent
two hours at Wassilkova, but saw little of interest. The
red-throated pipits were in full moult, but we brought
home some of their young, also those of the yellow-
headed wagtail and dunlins, and a pintail duck and its
half-grown ducklings. The next day my companion
secured another specimen of our new pipit, for which we
had been looking in the neighbourhood. The day was
memorable for having brought successfully to a conclusion
our negotiations with Captain Arendt, the manager of
the company. A watch, a revolver, a musical box, and a
ten-pound note had brought him round, and on the
morrow the steamer was to be placed at our disposal.
We were in high spirits, shouting, " Hurrah! for Dvoinik
and the Little Stint ! " The next morning we were fairly
off by 10 A.M. It was damp and chilly, with a light
breeze from the north-west. As we neared the bar, we

o

2IO IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

sighted a brig- under full sail. We hoisted a rendezvous
flag, and went on board. Though flying Danish colours,
we found she was an English vessel — the InOy from
Newhaven. The captain told us he had been some days
trying to get into the. Petchora, but he was unable to
reach it by steering between islands Nos. 3 and 4, owing
to the ice, and had come round the east passage between
islands 7 and 8 and Varandai. This ice accounted
for the extraordinarily cold weather we had been having
since the previous Sunday.

About four we landed at Dvoinik, and took possession
of a stranded vessel that was lying high and dry upon
the beach. It was settled that the company's steamer
should call for us on the following Tuesday, Wednesday,
or Thursday, according to the final arrangements for the
starting of our schooner, the Triad, in which we were to
make part of our homeward passage. Meanwhile we were
to live at Dvoinik, in regular Robinson Crusoe fashion.
The deserted vessel looked very comfortable, and we
anticipated a jolly time.

Leaving the men to sweep up the hold, we started
off in high glee for a raid upon the Little stints. We
hastened over the tundra, makino^ for the marshy ground
upon which I had seen the dunlins, but not one was
there. Possibly, we thought, the young could fly by this
time, and had joined their parents on their favourite
feeding-ground. On the brackish lake close by we shot
a brood of long-tailed ducks, and afterwards found an
empty nest in the short, coarse grass, placed exactly at
high-tide water-mark. It contained down enough to
identify the species. There was no cover to the nest,
except a margin of thin turf, that looked as if it had been
turned up by a spade. On the lake there were, as before,
a couple of black-throated divers. I waited for a short

NEST OF THE LITTLE STINT 211

while, hiding in the cleft of the bank, as I had done on
the previous occasion when I had shot the Little stints,
but none were to be seen. I then skirted the margin of
the bay to its narrow entrance, having spied a grey
plover or two, a pair of Arctic terns, and a few herring-
gulls. When there, a small number of dunlins passed
rapidly overhead, and I repeatedly saw flocks of Little
stints. However, these might have been the same flock
passing and repassing. They were very wild, and I
could not get a shot. Some time before, my companion
and I had parted company. We now met at one of the
capes at the southern extremity of the high promontory.
Cocksure was with him. On comparing notes I found
their experience had been much the same as mine, only
Cocksure shot a Temminck's stint, near the sandhills.
In returning we separated again to cover more ground ;
and again when we met, and compared notes, we found
that to each the sandhills, the lakes, and the shores had
proved a blank, destitute of bird-life.

We then separated for a stroll on the tundra. I had
not gone far before I heard our interpreter Piottuch
shoutino- in a state of oreat excitement. Harvie- Brown
was the first to come up ; and I joined them shortly
afterwards. I found them sitting on the crround, with
a couple of Little stints in down. I sat down beside
them, and we watched the parent bird as she was
fluttering and flying and running all round us, sometimes
coming within a foot of one of us. After securing the
old bird we went on a short distance, and Piottuch again
made loud demonstrations of delight. This time it was
nest and eo-Sfs. The nest was like that of most sand-
pipers, a mere depression in the ground, with such dead
maroshka (cloudberry) leaves and other dry materials as
were within easy reach, scraped together to serve as

212 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

lining. The position was on a comparatively dry extent
of tundra, sloping from the top of the little turf cliffs that
rise from the lagoon down to the sandhills at the twin
capes, between which the tide runs in and out of a little
inland sea. These sandhills are flanked on the side next
the sea with piles of drift-wood of all sizes and shapes —
lofty trees which have been mown down by the ice when
the great river broke up and in many places overflowed
its banks, squared balks of timber washed away by the
floods from the stores of the Petchora Timber-trading
Company, and spars of luckless ships that have been
wrecked on these inhospitable shores. They are sparingly
sprinkled over with esparto grass, and soon run into an
irregular strip of sand and gravel. This part of the
coast, however, did not seem to have any attraction
for the Little stints. There were plenty of ringed plover
upon it, and a few Temminck's stints ; and we saw a
pair of snow-buntings with five young, which had probably
been bred amongst the drift-wood. At Dvoinik, however,
for perhaps a verst from each twin cape, between the
sand and the mouth of the little inland sea, is an extent
of dead flat land, covered over with thick short grass,
and full of little lakes, mostly very shallow and filled
with black or coffee-coloured mud with an inch or two of
brackish water upon it. Some of these pools are covered
with aquatic plants, and others are open water. These
lakes and pools seem to be the real point of attraction ;
and on their edges the Little stints feed, in small flocks
of from half a dozen birds to a score, as they happen to
meet from the tundra. The large flock of perhaps a
hundred or more birds, which was occasionally seen,
might possibly have been last year's birds and not
breeding ; but more probably it consisted entirely of
males, which, so far as we had an opportunity of observ-

THE TUNDRA'S VARIED GROUND 213

ing, do not take any part in incubation. The ground
where the nests were placed was full of tussocks or
hummocks, close together, the swampy ground between
being almost hidden, or traceable only by rows of cotton-
grass. The nests were within a hundred yards of the
place where I shot the five Little stints on July 14, on
a comparatively dry extent of tundra gently sloping
towards the north-east, lying between the lagoon and
the inland sea — exactly the place in which one would
expect them to breed, not too swampy, but probably
the coolest place the birds could have chosen. The
Pytkoff Mts., though at a considerably greater elevation
(513 feet above the level of the sea), are no doubt
warmer, because more inland. The sandy shore, having
little or no cover, would also be hotter from the sun.
Facing the north-east, this part of the tundra catches the
most of the prevailing winds at this season of the year,
and the least sun ; and no doubt the large bay or inland
sea on one side, and the open water on the other, help to
cool the air.

We had already given names to the different sorts of
ground on the tundra. The dry, grassy hills were the
shore-lark ground ; the dead, flat bog, intersected with
tussocky ridges, was the grey plover ground ; the
swampy marsh, covered with long grass, was the reeve
ground. Where the grass was shorter and more tangled
and knotted, it became dunlin ground ; and where this
short grassy swamp was sprinkled over with tussocks of
dryer earth, covered over with moss and flowers, it was
the Lapland bunting or red-throated pipit l^ round. The
part where the tussocks lay so close together that they
reminded one of the hundred domes of the Stamboul
bazaar seen from the minaret of Santa Sophia, and the
swampy ground was almost hidden, or traceable only by

214 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

rows of cotton-grass, we agreed to call for the future the
Little stint g-round. The hummocks were covered with
green moss, mingled here and there with a little hoary
reindeer moss. This undergrowth was concealed by the
niaroshka (the cloudberry), a species of rush, sedges,
the dwarf sweet-smelling daphne, and other shrubs and
flowers of the tundra.

The last few days had been almost winter, but on the
following day it was summer once again. The wind
had dropped and the clouds had gone from the sky.
This was the bright side of the change ; the reverse was
the swarm of mosquitoes that hung over the tundra.
Brown and I visited the Little stint ground again, on
the principle of "stick to your covey"; but not a bird
or a nest could we see upon it. We shot a wheatear
on the shore, saw a pair of sanderlings, dropped a fine
glaucous gull, a reeve, and some other birds, and then
returned to our quarters. Our Samoyede brought us
a couple of nests of long-tailed ducks, one containing
three eggs, the other five. We were tired out, so
having cooked a duck for dinner, we went to bed at
4 A.M., to rise at ii a.m. We began our day (let the
reader forgive the Irishism, it is only a Petchorski bull),
by watching the sun set and rise again in the space of an
hour or so ; then we set ofi", hoping to get the start of
the mosquitoes. It was a dead calm, and taking the
boat, we crossed over to the north twin cape. We found
the sand barren of special interest, as it had been on the
other side ; only the intrusive ringed plover made as
much hubbub as a hundred Little stints or grey plovers
would have done, evidently considering its eggs were
the only ones we could possibly be in search of The
lakes and pools were very similar in shape and appear-
ance to those on the south cape. Temminck's stints were

THE ARCTIC MIST 215

somewhat more abundant, and we fell in with one small
party of Little stints. Before leaving this ground we
devoted an hour to duck-shooting for the pot, and
bagged three long-tailed ducks, and one pintail with
two young in down. We then turned our attention
to the tundra, which rapidly rose some forty feet or
so, afterwards sloping gradually down apparently to
the Pytkoff hills, distant some fifteen miles. In many
places a white mist lay over the landscape, resembling
far-away lakes. There were numerous small pools of
water, but we could not distinsfuish them until within
a short distance. In suitable ground the grey plover
abounded, and we shot young Lapland buntings ; yet
on the whole the tundra did not look inviting — grey
plovers and their eggs were not sufficient attraction to
lure us to face the mosquitoes ; so turning away from
it we began to explore the shores of a river winding
inland. On its high steep grassy banks we found shore-
larks, old and young, and what was even more to the
purpose and acceptable in our present Robinson Crusoe
situation — an abundance of leeks or eschalots, of which
we laid in a plentiful supply. We recognised an eagle
soaring overhead, we saw some skuas, ringed plovers,
Temminck's stints, and redpolls, but nothing of special
interest. It was now about eight o'clock, so we rowed
back to the entrance of the inland sea, intending to
cross over to our quarters on the south cape, when
suddenly a dense white mist, coming from the Arctic
ice, fell upon us. We hastened to run our boat ashore,
stopping to shoot a sanderling on a sandbank, and soon
after an Arctic tern.

Our next nest of the Little stint was taken on the
24th of July. Harvie- Brown and I had^been up all
night, shooting by the light of the midnightj, sun, hoping

2i6 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

to avoid the mosquitoes, and were returning home to our
wrecked ship in a thick white morning mist. I stopped
behind to refresh myself with a bath, and afterwards
turned towards the Little stint ground. Just as I reached
it I was glad to see Piottuch emerge from the white mist,
with the intelligence that he had found another nest of
this bird, containing four eggs, about three versts off,
and had shot the bird, leaving the nest and eggs for us
to take. We walked on together a short distance, when
I heard the now familiar cry of a Little stint behind me,
a sharp wick^ almost exactly the same as the cry of the
red-necked phalarope, or that of the sanderling. Turn-
ing quickly round, I saw the bird flying past as if coming
up from its feeding-grounds. It wheeled round us at
some distance and alighted on the ground about eighty
yards ahead. We walked slowly up towards it, and stood
for some time watching it busily employed in preening
its feathers. By-and-by we sat down. It presently began
to run towards us, stopping now and then to preen a
feather or two ; then it turned back a few paces, and
lifting its wings settled down, evidently on its nest. We
gave it three minutes grace, to be quite sure, and then
quietly walked up to the place, and sat down, one on
each side of the eggs. The bird as quietly slipped off
the nest, and began to walk about all round us, now and
then pecking on the ground as if feeding, seldom going
more than six feet from us, and often approaching within
eighteen inches. It was a most interesting and beautiful
sight. The tameness of the bird was almost ludicrous.
We chatted and talked ; but the bird remained perfectly
silent, and did not betray the slightest symptom of fear
or concern, until I touched the eggs. She then gave a
flutter towards me, apparently to attract my attention. I
turned towards her, and she resumed her former un-

TAMENESS OF THE LITTLE STINT 217

concern. I stretched my hand towards her. She quietly-
retreated, keeping about two feet from my hand. She
seemed so extremely tame that I almost thought for the
moment that I could catch her, and, ofettinof on to all fours,

''00

I crept quietly towards her. As soon as I began to move
from the nest, her manner entirely changed. She kept
about the same distance ahead of me ; but instead of retreat-
ing, with the utmost apparent nonchalance, she did every-
thing in her power to attract me still farther. She shuffled
along the ground as if lame. She dropped her wings as if
unable to fly, and occasionally rested on her breast, quiver-
ing her drooping wings and spread tail, as if dying, I threw
one of my gauntlets at her, thinking to secure her without
damage, but she was too quick for me. Piottuch then fired
at her, and missed. He followed her for some distance ; but
she kept just out of range, and finally flew away. We
waited about a quarter of an hour at the nest, talking and
making no effort to conceal ourselves, when she flew straight
up and alighted within easy shot, and I secured her.

The Little stint seems to be a very quiet bird at the
nest, quite different from Temminck's stint. When you
invade a colony of the latter birds, especially if they
have young, the parents almost chase you from the spot
— flying wildly round and round and crying vociferously,
often perching upon a stake or a tree, or hovering in the
air and trilling. We observed none of these habits in
the Little stint. So far as we saw, only the female takes
part in incubation, and only the female is seen near the
nest. On our way back to the wreck we met with a
party of sanderlings on the shore, and shot two of them.
No doubt these birds were breedinof somewhere in the
district. After a good dinner of willow-grouse and a
siesta of three hours, we started to take the nest that
Piottuch had marked. Whilst we had slept the weather

2i8 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

had changed. The mosquitoes had all gone. A smart
gale was blowing from the north, and a heavy sea was
breaking on the shore. It was cloudy, dark, and cold,
with an attempt now and then at rain. The nest was a
couple of miles off, very near the shore of the inland
sea, but on somewhat similar ground — moss, cloudberry,
grass, and the like. The eggs were intermediate in
colour between those of the other two nests. On our
return to our quarters we found that our Samoyede
servant had caught a young Little stint, half-grown, a
very interesting bird. Like the young of the dunlin, the
first feathers are those of summer plumage. On com-
paring the young in down and half-grown birds of the
dunlin with those of this bird, we noted that the legs of
young dunlin in down were pale brown, whilst those of
the half-grown and mature birds were nearly black ; the
Little stint, on the other hand, seems to have nearly
black legs and feet at all ages.

The Little stint is evidently much more nearly allied
to the dunlin than to Temminck's stint, and ought to be
called the Little dunlin. The birds are very similar in
colour. Their eggs can hardly be mistaken for those of
Temminck's stint, but are in every respect miniature
dunlins' eggs. The young in down of Temminck's stint
are quite grey compared with the reddish-brown of the
young of the dunlin. The young in down of the Little
stint are still redder, especially on the sides and the back
of the neck.

The average size of the twenty eggs we obtained of
the Little stint is about i xV x f inch, a trifle smaller than
the eggs of Temminck's stint usually are. The ground-
colour varies from pale greenish-grey to pale brown.
The spots and blotches are rich brown, generally large,
and sometimes confluent at the large end. They probably

POOLS ON THE TUNDRA 219

go through every variety to which dunlins' eggs are
subject. All the eggs which we found, with one excep-
tion, which would probably be a barren one, were very
much incubated.

