MOVEMENTS OF THE ICE 345 



The current was still up the Kureika, but as far as we 

 could see both rivers were almost clear of ice. 



On the morning of Sunday we had a breeze from the 

 west with drizzling rain, and an open river gently rising, 

 with a slight current up the Kureika. By noon the wind 

 dropped and the water began to fall. The afternoon was 

 calm but cloudy, with an occasional gleam of sunshine 

 and now and then a shower of rain. The Yenesei south- 

 wards seemed to be clear of ice, but in the afternoon the 

 Kureika was one crowded mass of pack-ice and floes, 

 driftine down to the sea at the rate of three to four knots 

 an hour. Birds were not very numerous, but I shot 

 more thrushes than usual. A peasant from the opposite 

 village brought me a couple of ducks, a wigeon, and a 

 red- breasted merganser. In the afternoon I shot a 

 pintail duck and saw a diver for the first time, but 

 whether red-throated or black-throated I was not near 

 enough to determine. The forest was still impenetrable, 

 though the rain had made havoc with the snow. 



We had a warm south wind on the following day, and 

 the march-past of ice continued down the river, getting 

 slower and slower, and coming to a final block about 

 noon. In the afternoon the wind shifted round to the 

 west, the river began to rise slightly, the tide in the 

 Kureika turned, the ice which had not rounded the corner 

 into the Yenesei was marched back again, and in the 

 afternoon and evening we had open water. 



Birds were not quite so numerous as heretofore. A 

 party of two or three dotterels came down to feed, and 

 by the river-side I came across a couple of ruffs, a pair 

 or two of terek-sandpipers, a golden plover, and a few 

 ringed plover. I nevertheless succeeded in adding four 

 new species to my list — the common skylark (the only 

 example I obtained in the Arctic Circle), the double snipe. 



