TO RUSSIA AND BACK, 



With an Account of the Birds to be met with at the 

 principal Markets, and a fezv 

 Notes on the Mnscnms and Zoolos:ical Gardens. 



At 6.15 p.m., on the nth of August, 1869, the "Ranger" 

 left her moorings below London Bridge, and steamed 

 rapidly down the Thames. It was a finer night than the 

 weather had given any promise of, and I amused myself 

 with standing on deck and watching the docks, and fields 

 and houses, passing in a continually changing panorama, 

 and a small flock of Gulls* lazily flapping over the water, 

 until the waning twilight made it too dark to see. By 

 day-break next morning we were at Gravesend, where the 

 river is a considerable breadth, and plenty of shipping 

 dotted about presented an animated scene. Here the river- 

 pilot and the officer of customs wished us a prosperous 

 voyage, and went ashore in the boat which brought the 

 captain. 



'■* In the autumn of 1871, I sent to the Zoological Gardens a Herring 

 Gull which had strayed as far as Kentish Town, by which time it had 

 got exhausted, and afforded a fine Sunday's amusement to sundry 

 " loafers " who ran it down and captured it. This fellow had a fine 

 appetite, and easily managed three herrings at a meal. 



B 



