106 Messrs. H. Seebohra and J. A. Harvic Browu ow 



any thing upon the birds of the Petchora. When we planned 

 our excursion to the valley of the great river we looked upon it 

 as virgin ground. In St. Petersburg we learned that Dr. 

 Pelzam visited tlie Petchora last year to collect for the mu- 

 seum at Kasan ; but we were afterwards told in several towns 

 and villages where we stayed, that he spent most of his time 

 in dredging, and did not pay much attention to the ornitho- 

 logy of the country. 



Wc left London on 2nd March, and arrived at Ust Zylma on 

 14th April. The ground was covered with from two to three 

 feet of snow ; and winter, i. e. frost or snow-storm, continued 

 until 7th May. Up to this date we only succeeded in iden- 

 tifying seventeen species of birds. From 8th to 15th May 

 we had spring ; i. e. the sun was powerful enough to thaw 

 the snow during the day-time, but it generally froze again at 

 night. During these eight days migratory birds began to 

 arrive much more rapidly, and we succeeded in adding thirteen 

 to our list. On 16th May we suddenly plunged into mid- 

 summer; the snow melted like butter upon hot toast, and 

 the river began to rise rapidly. We shot new species of mi- 

 gratory birds on almost every excursion we made, and by the 

 20th May we increased our list of birds from thirty, at which 

 it stood on the 15th, to fifty. By the 21st May the Petchora 

 had risen nearly thirty feet in height ; and on that day the ice 

 on the great river broke up, and marched past Ust Zylma in 

 a stream a mile and a half wide, at the rate of four miles an 

 hour for ten days, during which we added another score of 

 birds to our list. 



AVe gave the ice ten days^ start, and then followed it down 

 the river, stopping frequently on the islands to collect. During 

 these ten days we explored the forests in the neighbourhood 

 of Ust Zylma, and made our exciarsion to Habariki, and 

 succeeded in identifying fifteen more species of birds. 



We finally bade goodbye to Mons. Znaminski and our other 

 kind friends in Ust Zylma on the lOtli June. The fii-st five- 

 and-twenty miles are a tolerably straight run of broad river. 

 Then come a hundred miles of broad river full of islands, a 

 sort of elongated delta, which the arctic circle cuts nearly in 



