178 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 
that town, and for some days we had very sloppy travelling ; 
but we pressed on day and night until we reached the entrance 
to the Kah’-min Pass, the most dangerous part of the journey, 
where the river flows through a comparatively narrow defile, 
between high walls of limestone rocks, with such velocity 
that in the middle of the stream open water remains all the 
winter. We reached the station before this pass in the even- 
ing, in a drenching rain, the first shower we had experienced, 
and were told that it was impossible to proceed until a frost 
should set in. When we rose in the morning we were both 
surprised and delighted to find the thermometer at or near 
zero; and the remainder of our journey was accomplished 
without a thaw. When we arrived at the ship, we found that 
it was still winter, and were told that there had not been a 
sign of rain since lastautumn. April went by and May came 
in, but still there was no sign of summer, except the arrival of 
some of the earliest migratory birds. We generally had a 
cloudless sky ; and the sun was often burning hot. Here 
and there, on some steep bank exposed to the south, a shght 
impression was made upon the snow ; but not a drop of water 
survived the night frosts. On the 9th, 10th, and 11th of 
May we had rain for the first time, and the prospects of sum- 
mer looked a little more hopeful. The rest of May, how- 
ever, was more dreary and wintry than ever, alternations of 
hard frosts and driving snow-storms; but the river was slowly 
rising, and outside the thick centre ice was a strip of thin 
newly frozen ice. There was, however, little or no change 
in the appearance of the snow. Up to the end of May the 
forces of winter had gallantly withstood the fiercest attacks 
of the sun, and remained masters of the field. On the Ist 
of June the sun, baffled at all points, entered into an alliance 
with the south wind, and a combined attack was made upon 
the winter forces. The battle raged for fourteen days, the 
battle of the Yen-e-sgy’, the great event of the year in this 
cold country, and certainly the most stupendous display of 
the powers of nature that it has ever been my lot to witness. 
On the morning of the 1st of June the pressure underneath 
the ice caused a large field, about a mile long and a third of 
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