The following morning the gale from the north con-
tinued. It was a mosquitoless day, and very cold ; a
heavy sea still broke against the shore ; ever and anon
the sun shone, but masses of cloud kept drifting over the
sky. We spent the day in exploring the tundra in the
direction of Bolvanskaya Bay. Far as the eye could
reach the country stretched before us, a gently undulat-
ing moor, an Arctic prairie, a Siberian tundra ; no hills
were on the horizon, save the short range of the Pytkoff
Kamin. Plenty of lakes, large and small, gleamed upon
the expanse ; the banks of most of them were steep and
of peat ; others were flat, and covered with rushy grass ;
rarely were they sandy. Here and there the pools were
almost dried up ; some were so choked up by coarse
grasses, rushes, and ca7nces as to become swamps, holding
a little space of open water in the centre. These were
quite accessible, however, thanks to our waterproof boots ;
we sank some twelve to eighteen inches through water
and mud, but reached a safe bottom, hard and level as a
stone floor, a solid pavement of ice. We spent an hour
or two wading round one of these open spaces of water,
forming the centre of a choked-up lakelet. Upon a little
island of firm ground, that raised its summit above the
reeds, was the empty nest of some bird, probably a gull,
and close to the open water was the nest of a black-
throated diver, with one ^g^. The latter was placed
upon a foundation of roots and dead grass, half turned to
peat, raked up from the bottom of the swamp, and upon
this was placed a lining of fresh green flaggy grass.
The ^.gg was very small ; but both parent birds were

220 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

Hying overhead, often coming near enough for identifica-
tion. On the open water phalaropes were swimming,
and we frequently rose them from the grasses at our feet.
Their behaviour plainly showed that they were breeding ;
they circled round us wildly, uttering their usual cry. We
secured three young in down, only recently hatched.

We spent another hour on the banks of a large lake,
upon which swam two pairs of long-tailed ducks, each
with its brood. After waiting and watching and stalking,
we got hold of two old birds, two of the young in down
of one brood, and six more grown-up young of the other.
On the sandy margin of another lake, white with the
seeds of the cotton-grass, we saw several ringed plover,
and shot one Little stint. We came upon a few Buffon's
skuas, and on their ground we found the grey plover
abundant as usual. Returning home, I chose the lee
shore for my route, and as I came along watched several
glaucous and herring gulls, saw a pair of wheatears, and
shot a shore-lark.

Meanwhile our Samoyede and our half-breed had
made a long excursion into the tundra by the banks of
the rivers Erisvanka and Eevka. They described the
country as exactly the same as that which we already
knew — moor, swamp, and bog, with plenty of lakes,
large and small. They had met nothing of interest,
except ducks, geese, and swans. These birds were now
evidently leaving their breeding haunts and retiring into
the tundra to moult. During this period of comparative
helplessness and inability to fly, they are attacked by the
Samoyedes on their way back from Varandai and the
Bolshai Tundra. The Samoyedes have grand battues
amongst the geese, and return to the Petchora laden with
feathers and down, which they sell at the Pinega fair.
Our men brouo"ht back with them but one bird. This

BIRDS' CRIES 221

was perhaps the most interesting of all to us — a Bewick's
swan, shot on the banks of a great lake in company with
four others.

On the morrow the storm continued, and rain fell
during the morning ; so we spent the hours inside our
wreck, writing up our journals and examming the
phalaropes.

The idle morning seemed a long one. After dinner
we smoked a pipe, whiled away the time in chatting, and
then retired, as I thought, very early to bed. I woke
after some hours and got up, for I had had sleep enough,
shouldered my gun, and went out, leaving all the others
still deep in their slumbers. It was very windy, and
ever and anon came gusts of rain, yet there were more
birds than usual out feeding, "It's the early bird that
catches the worm," I said to myself

My first care was to seek out the Little stint ground.
I saw several birds upon it, but no trace of a nest could I
discover. Then I took a long stroll along the edge of the
inland sea and by the banks of the river beyond. As I
went along I constantly heard the clear, sharp, but not
loud cry of the Little stint and phalarope — ivick — but I
had not yet learned to distinguish the one from the other,
nor could I tell either from the cry of the sanderling.
The spluttering note, pt-r-r-7', of the Temminck's stint is
very distinct ; so is the dunlin's thick hoarse cry o{ peezh,
or its grating call-note — /rr— as well as the noisy /<?<?- zV of
the ringed plover.

I had been out some hours when I met my com-
panion, and hailed him with "Good morning," He
answered with " Good evenings." We both ag^reed the
hour was seven, but we differed as to its being a.m. or
P.M. I was convinced it was the morning of the morrow,
whereas Harvie- Brown was persuaded it was yester-

222 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

evening, A never-setting sun plays strange pranks with
one's reckoning of time.

Harvie-Brown had worked the Little stint ground,
but had not seen a bird upon it. While with me, he shot
a brace of grey plovers ; then we parted, and I returned
to the Little stint feeding haunts. I secured a brace of
them, a few dunlins, old and young, and a grey plover ;
also some young Temminck's stints half-way between
feathers and down. As I was picking up the latter I
discerned in the distance the form of a great white bird,
which seemed to me to alight upon a distant lake.
Taking it to be a Bewick's swan, I put a slug-cartridge
into my gun and walked rapidly on in its direction.
Before I sfot within shot of it the bird rose, and I saw a
snowy owl drop behind the sand-hills. I carefully stalked
it, looked around, and after a time descried a white spot
resting on the north twin cape, which, with the aid of my
telescope, I discovered to be the owl. He, too, must
have been watching me ; perhaps he took my sealskin
cap for some new species of lemming, for presently he
rose and flew across the water directly towards me. By
the time he had reached the other twin cape he evidently
discovered his mistake, and alighted on the beach about
sixty yards in front of me. I rose and walked towards
him ; he also rose, but before he had flown ten yards my
shot reached him, broke one of his wings, and dropped
him into the sea. As he lay struggling in the water a
score of glaucous and herring-gulls came flying towards
him, and sailed round and round him, making quite a
small uproar with their cries. I was too anxious, how-
ever, to secure my first snowy owl to pay any heed to
them, especially as my cartridge extractor had got out of
order ; I therefore plunged into the water, and, as it was
shallow, I soon landed my prize.

A NEW-FANGLED EXTRACTOR 223

My extractor was a complicated new-fangled patent
invention, and already that day it had caused me to lose
a pair of Buffon's skuas. I had shot a young dunlin on
the muddy margin of the inland sea, breaking with the
same barrel the wingf of an old dunlin ; with the second
barrel I killed a Little stint. The wounded bird lay a
few yards off, when suddenly, down there flew upon it a
couple of Buffon's skuas, who quarrelled over it and
carried it off before — unable to reload — I could wade
through the mud to the rescue.

After securing the owl, I carried my trophy home in
triumph, overtaking my companion by the way. On
reaching the wreck, we finally settled the question of
evening or morning. We satisfactorily established that
it was the former, so we dined and went to bed again.

The next day the gale continued, but there was some
sunshine, and the cold kept the mosquitoes at bay. I
spent my morning superintending the cooking of the
swan our men had brought the preceding day. Mean-
while Harvie-Brown went out to the far end of the
inland sea, and got a little distance from the spot where
we had found the last nest of the Little stint. He
came upon two more. We had by this time twenty of
these birds' eggs ; all miniature dunlins' eggs, and like
them, varying in colour. These two nests were not built
on the tundra proper, but on the feeding-ground — a flat
sandy strip of land on which grew short grass and bunches
of a thick-leaved yellow-flowering plant, sprinkled here
and there with dried-up or drying pools, and with drift-
wood lying scattered about in all directions. The tundra
stops at some 150 yards from the seashore, and this
stretch of feeding ground lies between it and the water's
edge.

After lunching on the baked breast of the swan, I

224 IN CAMP AT DVOINIK

returned to the wreck, but by a different route from that
which my companion had taken. I took the boat across
to the north twin cape, and was an hour pulling half a
verst against the heavy gale. I then skirted the margin
of a long narrow inlet, exactly like the dried-up bed of
a river, running some miles into the tundra, bending
round almost behind the inland sea. I had not gone
more than a mile when I heard the cackle of geese ;
a bend of the river bed gave me an opportunity of
stalking them, and when I came within sight I beheld
an extraordinary and interesting scene. At least one
hundred old geese, and quite as many young ones,
perhaps even twice or thrice that number, were marching
like a regiment of soldiers. The vanguard, consisting
of old birds, was halfway across the stream ; the rear,
composed principally of goslings, was running down the
steep bank towards the water's edge as fast as their
young legs could carry them. Both banks of the river,
where the geese had doubtless been feeding, were
strewn with feathers, and in five minutes I picked
up a handful of quills. The flock was evidently
migrating to the interior of the tundra, moulting as it
went along.

On the top of the high embankment bordering the
river I came upon a wooden monument, about a foot
in height and width, and from two to three feet in length.
The wood was entirely rotten, and I easily broke and
tore open the lid that still covered it. Inside I found
bones like those of a dog, a broken vessel of glazed
earthenware, the rusty remains of an iron vase, and
an abundance of mould. Outside were fragments of
bleached bone, like the remains of an infant's skull.
This was doubtless a Samoyede's tomb ; but we could
not determine if it was that of an infant, whose remains

BIRDS ON THE TUNDRA

225

had been buried in the box, or that of an adult interred
below.

After loitering some time about this spot I pushed
on farther, crossing over a plateau of tundra, well covered
in places with willows some three feet high. Here 1
found willow-grouse with young well able to fly, many
willow-warblers, a few" redpolls, and one blue-throated
warbler.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

MIC.RATION OF GEESE

CHAPTER XXII.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

On Short Commons — Bad Weather — A Foraging Party — Russian Super-
stitions — Return of the Steamer — Beautiful Flowers — Arrival at Alexievka
— Departure for Home — Thunderstorm — Water-spout — Sea-birds — Hard
Fare — Copenhagen — Summary of the Trip.

Matters were beo-inninp" to look somewhat serious in
our Robinson Crusoe encampment. The heavy gale
continued to blow unabated, and it was very probable
the steamer would not call for us until the sea grew
quieter. Meanwhile our larder was nearly empty. We
were reduced to half a loaf of bread, and to what birds
we could secure. We breakfasted on a grey plover, a
brace of dunlins, and three duck's eggs, which, though
somewhat incubated, yet made a good omelette. There
was nothing, however, for dinner, so we all turned out

ON SHORT COMMONS 227

to provide for the pot. Harvie- Brown went south, and
returned with only a few dunlins and a grey plover ; he
had chased a bar-tailed g-odwit for some distance near
the seashore, but had not got within shot. I had met
with no better luck, for although I had brought down
a dozen dunlins and c»rey phalaropes as they fed on the
margin of a lake I had been able only to secure three.
At the first step I took in the direction of my prizes,
I sank lower th;m knee-deep into the black mud. My
gun also snapped at a willow-grouse within easy range.
We returned to our quarters somewhat down-hearted ; the
gale was blowing more fiercely than ever, a thick mist
covered the sea, and gusts of wind drove the rain into the
wreck. We cooked ourselves a supper of fried dunlins,,
and allowed to each a weak basin of Liebig's extract-
of-meat soup, and half a slice of bread. About midnight,
as we smoked our pipes and listened to the howling and
spitting of the wind and rain outside, our thoughts followed
the forlorn-hope party we had sent out, and we doubted
whether it would meet with better luck than we had.
This party consisted of Cocksure, the Samoyede, and
the half-breed. They had gone on what might be called,
in a double sense, a wild-goose chase, in pursuit of the
flock of geese I had seen the day before migrating across
the water into the tundra. We went to bed hoping
against hope, and were awakened towards four by the
noisy arrival of our envoys, carrying back in triumph
eleven old geese and five young ones. One of the
party had taken the boat up the river upon which I
had seen the flock. The other two followed, each keep-
ing upon opposite banks. They came upon the geese
a few versts higher up than the spot at which I had seen
them, and falling upon them had made a grand haul of
birds. The laying in of this stock of provisions lifted a

228 HOMEWARD BOUND

burden off our minds. We now proceeded to administer,
with better grace than we could have before, a sound
rating to our two lazy, good-for-nothing Russian servants.
They were the only two who had grumbled during this
time of perplexity ; for ever muttering that if the storm
did not abate and the steamer come to our rescue, we
should surely all be '' pi^opar' (lost). We had ordered
one to join the forlorn-hope party, but he had soon
returned, and all the nig^ht he had done little but kneel
in a state of abject fear, tremblin!:^, crossing himself, and
crying, '' Gospodin, Gospodin, dai kkleba" (Lord, Lord,
give us bread). These poor dupes of the miserable
Greek Church have not learnt the wholesome doctrine
Cromwell taught his soldiers, to " trust in the Lord and
keep their powder dry. " Like many other fanatics at home
and abroad, they close their eyes to the truth that God
7nay bless their work, but will never bless their idleness.
As a just punishment for their sloth and cowardice, we
condemned them to pluck the geese, on which we and the
captors made a hearty meal. While we regaled ourselves
they had to look on, and feast upon leeks.

The larger number of geese, being in full moult, had
been unable to fly. Cocksure assured us that both old
and young constantly hid themselves under the water,
where some remained, just keeping their beaks above
the surface, for ten minutes at a time. He added that he
had often observed the same thing in Mezen during the
moultino- season.

The gale exhausted its violence during the night, and
gradually slackened and wore itself out during the day :
when the following morning came, the weather was quite
calm. With ten geese in our larder, we considered our-
selves entitled to a lazy day, so we wandered out in the
tundra, making a small collection of the flowers that grow

THE PEREGRINES' EYRIES 229

upon it, the bonnie bright Arctic blossoms that deck for
a few weeks that region of ice. We shot an immature
gull, and loafed about, feeling that we had exhausted the
place, and hoping for the arrival of the steamer. A
flock of what we took to be sandpipers, flying wildly
overhead and uttering a note like that of the knot, roused
our curiosity. When we at last succeeded in shooting one,
the bird turned out to be a reeve. Another incident in this,
our last day, was tracing the footprints of a swan in the
mud, and identifying them as those of a Bewick's swan.

At two o'clock the following" morning I was on our
wreck's deck, chatting with Cocksure, when on the
horizon we caught sio"ht of the steamer. All our com-
panions were asleep, except the half-breed, but five
minutes later all were up and hard at work packing.
By five o'clock we were on board, steaming over a sea
smooth as glass towards Bolvanski Nos. At eight we
went on shore at Stanavialachta to visit the peregrine's
nest, where we expected to find a new lot of eggs. From
a distance we could see the male bird sitting on the spot.
He allowed us to approach to within ten or twelve yards,
when suddenly he took the a'arm and rose. We fired
and dropped him on the beach below. There were no
eggs in the nest. Probably the female bird was sitting
on the other eyrie ; but we were dead-beat with fatigue,
and the hillsides swarmed with mosquitoes, so we made
our way back at once to the steamer, sl.ooting a willow-
grouse as we went, a male in fine summer plumage. The
flowers on this part of the tundra were very beautiful,
vividly coloured, and abundant ; especially lovely was a
tall monkshood and a species of pink. On board the
steamer we stretched ourselves on the sofa in the cabin
and fell asleep, only to awake when the vessel stopped
at Alexievka about noon.

