452 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



side of the head and of the breast in the young, as com- 

 pared with the darker brown on the same parts of the old, 

 and the greater distinctness of the white above the eye of 

 the young. 



July 26. 



In the morning of Monday, the 26th of July, Feodor 

 and Simeon came in after a long day and night, having 

 covered a considerable distance of tundra and swamp. 



They went away towards the south-west and — accord- 

 ing to their account, extracted by much cross-questioning 

 with and without Piottuch's assistance, our own efforts 

 being in bad Kuss, more successful than Piottuch's, and 

 less interlarded with parentheses — saw a great lake near 

 the sources of the Eevka and Erisvanka rivers. They 

 had travelled some 25 or 30 versts, and carried the fruits 

 of their expedition back, viz., a fine Bewick's Swan, 

 which they shot out of a party of nine upon the large 

 lake. Simeon shot the bird, and had Feodor had posses- 

 sion of a good ' pooshka ' — literally cannon — they would 

 doubtless have secured one or two more. They stalked 

 up to within twenty-five or thirty paces of the birds, 

 and on being slightly alarmed the latter swam up close 

 together and stretched up their necks. 



In case of a misunderstanding arising as to which 

 Feodor undertook this long tramp, we had better dis- 

 tinctly state that Bolshai Feodor never walked further 

 than his belly would permit him. We have also given 

 him the second distinguishing cognomen of ' Moi skaffiun.' 

 With an unctuous roll of the tongue, a perceptible thicken- 

 ing of the lips, and an expectant twinkle of the eye and a 

 significant pantomime of the big thumb, which follows 

 the utterance of the words * Moi shaffum,'' we are made 

 aware of our lotsman's (steersman's) intentions of imme- 

 diately commencing to eat. Poor fellows, their food is 

 coarse and insufticient, and wanting in strength-giving 



