178 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornitholofjy of Siberia. 



that towiij and for some days we had very sloppy travelling ; 

 but we pressed on day and night until we reached the entrance 

 to the Kah'-min Pass, the most dangerous part of the journey, 

 where the river flows through a comparatively narrow defile, 

 between high walls of limestone rocks, with such velocity 

 that in the middle of the stream open water remains all the 

 winter. We reached the station before this pass in the even- 

 ing, in a drenching rain, the first shower we had experienced, 

 and were told that it was impossible to proceed until a frost 

 should set in. When we rose in the morning we were both 

 surprised and delighted to find the thermometer at or near 

 zero; and the remainder of our journey was accomplished 

 without a thaw. When we arrived at the ship, we found that 

 it was still winter, and were told that there had not been a 

 sign of rain since last autumn. April went by and May came 

 in, but still there was no sign of summer, except the arrival of 

 some of the earliest migratory birds. We generally had a 

 cloudless sky ; and the sun was often burning hot. Here 

 and there, on some steep bank exposed to the south, a slight 

 impression was made upon the snow ; but not a drop of water 

 survived the night frosts. On the 9th, 10th, and 11th of 

 May we had rain for the first time, and the prospects of sum- 

 mer looked a little more hopeful. The rest of May, how- 

 ever, was more dreary and wintry than ever, alternations of 

 hard frosts a«id driving snow-storms ; but the river was slowly 

 rising, and outside the thick centre ice was a strip of thin 

 newly frozen ice. There was, however, little or no change 

 in the appearance of the snow. Up to the end of May the 

 forces of winter had gallantly withstood the fiercest attacks 

 of the sun, and remained masters of the field. On the 1st 

 of June the sun, baffled at all points, entered into an alliance 

 with the south wind, and a combined attack was made upon 

 the winter forces. The battle raged for fourteen days, the 

 battle of the Yen-e-say', the great event of the year in this 

 cold country, and certainly the most stupendous display of 

 the powers of nature that it has ever been my lot to witness. 

 On the morning of the 1st of June the pressure underneath 

 the ice caused a large field, about a mile long and a third of 