230 HOMEWARD BOUND

The Triad was making ready to start on the morrow ;
her cargo was to be about 8000 cubic feet of larch. Our
stay in these Arctic latitudes was now fast drawing to an
end. I spent the afternoon looking about the island,
directing my search especially for young of the yellow-
headed wagtail. Scarcely a bird was to be seen out of
cover. Grass nearly two feet high covered the ground,
and the willows were in full leaf It was difficult enough
to get a shot at a bird, and almost impossible to find it
when brought down. At last I tried the coast, and found
plenty of birds feeding amongst the drift-wood and the
prostrate willows that had fallen with the crumbling away
of the banks. Yellow-headed wagtails, red-throated pipits,
and reed buntings were here in abundance. I could not
stay, however, for the sun was scorching hot, and the
mosquitoes were swarming.

I spent the night with Captain Taylor and Captain
Arendt on board the Triad, giving a helping hand in
superintending the loading of the schooner. The heat
was so intense that I could scarcely bear the suffocation
of my mosquito-veil, and seldom put it on. The conse-
quence was that I was more bitten in those few hours than
I had been during the whole of my previous stay. I did
not turn in till 6 a.m., but I woke at eleven, and spent my
day making out the bills of lading for Captain Arendt.
At five o'clock on Sunday, August i, we finally bade
farewell to the tundra and to our wandering life, and
began our journey towards Europe and civilisation. We
left Alexievka in tow of the steamer, reaching the bar
soon after midnight. The cutter signalled ten feet of
water ; as we were drawing so much we were soon
aground, as was to be expected. I sat up with the
captain all night as we tediously manoeuvred through the
shallow water. We had just lit the fire to cook some

CLEARING THE PETCHORA 231

supper, when Engel suddenly heaving on the anchor, we
got under way again. The captain took the hehn, and
I remained below cooking the steaks and making the
coffee ; but we were soon aground once more, and sat
down to eat our meal in the cabin. For some hours we
went on, sometimes aground, sometimes scraping the
bank, until at last we crossed the bar ; then Engel towed
us until we sighted the beacon at Dvoinik. All sails
were now set, and we steered N.E. by N. with a gentle
breeze. All the following day and night we tacked from
one bank of shoal water to another, with a head wind
against us. The lead was kept constantly going, and as
soon as the water under the keel was less than a foot,
orders were immediately given to "'bout ship." By
good luck or good management, we succeeded in getting
out of the lagoon of the Petchora without running
aground again, though Captain Taylor vowed that
nothing should ever induce him a second time to risk a
ship in such a dangerous and difficult river. We had
scarcely cleared the banks more than half an hour before
the wind dropped entirely ; the sails flapped idly on the
masts, and we sent the crew to bed. We were lounging
on the after part of the ship, telling our adventures to the
captain, when three curious clouds, like beehives, appeared
to rise on the horizon. We were leaning over the bul-
warks watching these unusual shapes in the sky, when
our attention was caught by the sound of a distant rum-
blinof. The sea was as smooth as fjlass, and we were
debatinof whether the noise was not that of the Arctic
ice, when the captain descried a distant ripple on the sea,
and started up as if he had been shot. Hastily asking
me to take the rudder, he ran to the hatchway and cried
out, at the top of his voice, " All hands on deck ! " Every
possible exertion was made to haul down the canvas ; but

232 HOMEWARD BOUND

before this could be accomplished the gale came upon us,
and the ship reeled as the squall struck her, first on the
starboard and then on the port side. By the time the
canvas had been taken in, the squall had become violent ;
the sea rose, peals of thunder followed each other rapidly,
and rain came down in torrents. A still more extra-
ordinary sight presented itself shortly afterwards — a
waterspout. About half a mile from the ship the clouds
came down in a funnel, and deluges of rain appeared to
fall under it, the sea being lashed into foam as if ten
thousand millstones had been suddenly hurled into it. It
was some hours before the wind settled down again ; but
it proved to be a favourable one, and we made fair
progress homewards through a Scotch mist from the
Arctic ice.

For two days we had fog and fair wind, then came
wind and sunshine. On the 3rd of August a few flocks
of phalaropes passed overhead, and on the 4th a pair of
snowy owls alighted on the ship. We saw also several
kittiwake gulls and pomatorhine skuas. Then from the
8th of August to the 29th came three dreary weeks,
during which the ship wearily toiled on, against heavy
gales and contrary winds, but ever and anon came a fair
breeze, to prevent us despairing altogether of ever reach-
ing Elsinore. It seemed hopeless often enough. Various
were the tacks the captain tried on the way. One day
we would lie-to and let the good ship drift back with the
heavy gale towards Kolguev Island, another we would
tear along, blown forward by an equally fierce wind,
which we welcomed, for it was bearing us homeward.
Now we would lie motionless with sails idly flapping
against the masts, and again we would be cutting the
water with a favourable breeze impelling us on. As we
approached the North Cape the weather grew wilder; it

HOME AGAIN 233

seemed as if we could never round it ; the bold promon-
tory appeared to frighten away all fair winds. When we
were within eighty miles of Bear Island our search for
it was vain ; it lay shrouded in impenetrable fogs. At
last we left the ill-starred land behind us. We passed
the wild peaks of the Lofodens ; we left the storm-tossed
waves beating at their feet, and hailed the mountains
behind Christiansund in menial weather. During those
weeks we saw kittiwakes and Fulmar petrels almost
daily ; now and then there passed a skua or a puffin or
two, but no bird on migration.

After another week of fair winds, head winds, calms,
and gales, we reached Elsinore on the thirty-fifth day.
All this time we had roug-hish fare on board. The
Triad had no provision for passengers. The first week
exhausted our stock of grog and fresh provisions, and
the remainder of the journey we had to put up with hard
captains' biscuits, Australian tinned meat, and coffee
with no milk and short rations of sugar. When we
landed at Elsinore we found that we had averaged
2\ knots per hour ! Our first care was to order a good
dinner, which we all agreed was the most superb enter-
tainment to which we had ever sat down. For the last
fortnight we had dreamed of dining, but always woke
before the happy moment arrived. Our dinner at
Elsinore was enjoyed with an appetite which we never
hope to experience again. Taking the night train to
Copenhagen, we arrived there on the morning of Monday
the 6th of September. We were disappointed in our
efforts to find a steamer for England, so proceeded at
once to Hamburg, where my companion found a boat for
Leith ; and I lost no time in putting myself and, not my
"sieben Sachen," but my " siebzehn Sachen," on board
a steamer for Hull.

234

HOMEWARD BOUND

I left Hamburg in the Zebra on Wednesday the 8th
of September, and after a smooth passage landed in
Hull on Saturday the iith instant, having been away
from home rather more than twenty-seven weeks. Of
this time the journey out occupied about six weeks ;
another six weeks was spent in weary waiting for the
arrival of spring ; and the journey home took up a third
period of six weeks, leaving only nine weeks in which
the bulk of our ornithological work was done. For-
tunately during this time we had twenty-four hours
daylight, of which we frequently availed ourselves. By
dint of hard work and long hours we succeeded in doing
more in those nine weeks than we could possibly have
expected. There can be no doubt that we were ex-
ceptionally fortunate in chancing upon the localities
frequented by birds which appear to be extremely local
during the breeding season.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

FROM MEKITZA TO KUYA O.N A ROSPOSKI

CHAPTER XXIII.

RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY.

Results of the Trip — Summer in the Arctic Regions — Circumpolar Birds
— Birds Confined to the Eastern Hemisphere — Various Ranges of Birds —
Migration of Birds — Dates of Arrival — Probable Route — Conclusion.

The results of our somewhat adventurous journey ex-
ceeded our most sanguine hopes.

Of the half-dozen British birds, the discovery of
whose breedinof-orrounds had baffled the efforts of our
ornithologists for so long, we succeeded in bringing
home identified eggs of three — the grey plover,* the
Little stint, and Bewick's swan. Of the remaining three,
two — the sanderling and the knot — were found breeding

* Mr. Seebohm apparently overlooked the fact that Middendorff found the nest
of the grey plover on the Taimyr peninsula in 1843, and figured the egg in his
Sibirische Keise, Bd. II., Th. 2, plate 19, Fig. i. Tringa miiiuta was also found
nesting, though its eggs were not figured, by the same traveller. — Ed,

236 RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY

by Captain Fielden, in lat. 82°, during the Nares Arctic
expedition, but the breeding-grounds of the curlew sand-
piper still remain a mystery.* We added several birds to
the European list, which had either never been found
in Europe before, or only doubtfully so ; such as the
Siberian chiffchaff, the Petchora pipit, the Siberian
herring-gull, the Arctic forms of the marsh-tit and the
lesser spotted woodpecker, the yellow-headed wagtail,
and the Asiatic stonechat. We brought home careful
records of the dates of arrival of the migratory birds
which breed in these northern latitudes, besides numerous
observations on the habits of little-known birds. Our
list of skins brought home exceeded a thousand, and of
eggs rather more than six hundred.

The number of species which we obtained was compara-
tively small, the whole of our collecting having been done
north of latitude 65°. The Arctic regions are frost-bound
for eight months out of the twelve, and buried under a
mantle of snow varying in depth from three to six feet.
During this time they are practically barren of ornitho-
logical life ; the small number of birds which remain within
the Arctic circle forsake the tundras where they breed, to
find feed in the pine-forests at or near the limit of forest
growth, a few only remaining where the shelter of a deep
valley or watercourse permits the growth of a few stunted
willows, birches, and hazel bushes. Practically it may
be said that there is no spring or autumn in the Arctic
regions. Summer follows suddenly upon winter, and the
forests and the tundra as suddenly swarm with bird-
life. Although the number of species breeding within
the Arctic circle is comparatively small, the number of
individuals is vast beyond conception. Birds go to the

* Mr. H. Leybourne Popham afterwards obtained the eggs of the curlew sand-
piper on the Yenesei, vide " Proc. Zoolog. Soc." 1897, p. 891, pi. li. — Ed.

CIRCUMPOLAR BIRDS 237

Arctic regions to breed, not by thousands, but by millions.
The cause of this migrration is to be found in the lavish
prodigality with which Nature has provided food. Seed-
or fruit-eatinof birds find an immediate and abundant
supply of cranberries, crowberries, and other ground fruit,
which have remained frozen during the long winter, and
are accessible the moment the snow has melted ; whilst
insect-eating birds have only to open their mouths to fill
them with mosquitoes.

Of the 1 10 species which we obtained, the following are
circumpolar birds, breeding both in the eastern and western
hemispheres, being nearly one-third of the total number : —

Osprey. Sanderling.

Peregrine Falcon. Shoveller Duck.

Snowy Owl. Pintail Duck.

Short-eared Owl. Scaup Duck.

Raven. Golden-eyed Duck

Pine Grosbeak. Long-tailed Duck.

Mealy Redpoll. Goosander.

Lapland Bunting, Red-breasted Merganser.

Snow Bunting. Arctic Tern.

Shore-lark. Great Black-backed Gull.

Bohemian Waxwing. Glaucous Gull.

Sand Martin. Richardson's Skua.

Willow-grouse. Buffon's Skua.

Grey Plover. Red-throated Diver,

Red-necked Phalarope. Black-throated Diver.
Dunlin.

It will be observed that more than half of these species
are water birds, showing that the communication between
the Palsearctic and the Nearctic regions has been one of
water rather than of land.

The following species are confined to the continents of
Europe and Asia, and range throughout the Arctic regions
of the eastern hemisphere from the North Cape to Bering's
Strait. A few of these are occasionally found in Greenland
and in Alaska, but are not found in the intermediate or
Nearctic regions, though many of them are there repre-

238 RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY

sented by very nearly allied species, showing that the
communication across the Pole has been interrupted at a
comparatively modern geological epoch : —

White-tailed Eagle.

Hobby.

Merlin.

Goshawk.

Sparrow-hawk.

Hen-harrier.

Eagle-owl.

Black Woodpecker.

Three-toed Woodpecker.

Cuckoo.

Magpie.

Siberian Jay.

Tree Sparrow.

Scarlet Bullfinch.

Brambling.

Reed-bunting.

Ruff.

Temminck's Stint.

Common Snipe.

Great Snipe.

Whimbrel.

Common Crane.

Wild Swan.

Bean-goose.

Skylark.

Red throated Pipit.

Green Wagtail.

Blue-throated Warbler.

Wheatear.

Lapp Tit.

Common Swallow.

Hazel Grouse.

Little Ringed Plover.

Oystercatcher.

Greenshank.

Wood Sandpiper.

Curlew Sandpiper.

Spotted Redshank.

Common Sandpiper.

Bar-tailed Godwit.

Teal.

Wigeon.

Tufted Duck.

Velvet Scoter.

Black Scoter.

Smew.

Common Gull.

From the length of this list it might be reasonable to
assume that ornithologists are right in separating the Ne-
arctic region from the Palaearctic region, and that it would
be an error, even as far as Arctic birds only are considered,
to unite the two together into one circumpolar region. A
more minute examination of the list may, however, lead us
to a different conclusion. It is not correct to speak of a
bird as an Arctic species unless its breeding-grounds are
principally within the Arctic circle. We must, therefore,
eliminate from our list those species whose breeding-
grounds are principally south of the Arctic circle, and
only extend beyond it at the extreme northern limit of
their range. This will dispose of thirty of the species we

RANGES OF BIRDS 239

have enumerated, leaving only seventeen, of which at
least two-thirds are represented in the Nearctic region by-
very closely allied species. Of the half-dozen species
which may be said to belong especially to the eastern
Polar region, every one is represented by a species in the
western Polar region belonging to the same genus.

The following species range from Scandinavia east-
wards as far as the watershed between the Yenesei and
the Lena. The proportionate length of this list shows
that this boundary is almost as important a one as Bering's
Strait, especially when we consider that several enu-
merated in the second list cross over into Alaska. On the
other hand, we must not forget that our knowledge of the
birds of the country east of the Yenesei is very limited : —

Rough-legged Buzzard. . Redstart.

Hooded Crow. Willow-warbler.

Jackdaw. Sedge-warbler.

House Sparrow. Capercailzie.

Northern Bullfinch. Black Grouse.

Tree Pij>it. Golden Plover.

White Wagtail. Dotterel.

Fieldfare. • Ringed Plover.

Redwing. Little Stint.

The dotterel and the Little stint are the only species
in this list of which it can be said that their principal
breeding-grounds are north of the Arctic circle, The
nearest relations of the former species are undoubtedly
to be found in the southern Palsearctic region, whilst the
genus to which the latter belongs is well represented in
the Polar regions of both continents.

Two species only appear to range from Scandinavia
eastwards as far as the valley of the Ob, but do not cross
the watershed into the valley of the Yenesei : —

Rook. Yellowhammer.

The Ural Mountains, although they are the boundary
between political Europe and Asia, are by no means so

240 RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY

geographically or ornithologically. So far as we know,
one species only of the Petchora birds recognises this
chain as the eastern limit of its range, viz. : —

Meadow Pipit.

Four species ranging westward from Kamtschatka
throughout Arctic Siberia and across the Ural Mountains,
do not appear to advance farther into Europe, during the
breeding season, than the valley of the Petchora : —

Siberian Pipit. Siberian Stonechat.

