observed on the Yenisei River. 91 



nine days later we started homeward on what turned out to 

 be a rather adventurous voyage. Capt. Wiggins, who had 

 brought out the two ships, took nearly all the coal and 

 stores with him up the river, leaving us with a supply of 

 about ten days^ fuel to reach Yardo. Things went well till 

 the fourth day out, when we fell in with vast quantities of 

 ice, through which we forced our way for five days. We 

 then got set fast in the ice at the eastern entrance of the 

 Ugor Straits, having broken both blades of the propeller 

 and used up every available plank for the furnaces ; even 

 the hen-coop had gone up the funnel. The vessel drove 

 steadily away with the ice in a north-easterly direction till 

 October 4th, when I decided it was time to seek assistance 

 from the natives in the form of food and clothing. I there- 

 fore left the ship with three of the crew and a Russian, who 

 had come on board when we were near the entrance of the 

 Straits, and struck out for the land, which could now just be 

 made out from aloft, hauling a boat with us over the ice. 

 After suffering considerably from the cold and exposure in 

 our European clothes during a gale of wind and snowstorm 

 we reached a native '' choom " on the evening of the second 

 day, and travelled home with the natives via the Pechora 

 and Mezen. This same gale of wind broke up the ice 

 sufficiently to release the ' Lorna Doone,' and she eventually 

 reached England in safety, happily not requiring the supply 

 of reindeer meat and skins that we had gone in search of. 



I now give my notes on the birds that we met with on the 

 Yenisei. 



1. TuRDus iLiAcus. Rcdwiug. 



Very numerous in the forest, often nesting among the 

 large colonies of Fieldfares, but nearly always at a lower 

 elevation. 



2. TuRDUs PILARIS. Fieldfare. 



The commonest of all the forest-birds, colonies of several 

 hundreds inhabiting the willows on nearly all the islands ; 

 we could have almost loaded our boat with their eggs if we 

 had felt inclined. 



