On Ornithological Researches. 157 



order that she might be repaired and a new rudder (the old one 

 having been carried away by the ice) made. All this occupied 

 about a fortnight, and during that time at least 50,000 acres of ice, 

 he calculated, had gone up stream. They afterwards heard that 

 a lot of it had found its way into the forest, which was partially 

 flooded, and there melted during the summer. At the end of 

 14 days they found themselves in the middle of a hot summer, 

 and the river had risen 70 feet perpendicularly in the fortnight. 

 Twenty-four hours after the snow had melted, flowers came 

 out, the first being our common white anemone. By the end 

 of the fortnight all the banks on the river were like an English 

 garden run wild. Pansies and pinks and anemones, and all 

 kinds of flowers were out, the trees began to burst into leaf, 

 and the whole country swarmed with birds. As a rule he got 

 five or six new birds, the greatest number being ten new 

 species, in one day. All this was extremely interesting, but 

 during the whole of this time Captain Wiggins was lamenting 

 the injuries done to his ship. By and bye the steamers from 

 Yen-e-saisk came down, and one of them brought the little ship 

 he (Mr. Seebohm) had bought, but in consequence of Captain 

 Wiggins' m.isfortunes they agreed to wait, and arranged that 

 they should go down together as soon as he could get his new 

 rudder made. They started the first week in July, but got 

 upon a sand bank, and at the end of a week, after trying to get 

 her afloat, the river had fallen so rapidly that the ship was left 

 on dry land. They were obliged to leave her there, a 

 monument of British pluck and blunder. The captain and 

 crew did everything they could, and if the reports they gave 

 him (Mr. Seebohm) of their adventures going up the river 

 were true, the ship appeared to have had at least nine lives. 

 The ship was lost at least ten times, and the captj^in was only 

 fortunate in floating her nine times. One of the peculiarities 

 one always found in an Englishman was the unlimited 

 capacity to blunder, and his unlimited pluck and energy 

 in extricating himself from the consequences of his blunder- 

 ing. However, he gave Captain Wiggins credit for having 

 done everything that he could. The only thing left for 

 him to do was to take his compass and a few extra sails and a 

 few of his own men and go along with him (Mr. Seebohm) in 

 his little vessel as far as he could. There they left the ill-fated 

 Thames, and sailed in this little ship nearly a thousand miles. 

 The whole country, when the thermometer was up to go"^, 

 swarmed with mosquitos, which were so thick that when he 

 raised his gun to fire, and was rather longer than usual about 

 it, he had to sweep the mosquitos ofT before he could take aim 

 and then fire his gun off rapidly. Captain Schwanenberg, of 

 the other party, was without a ship, and was extremely 