Yellow-headed Wagtail. Bewick's Swan.

Six species, ranging westward from Kamtschatka
throughout Arctic Siberia and across the Ural Mountains,
appear to extend beyond the valley of the Petchora as
far as the White Sea, viz. : — ■

Siberian Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. Marsh-tit (eastern form).
Little Bunting. Terek Sandpiper.

Arctic Willow-warbler. Siberian Herring-gull.

One bird only appears to be so restricted in its
geographical range as to be found only in the valleys of
the Petchora, the Ob, and the Yenesei, viz. : —

Siberian Chiffchaff.

Of the fourteen birds included in the last four lists,
only four or five have their principal breeding-grounds
within the Arctic circle, and these all belong to genera
which are represented in the Nearctic region, with the
exception of the Arctic willow-warbler, which has been
obtained in Alaska.

The final conclusion to which we must therefore
arrive, from a study of the geographical distribution of
the birds found in the valley of the Petchora, is that a
circumpolar region ought to be recognised : that so far

ARRIVALS OF MIGRANTS

241

as the Polar regions are concerned the division into
Nearctic and Palsearctic is a purely arbitrary one.

The migration of birds is a subject which interests all
naturalists, and is a very attractive one to a great number
of persons who do not pretend to any scientific knowledge
of ornithology. The dates and order of arrival of
migratory birds present so many points of interest that,
for the sake of comparison, the following list has been
made of all those birds which we had reason to believe to
be migratory in the Ust-Zylma district, leaving out those
to which, from their rarity or localness, considerable
doubt attaches as to their date of arrival : —

April I. Snow-bunting.

I. Mealy Redpoll.

May 4. Hen-harrier.

,, 5. Merlin.

,, 10. Bean-goose.

,, 10. Shore-lark.

,, 10. Snowy Owl.

,, II. Wild Swan.

,, II. Bewick's Swan.

,, II. Siberian Herring-gull.

,, 12. White Wagtail.

,, 12. Redstart.

,, 12. Meadow-pipit.

,, 13. Pintail and other Ducks.

13. Peregrine Falcon.

,, 14. Reed-bunting.

,, 15. Common Gull.

,, 17. Golden Plover.

,, 17. Fieldfare.

,, 17. Redwing.

,, 17. Red-throated Pipit.

,, 17. Green Wagtail.

May 18. Lapland Bunting.

„ 18. Whimbrel.

., 18. Teal.

,, 20. Willow-warbler.

,, 20. Wheatear.

,, 21. Crane.

„ 22. Siberian Chiff-chaff.

,, 22. Siberian Stonechat.

,, 23. Short-eared Owl.

,, 23. Blue-throated Warbler.

,, 24. Brambling.

,, 24. Pine-grosbeak.

,, 26. Oyster-catcher.

,, 26. Ringed Plover.

,, 26. Wood-sandpiper.

,, 26. Temrainck's Stint.

., 26. Common Swallow.

,, 31. Little Bunting.

June 3. Cuckoo.

3. Double Snipe.

,, 3. Terek Sandpiper,

,, 3. Black-throated Diver.

This list is necessarily very imperfect. In addition
to the difficulty of ascertaining the date of arrival of
rare or local birds, we had a still greater difficulty to
contend with. There can be no doubt that Ust-Zylma
lies somewhat out of the line of migration, which is

Q

242

RESULTS OF THE JOURNEY

probably determined largely by the direction of the great
valleys. Birds from the Mediterranean might fairly be
supposed to reach the Volga via the Bosporus, the Black
Sea, the Sea of- Azov, and the river Don to Sarepta.
The natural course of birds from India and Persia would
be to the Volga by way of the Caspian Sea. The line
of migration would probably follow the Volga to Kasan,

OUR HEADQUARTERS AT UST-ZYLMA

and thence along the Kama to Perm and Cherdin, close
to the source of the Petchora. The course would then
continue down the Petchora as far as its junction with
the Ussa. It would then be reasonable to conclude that
the hardy species, which migrate early, would have
plenty of time to go round by Ust-Zylma ; whilst the
later arrivals would leave the Petchora at Ust-Ussa, and
cross direct to the tundra. For example, the snow-
bunting, hen-harrier, merlin, bean-goose, shore-lark,
snowy owl, wild swan, Bewick's swan, and herring-gull

LATE BREEDING MIGRANTS

243

are probably amongst the earliest breeders on the tundra,
and pass through Ust-Zylma, whilst the later breeders
on the tundra are not there at all. The followinof birds
are all summer migrants to the tundra, but were not seen
passing through Ust-Zylma during migration : —

Yellow-headed Wagtail.
Arctic Tern.
Siberian Pipit.
Red-necked Phalarope.
Long-tailed Duck.
Buffon's Skua.
Grey Plover.

Dunlin.

Richardson's Skua.
Dotterel.
Sanderling.
Curlew Sandpiper.
Little Stint.

Most of these are very late-breeding birds, but why
they should breed late, or for what cause they seem to
choose a different line of migration, seems at present
inexplicable. Before a conclusion can be arrived at
many more facts must be collected. The field of ornitho-
logical research is one in which any amount of work may
be advantageously done, and possibly the perusal of the
present narrative may help to arouse the enthusiasm
of other adventurous ornithologists, and induce them to
take up the running where we left it off

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS

PART II

THE YENESEI

CAPTAIN WIGGINS

CHAPTER XXIV.

SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE.

Sir Hugh Willoughby's Voyage to Novaya Zemlya — Ancient Voyages
across the Kara Sea — Modern Voyages across the Kara Sea — Captain
Wiggins's Voyage in 1876 — Ornithological Arctic Expeditions — Letters of
Introduction from Count Schouvaloff — Recent Expeditions to Siberia —
Nordenskiold's Voyage.

Before beginning the story of my Yenesei expedition, a
few words on the history of the opening-up of this region
are necessary.

Three hundred years ago, when Ivan the Terrible
reigfned over Russia, and the Slav and Tatar races were
struggling in mortal combat, a peaceful expedition left
the shores of Britain under the command of Sir Hugh
Willoughby, Three ships were sent to the Arctic region
on a wild-CToose chase after the semi-fabulous land of
Cathay — a country where it was popularly supposed that
the richest furs might be bought for an old song, where
the rarest spices might be had for the picking, and where
the rivers rippled over sands of gold. Like so many

248 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE

other Arctic expeditions, this proved a failure. Poor Sir
Hugh Willoughby, it is supposed, discovered one of the
islands of Novaya Zemlya, but was afraid to winter
there, and landed on the Kola peninsula, where he and
all his crew were starved to death.

Another ship belonging to the same expedition, com-
manded by Richard Chancellor, was more fortunate. It
was separated from the others by a heavy storm, and
driven by contrary winds into the White Sea. Chancellor
not only saved his ship and the lives of his crew, but
discovered Archangel, which subsequently became a little
English colony. At that time the inhabitants of Arch-
angel were actually carrying on a trade with this wonder-
ful land of Cathay. In their flat-bottomed lodkas, sewn
together with willow roots, they skirted the east coast of
the White Sea, and dragged their boats across the Kanin
peninsula. They coasted the southern shores of the
Arctic Ocean, and passing through the Kara gates,
entered the Kara Sea. On the Yalmal peninsula they
found a river, the head of which brought them to a
narrow watershed, across which they again pushed their
boats, coming to another river, which brought them into
the gulf of the Ob. Crossing this gulf they entered the gulf
of the Taz, at the head of which was the once famous
town of Mangaze, where a great annual fair was held.
This fair was frequented by merchants who brought tea,
silks, and spices down the Ob and the Yenesei to barter
with the Russian merchants, who returned to Archangel
the same season.

In the struofpfle for existence which commenced on
the opening out of the port of Archangel to British com-
merce, according to the inevitable law of the survival of
the fittest, this Russian maritime enterprise languished
and finally died, and thenceforth the inhabitants of the

CAPTAIN WIGGINS 249

banks of Dvina received their silks and their tea via the
Thames instead of the Ob and the Yenesei ; and ever
since that time the commercial world seems to have taken
it for granted that the Kara Sea was unnavigable, and that
the Kara gates were closed by impenetrable bars of ice.

Latterly considerable efforts have been made, prin-
cipally by Professor Nordenskiold of Stockholm and
Captain Wiggins of Sunderland, to re-open this ancient
route, and to re-establish a trade with Siberia via the Kara
Sea. In 1874 Captain Wiggins chartered the well-known
Arctic steam yacht Diana, and passing through the Kara
gates, explored the entrance to the Ob and the Yenesei,
and returned to England in safety. In 1875 Professor
Nordenskiold chartered a walrus-sloop at Hammerfest,
and entering the Kara Sea through the Matoshkin Skar,
landed in the gulf of the Yenesei. The walrus-sloop
returned to Europe in safety, leaving the Professor to make
his way up the river in a boat as far as Yeneseisk, whence
he returned to Stockholm by the overland route.

In 1876 both these gentlemen attempted to take a
cargo to Siberia by the Kara Sea. Professor Norden-
skiold was the first to arrive, and fortunately failing to
find a channel up the Yenesei deep enough for his
steam.er, he landed his goods at a little village called
Koreopoffsky, about a hundred miles up the Yenesei,
and returned to Europe without any mishap. Captain
Wiggins was less fortunate. He left Sunderland on the
8th of July in the Thames, Arctic steam yacht (120 tons),
and entered the Kara Sea on the 3rd of August. The
ice prevented him from sailing direct to the mouths of
the great rivers, so he spent some time in surveying the
coast and the Baideratskerry Gulf, and did not reach the
mouth of the Ob until the 7th of September. Here he
lay at anchor some time in the hope that a favourable

250 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE

wind might enable him to ascend the Ob against the
strong current ; but the weather proving tempestuous and
the wind contrary, he abandoned the attempt, and ran
for the Yenesei. He commenced the ascent of this river
on the 23rd of September, and after a tedious voyage,
struggling against contrary winds and shallow water, he
finally laid his vessel up on the Arctic Circle, half a mile
up the Kureika and 1200 miles from the mouth of the
Yenesei, on the 17th of October. The following morning
the ship was" frozen up in winter quarters. A room in a
peasant's house on the banks of the river, looking down
on to the ship, was rigged up for the crew, and as soon
as the ice on the river was thick enough to make sledging
safe. Captain Wiggins returned to England by the over-
land route.

Hearing that Captain Wiggins was in England, and
likely to rejoin his ship, with the intention of returning
in her to Europe through the Kara Sea, I lost no time in
putting myself in communication with him. I was
anxious to carry our ornithological and ethnological
researches a step further to the eastward, so as to join on
with those of Middendorff. Schrenck, and Radde in East
Siberia. I made the acquaintance of Captain Wiggins
on the 23rd of February, and came to the conclusion
that an opportunity of travelling with a gentleman who
had already made the journey, and consequently "knew the
ropes," might never occur again. Captain Wiggins told me
that it was his intention to start from London on the return
journey in three days. I finally arranged with him to give
me five days to make the necessary preparations for accom-
panying him. I wrote to Count Schouvaloff, who had
given Harvie-Brown and myself excellent letters of intro-
duction on our Petchora journey, asking him to be kind
enough to send to my rooms in London similar letters for

LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION

251

my proposed Yenesei expedition, and all those who know
the value of such documents in Russia will appreciate
my gratitude to his Excellency for his kindness in
furnishing me, at a moment's notice, with letters of intro-

OSTIAKS OF THE OB

duction to General Timar^^cheff, the Minister of the
Interior at St. Petersburg, which proved of the greatest
service to me on my long and adventurous journey.

The details of this journey, how we travelled nearly
six thousand miles to the ship, and how we lost her, and
had to travel home again by land, form the subject of the
following pages. The reader may, however, feel some

252 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE

interest in following the narrative of the attempts to
explore the North-East Passage after the loss of the ill-
starred Thames.

The success of Captain Wiggins in reaching the
Yenesei in 1876 encouraged two steamers to make the
attempt in the following year, the year of our disasters.
The Lotiise succeeded in ascendinor the Ob and the
Irtish as far as Tobolsk, where she wintered, returning
with a cargo in safety the following autumn. The Frazer
reached Golchika on the Yenesei, where a cargo of
wheat ought to have met her, but in consequence of the
cowardice or the blunders — not to say the dishonesty —
of the persons in charge, the cargo never arrived, and
the steamer was forced to return empty.

Notwithstanding his misfortunes. Captain Wiggins
stuck bravely to his enterprise, and 1878 saw him again
in the Ob with a steamer, the Warkworth, drawing twelve
feet of water. The navigation of the lagoon of the Ob
is attended with considerable difficulty. Sand-banks are
very numerous. The regular tide is very unimportant,
and the normal condition of the river in autumn is a slow
but steady fall from the high level of the summer flood
to the low level of winter. Abnormal conditions of great
importance to navigation, however, continually occur.
A strong south wind accelerates the fall of the river,
whilst a violent north wind backs up the water and
causes the river to rise many feet. When the Warkworth
arrived at the last great sandbank forming the bar, she was
stopped for want of water, A large praam laden with wheat
awaited her at Sinchika, a small port on the south-east of
the gulf, forty miles beyond Nadim, the most northerly
fishing station of the Ob, Captain Wiggins lost some
time in searching for a channel, but fortunately before it
was too late a cold north wind set in, backed up the

VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA" 253

waters of the Ob, and enabled the Warkworth to cross
the bar and anchor within sight of the praam. There
was no time to be lost. The ship dared not venture on
shallower water, so the praam had to leave her haven of
shelter and trust herself to the swelling waves. She was
probably three or four hundred feet long, only pegged
together, with ribs fearfully wide asunder, and com-
manded by a captain chicken-hearted as Russian sailors
alone can be ; but though she writhed like a sea-serpent
by the side of the steamer, the operation proved success-
ful, and Captain Wiggins turned his face homewards
with the wheat on board. The cream of the success
was, however, skimmed at the bar. Two hundred tons
had to be thrown overboard before the deep channel
could be reached, but the bulk of the cargo was brought
safe into London.

The seasons of 1879 and 1880 were unfavourable.
Long-continued east winds drove the remnants of the
Kara Sea ice against the shores of Novaya Zemlya, and
a narrow belt of pack-ice blocked the Kara gates. Late
in the season of 1879 a Bremen steamer succeeded in
finding a passage, and in bringing a cargo of wheat from
Nadim. It was very fortunate that the English steamers
were unable to enter the Kara Sea. Drawing fourteen
to seventeen feet of water, they had literally no chance
at all where Wiggins only saved himself by the skin of
his teeth, not drawing more than twelve feet.

The crowning feat of this north-east Arctic enterprise
was performed by Nordenskiold in the Vega in 1878-79,
a voyage which may not, perhaps, have any great com-
mercial value, but in a scientific point of view must rank as
one of the most successful Arctic expeditions ever made.

