90 Mr. H. L. Popham on Birds 



off down stream^ and for a month were hard at work collecting 

 specimens of birds and eggs in every place at w^hich onr 

 steamer stopped for fuel, skinning birds and blowing eggs 

 while under w^ay, and sleeping whenever a cbance occurred. 

 On the fifteenth day of our voyage the sun ceased to set and 

 remained above the horizon for the next seven weeks, so 

 that we were able to make the best use of our time when- 

 ever stopping at any " village/^ which sometimes consisted 

 of only two or three huts. It often happened that we only 

 got about two hours ashore at what appeared to be a par- 

 ticularly good spot for birds, but we had to take our chance 

 of this ; however, I think, on the whole, we were fairly 

 lucky. But we failed in the Warblers — a class that neither 

 of us was well up in — and I believe we often overlooked a 

 very interesting small Warbler when in pursuit of some- 

 thing larger and more attractive to us. We also made a 

 mistake in not forming a larger collection during the migra- 

 tion at Yeniseisk, instead of husbanding our ammunition for 

 our voyage down the river. Its course throughout being 

 northerly, we were constantly changing our latitude, meeting 

 new species and leaving others behind at every stoppage. 

 Thus some birds that we might easily have obtained at 

 Yeniseisk we never met with again further down. We reached 

 Golchika on July 7th in tow of our steamer, this being the 

 last village on the river, and had to spend two somewhat 

 dreary months amongst millions of mosquitoes in our small 

 craft, awaiting the arrival of the expedition from England 

 sent out by my brother through the Kara Sea. The mono- 

 tony of this time was relieved only by ten very pleasant 

 days spent on board the Russian surveying steamer * Oftsin,' 

 the officers of which very kindly invited us to accompany 

 them on an expedition to set up a beacon on Cape Matte 

 Sale. Ice prevented us from carrying out this object, but 

 though we were of course too late for eggs_, we were enabled 

 to add several good species to our list, the young in down of 

 Bewick's Swan being one of the most interesting. The 

 s.s. ' Lorna Doone' arrived from England on September 

 13th accompanied by a river steamer, the ' Barnaoul/ and 



