52 THE ZYLMA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD 



birds as we saw there before. We took the small sledge 

 and a couple of horses, and travelled all the Friday night. 

 The journey was a very eventful one. The sledge, it 

 may be remembered, had turned over once with Piottuch, 

 but he had travelled at least lOO miles in safety after- 

 wards, and we had almost forgotten the circumstance. 

 We soon found out, however, that something was radically 

 wrong with the crazy machine. It must have dropped 

 its centre of gravity altogether on the via diabolica, for 

 between Ust-Zylma and Umskia (a distance of thirty-six 

 miles) we were upset and tumbled over into the snow no 

 less than fifteen times. This was altogether a new experi- 

 ence for us, but we survived it without any damage, thanks 

 to the thickness of our malitzas and the depth of the snow. 

 Arrived at Umskia we were disappointed to see so 

 few birds. The Siberian jays had disappeared altogether. 

 The snow-buntings were represented by a solitary 

 individual perched upon the summit of a lofty larch. 

 Occasionally two or three redpolls were to be seen, and 

 at long intervals during the day a pair of bullfinches put 

 in an appearance. We saw a pair of white-tailed eagles 

 {Halicetus albicilla, Linn.) soaring over the forest, but they 

 never came within gunshot. The day was cold, with only 

 occasional gleams of sunshine and continual threatenings 

 of snow, and no birds seemed to be feeding. We took a 

 lone walk on the road, and made several excursions into 

 the forest and down the river on snow-shoes, but scarcely 

 a bird was to be seen. At this season of the year the 

 most absolute silence reigns in these drear Siberian 

 forests. In the afternoon we tightened up our " pavoska," 

 and so far succeeded in restoring the centre of gravity that 

 we returned home without a spill. We saw only two birds 

 either in going or returning, a Siberian jay in going, and 

 a capercailzie (Tetrao tirogallus, Linn.) in returning. 