Captain Palander left Gothenburg on July 14, 1878,
was joined by Nordenskiold at Tromso on the 21st, and

254 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE

entered the Kara Sea on the ist of August. On the 5th
they passed the mouth of the Yenesel, and held a clear
course until the 12th, when they encountered drift-ice
and fogs, but succeeded in reaching the North-east Cape
in lat. 77|^° on the 19th. On the 27th they passed the
mouth of the Lena, but with September their troubles
began. On the 3rd the thermometer for the first time
fell below zero, and they were compelled to hug the
coast. On the 6th the nights became too dark to
permit of safe navigation, and the ice thickened so rapidly
that on the 12th, at Cape Severni, they were delayed for
six days. On the 19th they made fifty miles, but during
the next six days their progress was very slow, the ship
having continually to battle with thick ice, and on the
28th they were finally frozen up in winter quarters in lat.
'67° 70', having failed to accomplish the 4000 rtiiles from
Tromso to Bering Strait by only 120 miles. The
greatest cold they had during the winter was in January,
when the thermometer fell to 74° below zero. On May
15th the ice was 5^^ feet thick. The Vega got away on
July 1 8th, having been frozen in nine months and
twenty days, and on the 20th she sailed through Bering
Strait, returning to Gothenburg by the Suez Canal, after
having circumnavigated Europe and Asia for the first
time in the history of the human race.

SAMOYEDE PIPE

BOUXUARY BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA

CHAPTER XXV.

FROM LONDON TO OMSK.

At St. Petersburg — Political Feeling in Russia — Feeling against England
— Russian Arguments against the Policy of England — At Moscow —
Irkutsk and the Siberiaks — At Nishni Novgorod — The Journey before Us
— Our Sledge — Birds — At Kazan — Roads between Kazan and Perm — At
Perm — At Kongur — -The Urals — Birds — We 'Enter Asia — Ekaterinburg
— Tinmen — The Steppes — Villages of the Crescent and the Cross —
Russian and Mahomedan Clergy — Cheap Provisions — Birds.

We left London on Thursday, the ist of March, 1877,
at 8.25 P.M., and reached Nishni Novgorod on Saturday
the loth at 10 a.m., having travelled by rail a distance of
2400 miles. We stopped three days in St. Petersburg
to present our letters of introduction, and to pay some
other visits. We had audiences with the Minister of the
Interior and with the Minister of Finance, both of whom

256 FROM LONDON TO OMSK

showed great interest in Captain Wiggins's attempt to
re-open a trade with Siberia by sea.

At a dinner-party given in our honour at Sideroff's,
the well-known concessionnaire of the Petchora, and on
various occasions in our hotel and in the cafes, we had
abundant opportunity of informing ourselves of the state
of political feeling in St. Petersburg. Russia was by no
means on the best of termswith England. The Panslavistic
party was in the ascendency. As a stepping-stone to its
wild scheme of reversing the policy of Peter the Great,
and making Russia a great southern power, embracing
all the Slavonic nations, it continually urged the govern-
ment to lay violent hands on Turkey and wrest from her
her Slavonic provinces. The military party, always on
the qui vive for a chance of obtaining promotion and
loot, had joined the hue and cry. The wily diplomatists
of St. Petersburg partly under the influence of the old
tradition of Russian aggrandisement, and possibly far-
seeing enough to perceive that the logical outcome of
Panslavism would be a United Slavonia, in which Poland
would eventually play the part of Prussia encouraged the
agitators. They shrewdly calculated that whatever
might become of Turkey in Europe, some share of the
spoil of Turkey in Asia must fall into Russian hands ;
and that if they only gave the Panslavistic party rope
enough it would be sure to hang itself. On the peasantry,
absolutely ignorant of European politics and anxious for
peace to develop their rising commerce and agriculture,
religious fanaticism was broucrht to bear in favour of war.
The moment seemed ripe for action, but England, under
the vigorous policy of Lord Beaconsfield, stopped the
way. We found the feeling against England amongst
the merchants very sore. Even the better educated
Russian is remarkably ignorant of European politics. He

RUSSIAN POLITICAL IDEAS 257

has a smattering of knowledge and a rudimentary appre-
ciation of logic just sufficient to enable him to express his
opinions in syllogistic form. The line of argument which
we had to meet and combat was ingenious and plausible ;
we never once were able to convince an opponent that it
contained a single fallacy. The greatest astonishment
was expressed that England should want to prop up such
a rotten government as that of Turkey. We were
assured that a Christian countrv like Eno-land could not
possibly love the Turks any more than the Russian could,
and that England, that had always been the champion of
freedom, could never permanently uphold the slavery of
the Slavonic races in Turkey. The explanation of these
anomalies was an amusing mixture of truth and error,
but so firmly had it taken possession of the popular mind
of the day, that nothing that we could say in answer
made the slightest impression. The arguments used
against us ran pretty much in one strain. Lord Beacons-
field was a Jew. The Jewish party was in power.
England had, politically, entirely succumbed to Jewish
influences. The Jewish party was the money-lending
party. The money-lending party was the creditor of
Turkey. England, therefore, under the malign influence
of her Jewish prime minister, upheld the integrity of
Turkey solely that the Jewish creditors of that anti-
Christian and despotic state might obtain as many
shillings in the pound as possible from their bankrupt
debtor. We could only shrug our shoulders and reflect
that a little log-ic, as well as a little knowledg^e, is a
danoferous thingf.

When we left St. Petersburg^ the weather showed
signs of breaking, and we reached Moscow in a complete
thaw. As we had a sledge journey before us of between
three and four thousand miles, which we hoped to get

R

258 FROM LONDON TO OMSK

through before the roads became impassable, we made as
short a delay in Moscow as possible. A few hours rest
gave us an opportunity of visiting the British Consul and
of enjoying the hospitality of a wealthy Russian merchant
of the name of Trapeznikoff The latter gentleman
entertained us in his splendid mansion, and we had a very
interesting conversation with him. We had now fairly
turned our backs upon Europe and European politics,
and discussed Siberian topics only. Mr. Trapeznikoff is
a Siberiak, born at Irkutsk, and takes a prominent part
in the efforts which the Moscow Geographical Society
are making to rival the attempts of Captain Wiggins to
open up sea communication between Europe and Siberia.
Mr. Trapeznikoff was one of the comparatively few
Russian merchants with whom we came in contact who
were able to converse in German. The more we heard
of Irkutsk the more disappointed we were that we had
not time to make a dStotir to this interesting town. It
is not a large place, but we were told that the population
was upwards of 30,000. Though situated in the heart of
Siberia, it is said to be the most European town of all
the Russias. We were informed that in Irkutsk we
should find the freest thought, the highest education, the
most refined civilisation, the least barbarous luxury of
any Russian town.

We reached Nishni Novgorod on Saturday the loth
of March, and were officially received at the railway
station by the chief of police, who was kind enough to
conduct us across the Volga to a hotel. We devoted
the morning to the purchase of a sledge, and spent some
time in buying a stock of provisions for the road, but
evening saw us fairly under way. We had a long and
adventurous affair before us, a sledge journey of more than
three thousand miles. We hoped to cross the meridian of

SLEDGING DOWN THE VOLGA 259

Calcutta, 2300 miles north of that city, before the roads
broke up, and then to sledge nearly a thousand miles due
north, before entering the Arctic Circle. Our sledge
was something like a cab on runners, with an empty
space under the driver's seat to enable us to stretch our
legs at night. We sledged away, day and night, with
three horses abreast, stopping to change them every
fifteen to twenty miles, with bells tinkling to drive away
the wolves. At first our road was down the Volga, and
we travelled smoothly along with no greater misfortune
than an occasional run through a snow swamp where the
thaw had been greatest ; but on some of the banks we
were knocked about unmercifully, the motion of the
sledge resembling that of a boat in a short choppy sea.
It was late in the year, and the roads were worn out.

On Sunday we dined at Vassilla. There had been
some frost during the night, but it was thawing rapidly
at noon. Birds were plentiful for the time of the year.
Hooded crows, jackdaws, and house-sparrows were very
common, and I saw one flock of snow-buntings. Vassilla
is a large town about half-way to Kasan, the distance
from Nishni to Kasan being 427 versts, about 280 miles.

We continued to sledge thus down the frozen Volga,
travelling day and night, with occasional snowstorms and
a persistent thaw. The left bank of the river a^ we
travelled down was comparatively flat, but the other
bank was hilly. This is the case with the Petchora, and
also with the Ob and the Yenesei. There was very little
change in the birds on the roadside. House-sparrows,
jackdaws, and hooded crows were the commonest. Once
I saw a pair of ravens, and once a solitary great tit, and
at a station 61 versts before we reached Kasan tree-
sparrows were feeding with the house-sparrows. On
the banks of the Volga were numerous holes, evidently

26o FROM LONDON TO OMSK

the nests of colonies of sand-martins, and occasionally
magpies were seen. We did not make any stay in
Kasan, but without delay on the evening of our arrival
we took -d. padarozhnaya for Ekaterinburg, 942 versts, or
628 miles, paying, as before, 4 kopeks per verst per horse.

The first night's journey from Kasan was a fearful
pull and jolt. The weather was mild, with snow, but the
state of the roads was inconceivably bad. We were
dashed about to such an extent that in the morning
every bone in our bodies ached. No constitution in the
world could stand a week of such ill-usaee. Before
sunrise the thermometer had fallen to zero. This was
followed by a magnificent sunshiny morning, and very
fair roads. I saw a pair of bullfinches for the first time
since leaving Nishni,

The next morning the weather still continued fine,
but the roads were never good for lon^ at a time. We
had got into a hilly country, which was very picturesque,
but not at all conducive to the maintenance of good
roads, especially so late in the season.

We passed through Perm late in the evening of
Thursday the 15th of March, and were glad of an excuse
to rest a few hours on Friday at Kongur. At this town
we were most hospitably entertained by Mr. Hawkes,
who showed us over his iron steamship building yard.
The father of Mr. Hawkes was an enterprising Scotch-
man, who established a flourishing business in this remote
corner of Europe. Shortly after bidding our host a
reluctant adieu, we commenced the ascent of the Ural
mountains. In this part the range scarcely deserves to
be regarded as more than a succession of hills, the
loftiest hardly high enough to be dignified with the name
of mountain. The country reminded me very much of
that in the neighbourhood of the Peak of Derbyshire.

EKATERINBURG 261

For several hundred versts we sledged up one hill and
down another, occasionally following the valleys between.
In the lowlands we frequently passed villages, and a
considerable part of the country was cultivated. For
miles together the road passed between avenues of
birches. The hills were covered with forests, principally
Scotch and spruce fir, with a few birches and larches.
During this part of our journey we had magnificent
weather ; hard frost but warm sunshine. Birds were
more abundant, one of the commonest being the large
bullfinch with a brick-red breast. Hooded crows were,
perhaps, less frequent, but on the other hand ravens
and magpies were much commoner, and jackdaws
remained as numerous as ever. I noticed several small
birds which I had not seen before— greenfinches, yellow-
hammers, marsh tits, and one or two jays.

A few stages before reaching Ekaterinburg we left
the last hill of the Urals behind us, and an easy slope
brought us out of the forests to a more cultivated and
level country, in which the villages were more plentiful.
As we passed the granite pillar which marks the boundary
line between the two continents, we hoped that we had
left the mists and fogs of Europe behind us to enter the
pure and dry climate of Asia. We reached Ekaterinburg
on the morning of Sunday the i8th of March, having been
123 hours sledging 628 miles, about five miles an hour,
including stoppages. We changed horses sixty-five times.
Ekaterinburg has about 30,000 inhabitants. We were
most hospitably entertained by M. George Onesime
Clerc, the head of the Observatory, to whom I had a
letter of introduction from M. Bogdanoff, of St. Peters-
hurcr ; we also visited M. Vinebourof, an official of the
telegraph-office and an excellent amateur ornithologist,
who went with us to the museum.

262 FROM LONDON TO OMSK

Time did not, however, admit of our making much
delay. We were anxious to cover as much ground as
possible whilst the frost lasted, and we bade a hasty
adieu to our friends. The same afternoon we took a
padarozhnaya for Tiumen, and made the 306 versts, or
204 miles, in twelve stages, which we accomplished in
thirty-nine hours. The country was gently undulating
and well wooded, with numerous villages.

We spent a couple of days at Tiumen enjoying the
hospitality of Mr. Wardroper, a Scotch engineer ; with him
we visited M. Ignatieff, and lunched at his hou^e with some
of the merchants of this thriving place. The river was full
of steamers, all frozen up in their winterquarters, and every-
thincr told of commerce and wealth. The house of Ivan
Ivanovich Ignatieff was a handsome mansion elegantly fur-
nished in the German style, just such a house as a North
German family with an income of 600/. or 700/. a year
inhabit. We had a quiet but substantial luncheon — roast-
beef and claret, roast grouse and sherry, ice-cream and
champagne. One of the guests was a magnificent specimen
of a Russian, standing 6 ft. 8 in., and weighing, we were
told, twenty-two stone.

From Tiumen to Omsk is 637 versts, which we accom-
plished in sixty-two hours, changing horses twenty-seven
times. It was quite holiday travelling; we had good horses
and excellent roads. The scene was entirely changed. We
were nowcrossing the great steppes of western Siberia. We
had left the Peakof Derbyshire behind us, and were travers-
ing an almost boundless Salisbury Plain. For nearly a
thousand miles hardly anything was to be seen but an
illimitable level expanse of pure white snow. Above us
was a canopy of brilliantly blue sky, and alongside of us
a line of telegraph poles crossed from one horizon to the
other. Occasionally we came upon a small plantation of

CRESCENT AND CROSS 263

stunted birches, and every fifteen to twenty miles we
changed horses at some village built on the banks of a
frozen river whose waters find their way into the Ob
beneath their thick armour of ice. These villages were
almost entirely built of wood, floated down in rafts from
the forests on the distant hills. Most of them were
Russian, with a large stone or brick church in the centre,
and a gilt cross on the steeple. Others were Tatar
villages, where the crescent occupied the place of the cross ;
and it was somewhat humiliating to us as Christians to
find that the cross was too often the symbol of drunkenness,
disorder, dilapidation, and comparative poverty, whereas
the crescent was almost invariably the sign of sobriety,
order, enterprise, and prosperity. The general opinion
amongst the better educated Russians with whom I was
able to converse was that the chief fault lay with the
priests, who encouraged idleness and drunkenness, whilst
the Mohammedan clergy threw the whole of their influence
into the opposite scale. Living is so extravagantly cheap
in this part of the world that the ordinary incentives to
industry scarcely exist. We were able to buy beef at
twopence per pound, and grouse at sevenpence a brace.
We had a very practical demonstration that we were in a
land flowing with hay and corn, in the price we paid for
our horses. Our sledge was what is called a troika and
required three horses. Up to Tiumen these horses had
cost us sixpence a mile. On the steppes the price suddenly
fell to three-halfpence, i.e , a halfpenny a horse a mile. At
one of the villages where we stopped to change horses it
was market-day, and we found on inquiry that a ton of
wheat might be purchased for the same amount as a
hundred-weight cost in England.

