298 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



Snow Buntings and Eedpolls have almost disappeared. 

 Of the former we saw only two flocks, one in the morning, 

 with about thirty birds, and Seebohm one in the after- 

 noon, with about a hundred. Of Eedpolls we saw none, 

 unless two small birds which flew rapidly overhead 

 belonged to this species. 



Two Tortoiseshell Butterflies — the Small one ( Vanessa 

 urtic(E) — were seen, and insects were not uncommon. As 

 Alston said of the approach of summer in Norway, so here 

 also it appears to be going to ' burst upon us like a rotten 

 egg.' 



Some portion of the manure in the town is being 

 sledged away. Ust Zylma has already undergone a 

 change in its appearance. Little runlets have been cut 

 or formed by the inhabitants to carry off the melted snow 

 and part of the impurities which have accumulated during 

 the winter. Piles of cut firewood are heaped up against 

 the houses, or in the yards — billets about 1| feet long, cut 

 and split by the axe from fine large larch spars, which it 

 seems a shame to use in such a way. House-building, 

 too, is going on, squaring and notching the beams, and 

 morticing them in their places. 



Boat-building, or rather, the hewing out of the great 



keels from the solid trees, is being prosecuted. A giant 

 larch is usually chosen, and root and stem sawn through 

 from end to end, the root being double, or extending out- 



