1 12 Chapter IV. 



and then a flock of long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis) 

 or other birds came whizzing by us, one or two of them 

 invariably falling to our guns. 



We had kept along the Vaigats shore, but now 

 crossed over towards the south side of the strait. When 

 about the middle of the channel I was startled by all at 

 once seeing the bottom grow light under us, and had 

 nearly run the boat on a shoal of which no one knew 

 anything. There was scarcely more than 2 or 3 feet of 

 water, and the current ran over it like a rapid river. 

 Shoals and sunken rocks abound there on every hand, 

 especially on the south side of the strait, and it: required 

 great care to navigate a vessel through it. Near the 

 eastern mouth of the strait we put into a little creek, 

 dragged the boat up on the beach, and then taking our 

 guns made for some high-lying land we had noticed. 

 We tramped along over the same undulating plain-land 

 with low ridges as we had seen everywhere round the 

 Yugor Strait. A brownish-green carpet of moss and 

 grass spread over the plain, bestrewn with flowers of rare 

 beauty. During the long, cold Siberian winter the snow 

 lies in a thick mass over the tundra ; but no sooner does 

 the sun get the better of it than hosts of tiny northern 

 flowers burst their way up through the last disappearing 

 coating of snow, and open their modest calices, blushing 

 in the radiant summer day that bathes the plain in its 

 splendour. Saxifrages with large blooms, pale yellow 

 mountain poppies (papaver nudicaule] stand in bright 