Whilst we were crossing the steppes we saw very few
birds. The almost total absence of trees and the depth

264 FROM LONDON TO OMSK

of the snow upon the j^round is, of course, a sufficient
explanation why birds cannot Hve there in winter.
Occasionally we saw small flocks of snow-buntings, whose
only means of subsistence appeared to be what they could
pick up from the droppings of the horses on the road.
These charming little birds often enlivened the tedium of
the journey, flitting before the sledge as we disturbed
them at their meals. They were rapidly losing their
winter dress. They only moult once in the year — in
autumn. In the winter the general colour of the snow-
bunting is a huffish brown. After the autumn moult each
feather has a more or less broad fringe of huffish brown,
which almost obscures the colour of the feather lying
below it. The nuptial plumage is assumed in spring by
the casting of these fringes, which appear to dry up and
drop off, whilst at the same time the feathers appear to
acquire new life and the colour to intensify, as if in spring
there was a fresh flow of blood into the feathers, some-
what analogous to the rising of the sap in trees, which
causes a fresh deposit of colouring matter. The snow-
buntings we saw on the sledge-track across the steppes
had nearly lost all the brown from their plumage, their
backs were almost black, as were also the primary quills
of their wings, whilst the head and under-parts were
nearly as white as the snow itself, and at a distance one
might often fancy that a flock of black butterflies was
dancing before us. The snow-bunting had an additional
charm for us from the fact that it is a winter visitor to
England whose arrival is always looked for with interest,
and a few pairs even reniain to breed in the north of
Scotland. It is remarkable as being the most northerly
of all passerine birds in its breeding range, having been
found throughout the Arctic Circle wherever land is known
to exist. The only other birds we saw on the steppes were

A LATE SEASON

265

a few sparrows, jackdaws, and hooded crows in the villages.
The bullfinches and the tits disappeared with the trees,
and the summer birds had not yet arrived, though Mr.
Wardroper at Tiumen told us that starlings, rooks, geese,
and ducks were all overdue. It was, perhaps, fortunate
for us that the season was an unusually late one, otherwise
the roads might have been in many places impassable.

BRONZE ORNAMENT FROM ANCIENT GRAVE NEAR KRASNOYARSK

SLEDGING IN A SNOW-STORM

CHAPTER XXVI.

DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS.

Omsk — From Omsk to Tomsk — Sledging — Birds — Tomsk — Tomsk to
Krasnoyarsk — Birds — Krasnoyarsk — Prices — Beaten by the South Wind
— Frost again — Birds — Yeneseisk — Our Visitors — Scientific Expeditions
— Birds — Our Lodgings — Easter-day Festivities — I Hire a Young Jew —
Lessons in Bird-skinning — New Sledges— Down the Precipices — Russian
Hospitality — Special Couriers — Deceptive Appearance of the Road —
Winding Roads — Epidemic among the Horses — Race with the South
Wind — The Kamin Pass — Stopped by the Rain — The Kamin Pass in
December — The Pass in April — The South Wind Beaten.

I HAD a letter of introduction from General TimarschefC
the Minister of the Interior, to the Governor-General of
West Siberia in Omsk. Unfortunately the Governor
was from home, but his wife received us very kindly.
Her Excellency spoke good French and German, and had
an English governess for her children. M. Bogdanoff, in

OMSK 267

St. Petersburg, had given me a letter of introduction to
Professor Slofftzoff, who found for us a friend of his,
Mr. Hanson, a Dane, to act as an interpreter. Professor
Slofftzoff is an enthusiastic naturalist. He showed us a
small collection of birds in the museum. Amono- these
were several which have not hitherto been recorded east
of the Ural Mountains, for example the blackcap, the
garden-warbler, and the icterine warbler ; but as there
are no special labels with these specimens to authenticate
the localities, the fact of their really having been shot in the
neighbourhood of Omsk must be accepted with hesitation.
In museums which profess to be local only, birds from
distant localities continually creep in by accident, and many
errors in geographical distribution are thus propagated.

I gave the Professor some Sheffield cutlery in ex-
change for a curiously inlaid pipe of mammoth-ivory and
a flint and steel, the latter inlaid with silver and precious
stones. He told me that both were made by the Buriats
in the Transbaikal country, but the pipe is not to be
distinguished from those made on the tundras of the
north, and I suspect it to be of Samoyede origin.

Twenty years ago Omsk was only a village ; now it
has thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. This increase
is very largely accounted for by the fact that the seat of
government has in the meantime been removed thither
from Tobolsk. From Omsk to Tomsk is 877 versts, or
585 miles, which we accomplished in eighty-five hours,
including stoppages — an average of 10^ versts an hour.
We changed horses thirty-seven times. We had now
got into the full swing of sledge travelling : snow, wind,
rain, sunshine, day, night, good roads, bad roads — nothing
stopped us ; on we went like the wandering Jew, only
with this difference, that we had a fixed goal. However
rough the road might be, I could now sleep as soundly

268 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

as in a bed. My sledge fever was entirely gone. I
began actually to enjoy sledge travelling. I found
a pleasant lullaby in the never-ceasing music of the
" wrangling and the jangling of the bells." After having
sledged 2762 versts, or 1841 miles, one begins to feel
that the process might go on ad infinitum without serious
results.

The weather was mild, with no absolute thaw, but
now and then we had snow-storms, generally very slight.
Our way lay across flat steppes with scarcely a tree
visible, until we came within 150 miles of Tomsk, when
we again passed through a hilly, well-wooded country,
like an English park. We saw the same birds as here-
tofore, with an occasional hazel-g-rouse and orreat tit. On
the steppes snow-buntings were, as before, very common.
On the whole the roads were good : indeed, in the flat
district, very good.

In Omsk I had seen some very curious Kirghis arms
at Professor Slofftzoff's, and I had vainly tried to purchase
some. In Tomsk I learned that Barnaul was the place
to obtain them. There is a museum in that town. I
was told that M. Bogdanoff, a mining engineer, and
M. Funck, a shot-maker, spoke German, and further,
that there is an antiquary of the name of Goulaieff.
Tomsk is a very business-like place, apparently about
the same size as Omsk. From Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk
is 554 versts, or 369 miles, which we accomplished in
sixty-four hours and in twenty-seven stages. The
weather was very mild, and we had several slight falls of
snow. The country was generally hilly and well-wooded,
and the roads on the whole good, but occasionally we
found them extremely bad. After the 27th of May (15th
Russian style) we had to pay for an extra horse, and
upon entering the Yeneseisk Government, the cost of

AT KRASNOYARSK

269

each horse was doubled. Magpies were as common as
ever ; jackdaws much less so. Hooded crows disap-
peared soon after leaving Tomsk. Ravens were rather
more numerous than before. Bullfinches were plentiful
in the woods, and snow-buntings on the plains. The
great tit was only occasionally seen. House-sparrows
were very common, but we saw no tree-sparrows. We
reached Krasnoyarsk on Monday the 2nd of April, and
paid our first visit to Herr Dorset, the government " Vet."
of the district. He was a German, and kindly placed
himself at our disposal as interpreter. He introduced
me to a M. Kibort, a Polish exile, who engaged to
procure me skins of birds, and send them to England.
We visited the governor, who gave me a " Crown
padarozhnaya,'' and an open letter of introduction to all
the officials. In Krasnoyarsk prices were as follows: —

Wheat . . . .

40 kop. per pood.

Flour .

60

Swan's-down

12 to 15 rbl. ,,

Goose-down .

8rbl

Feathers

3 rbl

Pitch .

3 to 3^ rbl.

Hemp seed .

20 kop.

We spent the evening at the house of SiderofTs
agent, Mr. Glayboff. We also bought some fine pho-
tographs of the gold mines and other places.

A warm south-west wind blew all Sunday, and
continued during the night. In Krasnoyarsk we found
the streets flooded, and everybody travelling upon wheels.
In the evening the post refused us horses on the plea
that sledging was impossible. There was nothing for it
but to ofo to bed. In the morning the south-west wind
was as warm as ever. The red hills of Krasnoyarsk
were almost bare. We were obliged to take to wheels,
and organise a little caravan. Equipage No. i was a

270 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

rosposki, on which our empty " pavoska " was mounted,
a vemschik standing- on the box at the back, and
driving his three horses over the top. Equipage No. 2
was a tarmitass, with two horses, drawing our luggage.
Equipage No. 3 was another tarantass, containing
Captain Wiggins and myself. We got away about
1 1 A.M., and trundled along over snow, mud, grass, or
gravel up the hill, through a series of extempore rivers,
and across the steppes — a wild bleak country, like a
Yorkshire moor — for 35 versts, at an expense of fifteen
roubles. The next staofe was 28 versts. The road was
a little better. We dismissed the rosposki, and travelled
in the otherwise empty sledge, but retained one tarantass
for our luggage. This stage cost us six roubles. Night
came on, and after a squall of wind, snow, and sleet, it
grew a little colder. The next stage was 23 versts. We
travelled as on the last, but transferred our luggage from
the tarantass to a sledge. We had reached the forest,
the roads soon became better, the wind got more
northerly, the night was cooler, and we got off for four
roubles. At the end ot this stage we repacked our
sledge, got horses at the regular price of three kopeks
per verst per horse, and matters began steadily to
improve. Our five horses were soon knocked down to
four, and finally to three. What little wind there was
blew cold, the sky was clear, the sun shone brightly, and
all our troubles were over for the present. The road
became excellent. The country was hilly, and the
scenery grew once more like an English park with fine
timber. We might easily have fancied ourselves in the
Dukeries in Nottinghamshire. Hooded crows had
entirely disappeared, but the carrion crow was several
times seen. In the evening we dined at a roadside
station, kept by a Jew. We had potato soup and fish,

SOCIETY AT YENESEISK 271

two spoons, but only one plate. We reached Yeneseisk
at 9 A.M. on Thursday the 5th of April, having been
nearly forty-eight hours in travelling 330 versts, in
consequence of the thaw in the earlier part of the journey.
There were thirteen stages in all.

Arrived at Yeneseisk we took rooms at the house of
a M. Panikoroffsky, and enjoyed a few days rest. We
had brilliant sunshine, with the thermometer at or near
zero, and we were told that there was no great hurry,
that we might expect to have a month's frost in which to
travel to Turukansk.

By this time we had sledged 3646 versts, or 2431
miles, and had fairly earned a rest. We had plenty of
visitors. First, there was Mr. Boiling, a Heligolander,
who left his native island thirty- five years ago. He was
a boat-builder who spoke German very well and knew
enough English to make his way. Then there was M.
Marks, a Pole, an elderly man, a political exile. He was
a photographer, a dealer in mathematical instruments, an
astronomer, a botanist, had had a university education,
and spoke French, though somewhat rustily. A most
active, useful little man was the head of the police, who
offered to do anything for us, but unfortunately he only
spoke Russian. Then there was Schwanenberg, the
captain of Sideroff s schooner, who was on his way down
the river. He spoke English and German. The
telegraph-master also spoke German, so that altogether
we had no difficulty in finding society.

There were very few birds at Yeneseisk during our
stay. Magpies were plentiful. There were no jackdaws.
House- and tree-sparrows were very abundant, and in
equal numbers. The carrion crow was very common.
Boiling told me that about three years ago a pair or two
of hooded crows paid a visit to Yeneseisk, and were most

272 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

hospitably received by their black cousins, so much so
that they allowed them to intermarry in their families.
The consequence now is that perhaps seventy-five per
cent, of the Yeneseisk crows are thoroug^h-bred carrion
crows, five per cent hooded crows, and twenty per cent,
hybrids of every stage between the two. Middendorff,
however, mentions the interbreeding of these birds as
long ago as 1843, so Boiling's story must be taken for
what it is worth. Now and then we saw a orreat tit, and
flocks of redpolls and snow-buntings frequented the
banks of the river, the latter bird, we were told, having
only just arrived.

Our lodgings were very comfortable. The sitting-
room was large, with eight windows in it, of course
double. The furniture was liorht and elegfant. A few
pictures, mostly coloured lithographs, and two or three
mirrors ornamented the walls ; and a quantity of shrubs
in pots materially assisted the general effect : among
them were roses, figs, and geraniums.

Whilst we were resting at Yeneseisk the great
festival of Easter took place. Every Russian family
keeps open house on that day to all their acquaintances.
The ladies sit in state to receive company, and the
gentlemen sledge from house to house making calls, A
most elaborate display of wines, spirits, and every dish
that is comprised in a Russian zakuska, or foretaste of
dinner, fills the sideboard, and every guest is pressed to
partake of the sumptuous provisions. Captain Wiggins
had made a good many acquaintances during his previous
visit to Yeneseisk, so that we had an opportunity of
seeing the houses of nearly all the principal merchants
and official personages in the town. Some of the
reception-rooms were luxuriously furnished.

The most important business which claimed my

AN EXILE SERVANT

273

attention in Yeneseisk was the selection of a servant.
On the whole I was most fortunate. All to whom I
mentioned my requirements shook their heads and told
me it was a hopeless case. Of course I wanted as good
a servant as I could get, honest, industrious, and so forth.
Two qualifications were a sine qua non. He must be

FISHING STATION ON THE OB

able to skin birds, and speak either French or German.
I soon learned that there was not a single person in
Yeneseisk who had ever seen a bird skinned for scientific
purposes. After many fruitless inquiries, I at last suc-
ceeded in finding a young Jew of the name of Glinski,
about four and twenty years of age, who three months
before had married the daughter of the Israelitish butcher
in Yeneseisk. Glinski spoke bad German and bad
Russian, and had an inconvenient habit of mixing up

s

274 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

Hebrew with both these languages, but on the whole I
might have had a worse interpreter, as he did his best to
translate faithfully what my companion for the time being
said, instead of telling me what, in his (the interpreter's)
opinion my companion ought to have said, as too many
interpreters are in the habit of doing. Nevertheless,
Glinski was, without exception, one of the greatest thick-
heads that I have ever met with. He was an exile from
the south of Russia. At fourteen years of age he had
committed some crime — stolen and destroyed some bills
or securities for which his father was liable — and had
spent some years in prison. He was afterwards exiled,
and his term of exile had just expired. He had scarcely
any notion of arithmetic, and his other acquirements were
so scanty that he was continually chaffed even by the
simple-minded Russian peasants. He was very short-
sighted, but clever with his fingers. I asked him if he
thought he could learn to skin birds. He said he thought
he could, but should like to see how it was done. I
skinned a couple of redpolls in his presence, and gave
him a bullfinch to try his hand on. With a little help
and instruction he made a tolerable skin of it. We after-
wards skinned a few birds together at various stations on
the journey, and when we arrived at our winter quarters
I turned over this part of my work entirely to Glinski.
At the end of a week he could skin better and quicker
than I could, and on one occasion, as will be hereafter
recorded, he skinned forty- seven birds for me in one day.
I always found him industrious, honest, and anxious to
do his best. He asked me twenty roubles a month
wages, I of course paying his board and lodging and
travelling expenses. 1 agreed to these terms, and
promised also an additional bonus of ten kopeks per
skin. During the time that Glinski was with me he

I PURCHASE A SCHOONER 275

skinned for me more than a thousand birds, for which
I paid him over a hundred roubles, besides his wages,
but for all that I am told that since I left Yeneseisk he
has abused me roundly to my friends there because I
refused to lend him fifty roubles more when I parted
from him. No one must expect gratitude from a Russian
Jew.

