Mr. H. Secbohm on the Oniithology of Siberia. 181 



was not yet broken up. All this time the weather was warm 

 and foggy^ with very little wind^ and occasional slight rain. 

 There was a perfect Babel of birds as an accompaniment to the 

 crashing of the ice. Gulls, Geese, and Swans were flying about 

 in all directions ; and their wild cries vied with the still wilder 

 screams of the Divers. Flocks of Redpoles and Shore-Larks, 

 and Bramblings and Wagtails in pairs, arrived, and added to 

 the interest of the scene. On the 2nd of June there was 

 little or no movement in the ice until midnight, when an enor- 

 mous pressure from above came on somewhat suddenly, and 

 broke up the great field of ice to the north of the Koo-ray'- 

 i-ka, but not to a sufficient extent to relieve the whole of the 

 pressure. The water in the Koo-ray'-i-ka rose rapidly. The 

 immense field of pack-ice began to move up stream at the 

 rate of five or six knots an hour. The poor ship was knocked 

 and bumped along the rocky shore, and a stream of water 

 began to flow into the hold. At 9 o'clock all hands left her, 

 and stood upon the snow on the bank, expecting her instant 

 destruction. The stream rose and fell during the day ; but 

 the leak, which M^as apparently caused by the twisting of the 

 stern-post, choked up. Late in the evening an opportunity 

 occurred of a few hours' open water, during which steam was 

 got up ; and by the help of a couple of ropes ashore, the rud- 

 derless ship was steered into the little creek opposite to which 

 she had wintered, and run ashore. Here the leak was after- 

 wards repaired and a new rudder made. We calculated that 

 about fifty thousand acres of ice passed the ship up stream 

 during these two days ; and we afterwards learned that most 

 of this ice got away some miles up the Koo-ray'-i-ka, where 

 the banks were low, and was lost in the forest. 



The battle of the Yen-e-say' raged for about a fortnight. 

 The sun was generally burning hot in the daytime ; but every 

 night there was more or less frost. The ice came down the 

 Yen-e-say' at various speeds. Sometimes we could see gi- 

 gantic masses of pack-ice, estimated at twenty to thirty feet 

 in height, driven down the river at an incredible pace, not 

 less than twenty miles an hour. In the Koo-ray'-i-ka the 

 scene was constantly changing. The river alternately rose 



