On Ornithological Rtsearches. 153 



Russia went through St. Petersburg and Moscow to 

 Nishni Novgorod. He was fortunately able to get into 

 communication with Count Schouvaloff, and he gave them 

 letters to the Minister of the Interior of Russia, who furnished 

 them with letters to all the principal Governors in Siberia. 

 They left Nishni Novgorod, which was 2,400 miles from London, 

 and where they bought a sledge, and travelled over the snow 

 3,200 miles, throughout the whole country there being 

 government relays of horses. They used on their journey 

 more than 1,000 horses. When they got too far north for the 

 horses they had dogs, and at the end they had employed 

 altogether forty reindeer and eighteen dogs to draw the 

 sledge along. On the first part of the journey, that down 

 the Volga on the ice, they found themselves a little in- 

 commoded by the melting snow, but afterwards this incon- 

 venience ceased. Reaching the Ural Mountains they found 

 them a comparatively insignificant range. They did not 

 reach any great height and were very broad, reminding 

 one of travelling over the Peak of Derbyshire. All 

 along the journey hitherto they had passed through 

 fine forest districts, and during the whole time they had 

 tolerably good roads, but when they had crossed the Ural 

 Mountains they came on an entirely different class of scenery. 

 The forests suddenly disappeared, and they came upon the 

 Barabinsky Steppe, where there were no trees. There were 

 perfectly flat plains as far as the e3'e could reach in every 

 direction ; nothing but one white field of snow at their feet, 

 and the blue sky overhead, the only relief to the monotony 

 of the landscape being a line of telegraph posts stretching 

 from one horizon to the other. The telegraph line they 

 followed. They had four to six feet of snow, and it 

 was only where the road had been trodden hard for five or 

 six months that they were able to pass. In Ekatereenberg 

 they met some interesting people who spoke English 

 and German. One of these was the curator of the museum 

 and observatory there. He gave them information that 

 the rain gauge during 40 years had only averaged, snow 

 included, 11 inches of rain per annum. The amount or 

 absolute rain was very small indeed. When at Tumain they 

 were hospitably received by a Scotch engineer who had 

 fettled there some years before. When they arrived at Omsk 

 they took their letters of introduction to the Governor of West 

 Siberia, but unfortunately found he was from home, havmg 

 gone by another road on his way to St. Petersburg, His good 

 lady, a relative of the emperor, received them very kindly, and 

 the travellers spent a few hours there very pleasantly. She 

 spoke German and French well, and had an English governess 



