Mr. H. Seebohni on the Ornithology of Siberia. 179 



a mile wide^ opposite the lower angle of junction of the Koo- 

 ray'-i-ka and the Yeu-e-say', to break away. About half 

 the mass found a passage down the strip of newly formed 

 thin ice, leaving open water behind it. The other half rushed 

 headlong onto the steep banks of the river. The result of 

 the collision was a little range of mountains, fifty or sixty 

 feet high, and picturesque in the extreme. Huge blocks of 

 ice, six feet thick and twenty feet long, in many places, were 

 standing perpendicular, whilst others were crushed up into 

 fragments like broken glass ; and in many other places the 

 ice was piled up in layers one over the other. The real ice on 

 the river did not appear to have been more than two and a half 

 feet thick, clear as glass, and blue as an Italian sky. Upon 

 the top of this was about four feet of white ice. This was 

 as hard as a rock, and had, no doubt, been caused by the 

 flooding of the snow when the waters of the river had risen, 

 and its subsequent freezing. Upon the top of the white ice 

 was about eighteen inches of clean snow, which had evidently 

 never been flooded. When we turned into our berths in the 

 evening the captain thought it most prudent to institute an 

 anchor- watch. We had scarcely been asleep an hour before 

 the watch called us up with the intelligence that the river 

 was rising rapidly, and that the ice was beginning to crack. 

 We immediately dressed and went on deck. We saw at once 

 that the Yen-e-say' was rising so rapidly that it was begin- 

 ing to flow up its tributaries. A strong current was setting 

 up the Koo-ray'-i-ka, and small floes were detaching them- 

 selves from the main body of the ice and were running up 

 the open water. By-and-by the whole body of the Koo- 

 ray'-i-ka ice broke up and began to move up stream. Some 

 of the floes struck the ship some very ugly blows on the 

 stern, doing considerable damage to the rudder; but open 

 water was beyond, and we were soon out of the press of ice, 

 with, we hoped, no irretrievable injury. All this time we 

 had been getting steam up as fast as possible, to be ready for 

 any emergency. It was hopeless to attempt to enter the 

 creek opposite which we were moored, and which was now 

 only just beginning to fill with water ; but on the other side 



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