PREFACE vii 



friend and schoolfellow — we had bird's-nested together as 

 boys and as men — were on the eve (literally) of starting 

 from Charing Cross Hotel for the far Petchora — wlien 

 the door — so to speak — was closed in our faces ! A 

 telegram from Archangel said : * Too late — roads broken 

 lip.' 



Next morning saw us off for ' the land beyond the 

 wood,' and the ornithological results of that most 

 enjoyable visit to Transylvania were recorded in the 

 pages of the ' Ibis ' for 1875. We had bought all our 

 outfit suitable for far north-eastern travel. We made it 

 serve for a very different climate ; but much repacking 

 and alteration had to be performed at the last moment 

 on arrival there. 



But in 1875, Seebohm and I went 'Eastward still.' 



Not desiring to undergo many little annoyances and 

 inconveniences of travel in Eussia, which Alston and I 

 had experienced, for want of authoritative papers, etc., 

 this time the very best of introductions possible to be 

 obtained were provided. 



This entailed several visits to the Russian Embassy in 

 London, a part of the work connected with our start which 

 devolved upon me. These more formal visits had again 

 to be repeated, when we interviewed the Minister of the 

 Interior at St. Petersburg ; but I need not enter here 

 into further detail. Suffice it to say, I was courteously 

 received, welcomed, encouraged, and our views forwarded 

 in all things ; and most gratefully, we remember and 

 acknowledge that kindness, and the ease with which 

 eventually we travelled through the vast dominions of the 

 'Great White Tzar.' 



Of the results of that expedition it is not for me to 

 enlarge, further than the facts and sequence of events 

 show, as they appear in these pages. I may only add — 

 no account of the two first Northern Trips has appeared 



