182 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 



and fell. Many square miles of ice were marched up for some 

 hours, and then marched back again. Sometimes the pack-ice 

 and floes were jammed so tight together that it looked as if 

 one might scramble across the river without difficulty. At 

 other times there was a good deal of open water, and the ice- 

 bergs " calved ^^ as they went along with much commotion and 

 splashing, that could be heard half a mile off. Underlayers 

 of the iceberg ground ; and after the velocity of the enormous 

 mass has caused it to pass on, the pieces left behind rise to 

 the surface, like a whale coming up to breathe. Some of 

 these " calves " must come from a considerable depth. They 

 rise up out of the water with a great splash, and rock about 

 for some time before they settle down to their floating-level. 

 At last the final march past of the beaten winter-forces in 

 this great fourteen days' battle took place, and for seven days 

 more the rag, tag, and bob-tail of the great arctic army came 

 straggling down — worn and weather-beaten little icebergs, 

 dirty ice-floes that looked like mud-banks floating down, and 

 straggling pack-ice in the last stages of consumption. The 

 total rise of the river was upwards of seventy feet. 



The moment that the snow disappeared vegetation sprang up 

 as if by magic, and the birds made preparations for breeding. 

 Although I had taken the precaution of providing myself with 

 a ship, the misfortunes of Capt, Wiggins delayed me on the 

 arctic circle for some weeks. As we passed through Yen-e- 

 saisk' I bought a schooner of a ship-builder of the name of 

 Boiling, a Heligolander. I christened it the ' Ibis ;' and on 

 the 29th of June we left the Koo-ray'-i-ka with this little 

 craft in tow. Our progress down the river, however, was one 

 catalogue of disasters, ending in our leaving the ' Thames ' 

 on the 9th of July a hopeless wreck, lying high and dry on 

 a sand-bank, in lat, Q7°. As we sailed northwards in the 

 ' Ibis ' the forests became smaller and smaller, and disappeared 

 altogether about lat. 70°. The highest point we reached was 

 lat. 7\\°, where I sold the ' Ibis ' to the captain of a Russian 

 schooner, which had been totally wrecked during the break- 

 up of the ice. The tundras of Northern Siberia are almost 

 exactly like those of North Russia, aud equally gay with 