Another important business which I transacted in
Yeneseisk was the purchase of a ship. Boiling had a
schooner on the stocks, which had been originally
intended to bring to Yeneseisk the cargo which Professor
Nordenskiold left at Koreopoffsky. Other arrangements
were made by which Kitmanoff was to bring these goods
up in his steamer, and the schooner was sold to me.
Captain Wiggins undertook to rig it at the Kureika,
where it was to be delivered by Boiling as soon as the
ice broke up. Boiling and I were to sail in her a thousand
miles down the Yenesei to Dudinka, ornithologising as
we went along, whilst Captain Wiggins went up the
Kureika to take en board a cargo of graphite, which
Sideroffs plenipotentiary, Captain Schwanenberg, was to
have ready for him. In Dudinka the schooner was to be
disposed of on joint account, or kept as a second string
to our bow across the Kara Sea, as circumstances might
render desirable.

The addition of Glinski to our party also made fresh
arrangements for travelling necessary. Now that there
were three of us, we required two sledges. We were
told that the roads were bad, and that the sledge we had
bought in Nishni Novgorod was too heavy for the roads
north of Yeneseisk. We accordingly bought a couple of
light sledges, mere skeletons of wood covered with open
matting. One of them, which Captain Wiggins and I
reserved for ourselves, had an apology for a hood.

276 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

We had arrived at Yeneseisk in a hard frost, but
before we had been there three days the south wind
overtook us. The snow began to melt, and taking fright
at once, we left at 1 1 o'clock on the evening of Monday
the 9th of April. For the first few stations the road was
through the forests or along the sloping banks of the
river, and we thought ourselves fortunate if we did not
capsize more than half a dozen times between two stations.
Afterwards our path was down the river, a splendid road
as long as we kept on it, perfectly level, except on
arriving at a station, where we had to ascend from the
winter level of the ice to the villages, which are built on
the bank above the level of the summer floods. Tne
villagers generally came out to meet us, and help us up
the steep ascent The assistance they gave us in de-
scending was still more important. It sometimes almost
made our hearts jump into our mouths to look down the
precipice which led to the road. We commenced the
descent with three or four peasants holding on to each
side of the sledge. As the pace became fast and furious,
one or two of our assistants occasionally came to grief,
and had a roll in the snow, but the help they rendered
was so efficient that we ourselves always escaped without
an accident.

In spite of the thaw, and the consequent bad roads,
we made seventy-eight versts the first night, and were
entertained by an official whom we had met at the house
of the Ispravnik in Yeneseisk, As is always the case in
Russia, we were very hospitably received, and on taking
leave of the Zessedatel, we were provided with a courier.
The Easter holidays were not yet over, and we might
have difficulty or delay in obtaining horses. This courier
accompanied us to the "grenitza," or boundary of the
province of Yeneseisk, a distance of about 300 versts.

A SIBERIAN ROAD 277

About 200 versts before reachinof Turukansk we were
met bv a cossack, who brougrht us a letter from the
Zessedatel of that town, informing us that he had sent us
an escort to assist us on our way.

The thaw had cut up the roads a good deal. We
had generally three, rarely only two, frequently four, and
sometimes five horses in our sledge, but in all cases they
were driven tandem. The smaller sledge was driven
with two, and occasionally three horses. Although to
all appearances the road was a dead level from one to
two miles wide, it was in reality very narrow, in fact too
narrow for a pair of horses to run abreast with safety.
W'e were really travelling on a wall of hard trodden
snow from five to seven feet wide, and about as high,
levelled up on each side with soft snow. Whenever we
met a peasant's sledge, the peasant's poor horse had to
step off the road, and stand on one side up to the traces
in snow. After our cavalcade had gone by, it had to
struo-ale on to the road ag^ain as best it could. Our
horses were generally good and docile, and they kept
the road wonderfully, though it sometimes wound about
like a snake. A stranger might naturally wonder for
what inscrutable reason such a tortuous road should be
made along a level river. It was carefully staked out
with little bushes of spruce fir, from two to five feet
high, stuck in the snow every few yards. The explana-
tion is very simple. When Captain Wiggins travelled
up the river in December, little or no snow had faller..
At the beginning of the winter the ice breaks up several
times before it finally freezes for the season. When the
roads were first staked out by the starrosta of the village,
the little bushes that now reared their heads above the
snow were trees eight to twelve feet hi^h, and the road
had to be carefully picked out between shoals and hills

278 DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

of ice-slabs lying' scattered about in every direction.
After the winter snow had fallen we could see nothing
of all this, except the tops of the trees. Everything was
buried to a depth of six feet. Our horses got well over
the ground, and for two-thirds of the way we averaged
a hundred and fifty versts in the twenty-four hours ; but
on the sixth, seventh, and eighth days of our journey
from Yeneseisk to Turukansk we passed through a
district where an epidemic had prevailed amongst the
horses. Here we were obliged to travel slowly, and
frequently had to wait for horses at the stations, so we
consequently only scored about half our previous average.
These epidemics amongst the cattle occur with some
regularity every spring, or, to speak more correctly,
during the last month or two of winter, for in these
latitudes there is no spring. The cause is not very
far to seek. It is unquestionably insufficient food. The
corn has been finished long ago, and the hot sun and
occasional thaws have caused the hay to foul.

On this journey we had the same variable weather
as heretofore. Since leaving Krasnoyarsk we had been
racing the south wind. A couple of days after leaving
that town we thought we had fairly beaten it, but we
had not been two days in Yeneseisk before it again
overtook us. We had no absolute rain, however, until
we reached the entrance to the Kamin Pass, not far from
the point where the Kamina Tungusk joins the Yenesei.
This pass is twenty versts in length, and is extremely
picturesque. The river here flows through a comparatively
narrow defile, between perpendicular walls of what looked
like mountain limestone rock. This is considered the
only dangerous part of the journey. The channel is
deep and tortuous, and the current so rapid that open
water is visible in places even in the hardest winters.

THE PASS 279

We reached the station at the entrance of this pass in
the evening. A heavy gale from the south-west was
blowing, and the rain was beating loudly against the
windows of the station-house. We were told that it was
impossible to proceed, and that we must remain in our
present quarters until a frost should set in. We were
not sorry to be compelled to take a night's rest, but
the prospect of having to stop a week or two until the
weather changed was not pleasant. The south wind
seemed to have completely beaten us, and we went to
bed somewhat disheartened. When we woke the next
morning: we heard the wind still howling-. We were
making an effort to be resigned to our fate, and as a
preliminary step we turned out to inspect our sledges,
and see if our baggage had escaped a complete soaking.
We were, however, soon driven in again. Although the
wind was still blowing hard, it had shifted a point or two,
and cut like a knife. The rain was all gone, the snow
was drifting in white clouds down the pass, and a
thermometer placed outside the window sank to 3°
above zero. As the mercury fell our spirits rose ; with
the thermometer 29° below freezing point the worst roads
must be safe, so we ordered our horses, breakfasted, and
were soon in the Kamin Pass.

When Captain Wiggins came through this pass in
the previous December it was on a brilliantly sunshiny
day. The blue ice was then piled in fantastic confusion
on each side. The snow had not then fallen and buried
the signs of the skirmishes which had taken place between
the river and winter, before the latter finally conquered.
The thermometer was below zero, and the sunshine
glistened on the frozen waterfalls that hung down the
cliffs like young glaciers, and clouds of dense white
steam were rising from the open water in the centre

28o

DOWN RIVER TO THE KAMIN PASS

of the river. We saw it under very different circum-
stances. The strong wind was driving the fine drifted
snow in clouds down the pass, and everything was
wrapped in haze. A thin band of open water rippled
black as we passed by. The scene was fine and
constantly changing, and reminded me very much of
the Iron Gates on the Danube.

During the rest of the journey we had no more
anxiety on the score of weather. Once or twice the
south wind overtook us again, but we had at length
reached a latitude in which we could afford to laugh at
our old enemy. Whatever attempts he made to stop us
with rain only ended in snow, and we found that a thin
sprinkling of snow on the hard crust of the road was
rather advantageous to rapid travelling than otherwise.
It was like oil to the runners of our sledgfe.

SAMOVEDK SNOW SITXTACLES

SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE

CHAPTER XXVII.

TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER.

Stations — Hospitality of the Peasants — Furs and their Prices — Dogs
Drawing Sledges — Birds — Visit to a Monastery — Graphite — Captain
Wiggins's Former Travelling Companion — An Honest Russian Official !
— Installed as Guests in the House of the Zessedatel — Turukansk — We
Turn Shop-keepers— The Skoptsi — Scarcity of Birds — Old Gazenkampf
— Our Host's Tricks — The Blagachina — The Second Priest — The Priest's
Accomplishments — The Postmaster — The Secretary of the Zessedatel —
Schwanenberg's Troubles.

The distance from Yeneseisk to Turukansk is 1084
versts, or 723 miles. The road is divided into forty-four
stages, which we accompHshed in nine days and ten
nights. The stations where we changed horses were
frequently in villages containing not more than half a
dozen houses. Those we visited were always scrupulously
clean, and everywhere we were most hospitably received.
The best the peasants had was placed before us — tea,

282 TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER

sugar, cream, bread, and occasionally soup, fish, beef, or
game. Frequently we were treated as guests, and our
offers of payment refused. The yemschiks, or drivers,
were always very civil, and some of the younger ones
were fine-looking fellows. However numerous our horses
were, we only paid for three, at the rate of three kopeks
per verst per horse, to which we added vodka money —
ten kopeks to each yemschik. At most of the houses furs
were to be bought. I picked up a fine bear-skin, for which
I paid six roubles : ermine was to be had in almost any
quantity at from ten to fifteen kopeks a skin. Squirrel*
was even more abundant at about the same price. Skins
of a light-coloured stone-marten, f which the peasants
called korlojmok, were occasionally offered to us at fifty
kopeks to a rouble each, I bought two gluttons' skins, one
for four and the other for five roubles. Otter and blue ioy.\

* The grey squirrel (Sciicrus vulgaris) is a Palaearctic quadruped, being repre-
sented on the American continent by a closely allied form (Sciurus hudsonius). In
the British Islands only the red variety occurs, but in Siberia every intermediate
form is found between red and grey squirrels.

t The beech-marten {Martes foina) has been recorded as a British quadruped,
but recent investigations seem to have proved that the pine-marten [Martes abietum)
is the only species found in our islands. Both species are strictly palasarctic, and
neither of them is found on the American continent ; indeed, it is doubtful if
their range extends into Asia. In Siberia they are represented by the allied
species {Martes sibirica) mentioned above.

+ The blue fox, as it is called in its summer dress, when it is of a bluish-grey
colour, or the arctic fox, as it is called in the snow-white winter dress (Viilpes
lagopus), is a circumpolar quadruped. The Siberian merchants in Yeneseisk, as-
well as the Hudson Bay merchants in London, maintain the distinctness of the
two forms, and attempt to prove their statements by producing both summer and
winter skins of each. A possible explanation is, that like the stoat, the arctic
fox changes the colour of its fur with the seasons throughout the greater part of
its range ; but towards the northern limit of its distribution the summers are so
short that it is not worth while for it to turn dark, whilst towards the southern
limit of its range snow does not lie long enough on the ground to make the
whiteness of the fur protective. My impression is, however, that the blue fox is
a variety of the arctic fox, bearing somewhat the same relation to the latter form
as the black fox does to the red fox. It is difficult to explain otherwise the facts
that skins of blue fox are obtained very far north, and those obtained in winter
have very glossy, long, and thick fur.

SLEDGE DOGS 283

were offered at ten to twelve roubles, and white fox at
three to five roubles. We made many inquiries for sable*
and black fox, but did not succeed in ever seeing any.
They are all carefully reserved for the Yeneseisk merchants,
who no doubt would be very angry if they heard of any of
these valuable skins "going past " them. We were told
that the price of sable was twenty-five roubles and black
fox double that price or more. The beaver has been
extinct on the Yenesei for many years. We bought a few
skins of red fox f with wonderfully large brushes, and the
general colour a richer and intenser red than ours, the
price varying from two to four roubles.

As we got further north we found fine dogs at the
stations, and occasionally we met a sledge drawn by dogs.
These animals are most sagacious. A Russian traveller
will hire a sledge with a team of six dogs, travel in it ten
or fifteen miles to the next station, where he gives the
does a feed, and sends them home aorain alone with the
empty sledge. On several occasions we met teams
of dogs returning alone with the empty sledges. They
are fine fellows, a little like a Scotch shepherd's dog, but

* The sable (Martes zibellina) is only found in Siberia, being represented in
America by a nearly allied species (Martes amevicana), which is said to differ from
its Siberian cousin both in the form of the skull and the shape of the teeth.
There is little or no difference in the general appearance of the two species, and
they are subject to much the same variation in the colour and quality of the fur,
though I have never seen skins from Hudson Bay in which the hairs were as long
or as thick as in Siberian skins, nor are the American skins ever quite so dark as
the finest Asiatic ones, though when dyed it is sometimes difficult to detect the
difference at a glance. The price of sables in St. Petersburg, at the best shops,
varies from £2 to £2^ each, according to quality. The quality at £6 (60 roubles)
is, however, rich enough and dark enough for ordinary use.

t The red fox ( Viilpes vulgaris) is a circumpolar quadruped. The Arctic form is
of a richer, deeper red than that found in more temperate regions, and has longer
hair and a much more bushy tail. On both continents a melanistic form, called
the black or silver fox, occasionally occurs, the silver fox having white tips to the
black hairs. In St. Petersburg, fine skins of the silver fox fetch £2.^, but the best
skins of black fox are sold as high as £t^o.

284 TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER

with very bushy hair. They have sharp noses, short
straight ears, and a bushy tail curled over the back.
Some are black, others white, but the handsomest variety
is a grey-fawn colour. Another sign of having entered
northern latitudes met us in the appearance of snow-
shoes, and occasionally our yemschiks would run on them
at the sides of the sledge for a mile or more togfether.

We had very little opportunity of seeing the birds of
the district, as our road was almost always on the river.
Sparrows and magpies disappeared before we reached
the Kamin Pass. At most stations carrion crows and
snow-buntings were seen, and now and then a raven flew
over our heads. We were often offered willow-grouse,
capercailzie and hazel-grouse, but we very seldom saw
these birds alive. Seven hundred versts north of Yene-
seisk the nutcracker appeared. At most stations one or
two of these birds were silently flitting round the houses,
feeding under the windows amongst the crows, perching
on the roof or on the top of a pole, and if disturbed,
silently flying, almost like an owl, to the nearest spruce,
where they sat conspicuously on a flat branch, and
allowed themselves to be approached within easy shot.
I secured eight of them without difficulty. In the
summer this river must be a paradise for house-martins.
At every station the eaves of the houses were crowded
with their nests, sometimes in rows of three or four deep.
Two hundred versts south of Turukansk I bouofht the
skin of a bittern which had been shot during the previous
summer. The only four-footed wild animal we saw was
a red fox.

