On Ornithological Researches. 155 



said to be the third largest in the world. The Amazon, Missi- 

 sippi, and Missouri were longer, but not so wide. Its total 

 length was 4,000 miles, and at this point it was a mile vvide. 

 He afterwards sledged down it 800 males, and found it had 

 reached a width of three miles, at the end of another 800 

 miles it was nearly six miles wide, and for the last 400 miles 

 it averaged 20 miles in width. They sledged down this river, 

 the natives whom they met being always extremely friendly, 

 and, owing to their assistance, the sledge never once overturned 

 in going down the steepest hills. The first natives they 

 met with were the Tungoosk, copper coloured individuals, 

 something like Japanese. They were short, and many of them 

 were dressed in furs. Of course they (the travellers) were all 

 dressed in furs. It would have been impossible to travel 

 unless they had been thoroughly well provided against the 

 cold. They never experienced any very great difficulty, how- 

 ever, on account of the cold. He did not think they ever had 

 more than 10° below zero. On a previous journey they had 

 23° below zero, or 55° below freezing point, and then found 

 their furs absolutely necessary. At almost all times, however, 

 the frost was most intense when there was no wind. Another race 

 they came across further north were the Ostyaks, who slightly 

 differed from the Tungoosk. They arrived on the Koo-ray-i-ka 

 in the Arctic Circle on the 19th April, and there found the 

 crew of Captain Wiggins' steam yacht in excellent health. 

 They had passed through the winter without any trace of 

 scurvy. A little further to the north another crew had 

 wintered belonging to Sideroff, a merchant of St. Petersburg. 

 The ship had a crew of four or five men. They had not been 

 provided with lime juice, and had been allowed to sleep as long 

 as they liked. Consequently they all had scurvy, and all died 

 except the mate, who had a very tough constitution and 

 recovered. Captain Wiggins' men had had a plentiful supply 

 of lime juice, and were kept well employed at chopping wood. 

 When they reached the yacht there were six feet of snow on 

 the ground, and they looked down from the crew's quarters on to 

 the crow's nest of the yacht. All around was forest. The 

 timber was so extremely cheap that you could buy a ship's 

 mast of larch 60 feet long for a sovereign, and if you wanted 

 40 you could have them all during the week. From the 

 middle of April to the ist June they had six feet of snow on 

 the ground. He immediately bought a pair of snow shoes, 

 and spent the bulk of his time in making excursions into the 

 forest, shooting, &c.,and visiting the village of Koo-ray-i-ka on 

 the other side of the great river. When they first arrived the 

 number of birds was small, but soon afterwards various kinds 

 began to appear, and as the summer began to come, although 



