i8o TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



July 31. 

 On Wednesday, the 31st of July, we dined at Mr. 

 Birse's and then completed our packing, and on Thursday, 

 the 1st of August, we said our goodbyes, Nathalie 

 Andrevna in floods of tears, and the last we saw of 

 Archangel w^ere the firemen galloping full speed to the 

 first quarter of the town — a false alarm for the sake of 

 practice. We were on board the Stevenson at Solombola 

 at one o'clock. The ship being a ' tee-tottle ' one, we got 

 some few private stores on board, and the captain 

 promised us the use of the medicine-chest. The vessel 

 steamed off at last on the 2nd about half-past one in the 

 early morning, and reached the Maimux Bar about 



5 a.m., where it stuck fast, and had to be lightened in 

 order to pass over that and the second bar. The reloading 

 from the lighters was completed about ten minutes to 



6 p.m. on Sunday, the 4th of August, when we finally 

 left our anchorage. The last we saw of Kussians were 

 the men and w^omen on the lighters as they dropped 

 astern, and the last we heard was a — by this time — 

 well-known Kussian song, joined in by all hands. 



August 4. 

 The White Sea was at this time as calm as a mirror, 

 and far away to the West the long point of land stretched 

 out, which separates the Archangel and Onega Bays, 

 which we also saw from Suzma. When we left our 

 anchorage we proceeded nearly North, at about eight 

 and a half knots, bound either for Peterhead or Aberdeen, 

 where the captain puts in for orders and to coal. It is 

 expected that eight and a half days will bring us to 

 port. AVe rose about 9 a.m. on Monday, the 5th of 

 August, to find we had crossed the Arctic Circle and 

 were steaming along the dreary coast of Finland — long 

 low barren hills, with a low cliff-line and great drifts of 