Thirty versts from Turukansk we stopped to inspect
a monastery. Two hundred and fifty years ago the
ancient town of Mangaze, at the head of the gulf of the
Taz, was destroyed by the Cossacks. An attempt was

MANGAZE 285

made to remove the annual fair which used to be held at
Mancraze a deofree or two to the east. The villao-e now
known as Turukansk was founded under the name of
Novaya Mangaze. The relics of the patron saint of the
monastery of the old town were mostly destroyed by
fire. The monastery was rebuilt a little to the south
of New Mangaze, opposite the junction of the Nishni
Tunofusk with the Yenesei, and hither such of the relics
of St. Vasili as survived the fire were removed. They
consist of an iron belt with iron shoulder-straps called a
Tikon, and a heavy iron cross, which it is said the saint
wore as a penance. In a small building outside the
church is a cast-iron slab covered with Slavonic inscrip-
tions, which is said to be his tombstone. Such is the
story, at least, which the Bishop told us through the
medium of my thick-headed interpreter. At the station
where we changed horses, close by the monastery, we
were shown some samples of graphite, which was said to
come from the Nishni Tungusk river, and appeared to
be of excellent quality.

When Captain Wiggins came through Turukansk
the previous autumn, he had the misfortune to pick up
as a travelling companion an adventurer of the name of
Schwanenberg, a Courlander who spoke German and
English. Schwanenberg's ^reat object was to secure a
monopoly of the trade by sea between Europe and
Siberia for his master Sideroff, and so to twist every little
success of Captain Wiggins that it might redound to the
honour and glory of Sideroff The consequence was
that he caused Captain Wiggins to commit a grave
indiscretion. The cargo which Captain Wiggins had
picked up in Sunderland was landed from the Thames
packed on sledges, and the caravan, headed by Schwan-
enberg, commenced a triumphal march up country. Un-

286 TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER

fortunately, Captain Wiggins fell into the trap, and made
matters ten times worse by hoisting the Union Jack.
The Zessedatel of Turukansk was naturally astounded
at such extraordinary proceedings, and from excess of
zeal impounded the goods and refused horses to the
travellers. After a desperate quarrel, nearly ending in
bloodshed, in which the Blagachina and the Postmaster
conspired against the Zessedatel, the travellers proceeded
to Yeneseisk, leaving the goods behind them. The
Zessedatel had other enemies. Two of the principal
merchants of the Lower Yenesei, who shall be nameless
— I call them the arch-robbers of the Yenesei — ^joined
the conspiracy. The Zessedatel was too honest; he
would not accept the bribes which these worthies pressed
upon him in order to blind his eyes to their nefarious and
illecral practices. The upshot of it all was, that when
Captain Wiggins and Schwanenberg passed through
Krasnoyarsk they were able to bring so much pressure
to bear upon the good-natured Governor that the Zesse-
datel of Turukansk was removed from his office, and
when we arrived at this Ultima Thule we found that a
new Zessedatel reigned in his place. This gendeman
had received orders from head-quarters to assist Captain
Wio-gins to the utmost of his power, and had also been
advised of my intended visit. The Cossack who escorted
us for the last two hundred versts had strict orders to
bring us to the Zessedatel's house, and we were imme-
diately installed as his guests. He placed his dining-
room at our disposal, and we occupied the two sofas in it
at night. We tried hard to avoid trespassing upon his
hospitality, but he would take no refusal.

Turukansk is a very poor place, built on an island.
It may possibly consist of forty to fifty houses. Most of
these are old, and the whole place bears an aspect of

THE SKOPTSI 287

poverty. We met no one who could speak English,
French, or German, and we probably saw most of the
inhabitants. The Zessedatel gave back to Captain
Wiggins possession of his goods, and placed at his dis-
posal an empty house, where the Captain displayed them
and kept open shop for a couple of days. Glinski and
I helped him, to the best of our ability, to measure
ribbons, printed calicoes, and silks, and though more
people came to see th^^ goods than to buy, we neverthe-
less all had to work hard. Captain Wiggins was, I am
sure, heartily sick of his job, and many times, I have no
doubt, devoutly wished his wares were in Kamtschatka.
They were mostly consignments from Sunderland shop-
keepers, which the Captain, in a rash moment, induced
these tradesmen to entrust to his care. Most of the
goods were utterly unsuited to the market, and many of
them seemed to me to be priced at more than double
their value in England. In spite of this we sold some
hundred roubles' worth at prices yielding a profit of ten
to fifty per cent.

Among the people who came to inspect the goods
was a smooth-chinned, pale-faced man, who we found on
inquiry was one of the Skoptsi, a strange sect of fanatics
who have made themselves impotent "for the kingdom
of heaven's sake." They live in a village sixteen versts
from Turukansk in four houses, and are now reduced to
ten men and five women. They were exiled to this
remote district as a punishment for having performed
their criminal religious rite. Most of them come from
the Perm government. They occupy themselves in
agriculture, and in curing a small species of fish like a
herring, which they export in casks of their own manu-
facture.

We saw very few birds in Turukansk ; two or three

288 TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER

pairs of carrion crows seemed to be the only winter
residents. I saw no other birds, except a flock of snow-
buntings, which, we were informed, had not long arrived.
House-martins come in summer, as their nests bore ample
evidence. We were told that these birds arrive in
Turukansk during the last week in May, old style — that
is, the first week in June of our style.

We left Turukansk at five o'clock on the afternoon of
Sunday the 22nd of April. We were not sorry to escape
from the clutches of our host, A man with such a faculty
for annexing adjacent property I never met with before.
He was interesting as a type of the old-fashioned Russian
official, ill-paid, and sent by the Government to an out-
of the-way place to pay himself — a wretched system. A
more shameless beggar never asked alms. Old von
Gazenkampf — for this was his name — might have been
sixty-five years of age. He had imposed himself and
his Cossack servant on a well-to-do widow, who boarded
and lodged the pair gratis, but sorely against her will.
She dared not refuse them anything, and was afraid to
ask for payment. I asked our host to choose a knife or
two out of the stock I brought with me for presents ; he
immediately took six of the best I had, and the day
following asked me for a couple more to send to a friend
of his at Omsk. He offered me a pair of embroidered
boots for six roubles. I accepted the offer. He then
said that he had made a mistake, and that he could not
sell them, because he had promised to send them to his
friend in Omsk. Half an hour afterwards he offered me
the same pair for twelve roubles ; I gave him the money,
and packed them up for fear his friend in Omsk should
turn up again, and I might have to buy them the next day
for twenty roubles. From Captain Wiggins he begged all
sorts of things, annexed many more without asking, and

THE BLAGACHINA 289

finally begged again and again for his friend in Omsk.
It was very amusing and — very expensive ; otherwise the
old buffer was as jolly as possible, talked and laughed
and made himself and us at home, gave us the best he
(or rather the widow) had, and kissed us most affection-
ately at parting.

The Blagachina was a tall, comparatively young man,
with long flowing hair paried in the middle. He was a
widower. So far as we could see he appeared to be a
true man, anxious to do all the good that lay in his
power and to give us every information possible. He
was very kind and generous to us, and invited us several
times to his house ; but he had the too comm.on Russian
failing of being fonder of vodka than was consistent with
due sobriety.

The second priest was a teetotaler, a small, keen-
eyed man, with an excellent wife and a row of charmino-
children. He had a turning-lathe in his house, and was
skilful in making cups, boxes, etc., out of cedar and
mammoth-ivory. He had been amongst the Ostiaks of
the Taz, and had visited the ruins of the ancient town
of Mangaze. He was something of an ethnologist
and archseologist, and made very fair pencil sketches. I
rather liked him, but Captain Wiggins thought him
something of a Jesuit, poking his nose into everything,
ubiquitous, and taking upon himself to answer every
question, no matter to whom addressed. He had taken
the side of the deposed Zessedatel in the quarrel between
that gentleman and the two captains in the previous
year, and so had incurred the anger of the postmaster
and the Blagachina, who nicknamed him the " Thir-
teenth Apostle." From what I afterwards learned, 1 am,
however, disposed to think he was in the right. The
postmaster appeared to be a good-natured fellow, a

T

290 TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER

bit of a sportsman, but of the heavy-brained type of
Russian. The secretary of the Zessedatel was a Pole, a
very intelHgent man ; he dined with us every day and
appeared to be hand in glove with von Gazenkampf, but
we heard later that he was very anxious to escape from
his bondage. No wonder ! To be compelled to live in
such a miserable place is exile indeed. After we had left
I had a peep behind the scenes of Russian official life
in Turukansk. Captain Schwanenberg told me all the
troubles he had to endure in this place the week before
we arrived. As Sideroffs agent it was part of his duty
to obtain a certificate from the Zessedatel of Turukansk,
testifying that this worthy official had visited the graphite
mines of Sideroff on the Kureika and satisfied himself
that a definite amount of graphite had been dug from
them. Without such a certificate Sideroffs monopoly to
procure graphite from these mines would lapse. The
Russian Government, in order to encourage the develop-
ment of the mineral resources of the country, very liber-
ally grants to the discoverer of a mine a right of private
property in it, but very justly it requires the mine to be
worked in order to maintain this right. The difficulties
that Schwanenberg had to contend with were threefold.
First, the mine had, in fact, been standing idle a sufficient
length of time to vitiate Sideroffs claim to it ; second,
it had never been visited by the Zessedatel ; and third,
Schwanenberor had contracted with Sideroff to take all
the necessary steps to secure his rights. Old von
Gazenkampf was quite prepared to sign everything that
Schwanenberg required, and a sum had been agreed
upon as the price of the Zessedatel's conscience ; but at
the last moment the mysterious friend in Omsk had turned
up, and poor Schwanenberg had to part with his watch-
chain and the rings off his fingers, at which he was

RUSSIAN COMMERCIAL MORALITY 291

secretly very angry, as he assured me that Sideroff would
never recoup him for these losses. The Nihilists blame
the Emperor for all this sort of plundering, but most
unjustly. No Government can command honesty in its
servants unless it is supported by public opinion, and
hitherto public opinion in Russia remains on the side of
the successful thief. I need only point out the fate of
old Gazenkampfs predecessor to show how impossible it
is for an honest official to live in the present atmosphere
of commercial morality in Russia. Let us hope that the
valley of the Yenesei is exceptionally bad in this respect-
It is not at all improbable that the demoralisation which
usually emanates from gold-mines may be an important
factor in the case. Peculation has undoubtedly been
overdone in this district. The officials are gradually
killing the geese that lay the golden eggs ; the villages;
are dwindling away ; Turukansk is only the wreck of what,
it once was, and when one looks at the tumble-down
church and the few miserable straggling houses that
nowhere else would be called a town, one wonders how
Turukansk ever came to be printed in capital letters in
any map.

OSTIAK CRADLE

INSIDE AN OSTIAK CHOOM

CHAPTER XXVIII.

OUR JOURNEY'S END.

Soft Roads — Sledging with Dogs — Sledging with Reindeer — We reach
the Thames — Cost of Travelling — The Yenesei River — Good Health of
the Thames Crew — Precautions against Scurvy — Fatal Results of Neglect
— Picturesqueness of our Winter Quarters — View from the House —
Through the Forest on Snowshoes — Birds — The Nutcracker — Continued
Excursions in the Forest — Danger ahead.

The road from Turukansk to the Kureika is very little
frequented. So far to the north, the traffic has dwindled
down to almost nothing, consequently the snow never
gets trodden down hard, and sledging in heavy sankas is
impossible. We were therefore obliged once more to
abandon our sledg-es and to have still lighter ones. As
there were only four stages, we decided to hire them
from stage to stage and repack our baggage into fresh
sledges at each station. We had the remains of the

REINDEER AND DOG TRAVEL 293

captain's merchandise to take with us, so we required
six sledges, each drawn by one horse. The first stage
was on land, wearisomely long, with bad roads and
worse horses ; the second stage was on the river, a
much better road, but, in consequence of bad horses,
very slow. The baggage was packed as before, on
three one-horse sledges. To each of our three sledges,
containing also a fair share of baggage, were harnessed
six dogs. They went splendidly, never seemed tired,
and never shirked their work. The pace was not rapid,
but at the next stage we had to wait an hour for the
horses with the baggage. The harness was simple in
the extreme, consisting merely of a padded belt across
the small of the back, and passing underneath between
the hind legs.

The two last stages were travelled with reindeer.
We had six sledges, as before, for ourselves and the
baggage, and four sledges for our drivers. Each sledge
was drawn by a pair of reindeer, so that we required
twenty reindeer to horse our caravan. This was by far our
fastest mode of travelling. Sometimes the animals seemed
to iiy over the snow. During the last stage the reindeer
that drew my sledge galloped the whole way without a
pause ! The journey from Turukansk to the Kureika is
138 versts, and occupied about twenty-two hours.

We reached the winter quarters of the Thames on
Monday, April 23rd, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
delio-hted once more to be amono^st English voices and
English cooking. We had sledged from Nishni Nov-
gorod to the Kureika, a distance of 4860 versts, or
3240 English miles. Including stoppages, we had been
forty-six days on the road, during which we had made
use of about a thousand horses, eighteen dogs, and forty
reindeer. The total number of stages was 229. My

294 OUR JOURNEY'S END

share of the expenses from London was £^yy exclusive
of skins, photographs, etc., purchased — an average of
about 3f^. per mile, including everything.

The Yenesei is said to be the third largest river in
the world. In Yeneseisk the inhabitants claim that the
waters of their river have flowed at least two thousand
miles (through Lake Baikal) to their town. Here the
river must be more than a mile wide, but at the Kureika,
which is about eight hundred miles distant, it is a little
more than three miles wide. From the Kureika to the
limit of forest growth, where the delta may be said to
begin, is generally reckoned another eight hundred miles,
for which distance the river will average at least four
miles in width. To this we must add a couple of hundred
miles of delta and another couple of hundred miles of
lagoon, each of which will average twenty miles in width,
if not more.

On reaching the ship we found the crew well and
hearty. The men had been amply provided with lime-
juice, had always some dried vegetables given them to
put into their soup, and the captain had left strict orders
with the mate that exercise should be taken every day,
and that during the winter trees should be felled and cut
into firewood ready for use on board the steamer on her
voyage home. The consequence of these sanitary pre-
cautions was that no symptoms of scurvy had presented
themselves. On the other hand, we afterwards learned
that the crew of Sideroffs schooner, which had wintered
four degrees farther north, not having been supplied
by Captain Schwanenberg with these well-known pre-
ventives, had suffered so severely from scurvy that the
mate alone survived the winter.

Our winter quarters were very picturesque. The
Thames was moored close to the north shore of the

OUR WINTER QUARTERS 295

Kureika. at the entrance of a small gully, into which
it was the captain's intention to take his ship as soon
as the water rose high enough to admit of his doing
so, and where he hoped to wait in safety the passing
away of the ice. On one side of the ship was the steep
bank of the river, about a hundred feet in height, covered
with snow, except here and there, where it was too

DOLGAN BELT AND TRAPPINGS

perpendicular for the snow to lie. On the top of the
bank was the house of a Russian peasant-merchant,
with stores and farm-buildings adjacent, and a bath-
house occupied by an old man who earned a living by
making casks. One of the rooms in the house was
occupied by the crew of the Thames during the winter.
As we stood at the door of this house on the brow of
the hill, we looked down on to the "crow's-nest" of
the Thames. To the left the Kureika, a mile wide,
stretched away some four or five miles, until a sudden
bend concealed it from view, whilst to the rio^ht the

296 OUR JOURNEY'S END

eye wandered across the snow-fields of the Yenesei,
and by the help