VIII.] IMPENETRABILITY OF THE COUNTRY. 159 



during our river journey nearly spoilt what was otherwise a very 

 pleasant expedition. 



We landed for a meridian altitude, and improvised an artificial 

 horizon by means of a bucket of water. The banks were low and 

 flat, and frequently intersected by muddy creeks, while the birches 

 and firs had almost disappeared, giving place to the willow and 

 wild cherry. I have rarely seen more impassable ground than that 

 close to the river. The coarse grass rose high around us, preventing 

 the possibility of seeing anything — a condition which obtains in 

 almost every part of the country ; but an additional and far 

 more effectual barrier to our progress existed in the shape of a 

 thick tough brushwood which clothed the irregular ground with a 

 network of small boughs, catching our feet firmly at every step. 

 Later, at Cape Shipunsky on the south-east coast, we found the 

 country even more impracticable. The bears, however, manage by 

 their great weight to force themselves through this thick cover 

 with little apparent difficulty. Just inside the forest, at a distance 

 of six or eight feet from the river-bank, is a firmly-trodden path 

 some two feet in width, made entirely by these animals ; and as 

 these paths are to be found without a break on either side of the 

 river in its whole course through the forest country — a distance of 

 about 500 miles — it will be understood why bears' skins do not 

 command any very high price in the peninsula. 



The procuring of a sufficient quantity of duck for our daily 

 needs became at this period a rather difficult matter, the main river 

 being deserted by them for smaller streams and marshy pools in its 

 vicinity. Sea-birds became more numerous ; a tern {Sterna longi- 

 pcnnis), two or three phaleropes, or the Eed-throated and Black- 

 throated Divers (C. septentrionalis and C. arcticus), were to be met 

 with from time to time. We also shot a Podiceps, which seemed to 

 be identical with our own Eed-necked Grebe.^ On the banks an 



^ According to Mr. Seebohm, the eastern form of P. rubricollis is conspicuous for 

 its larger size, and especially for the greater length and stoutness of the bill ; and 

 the measurements of the above-mentioned specimens certainly bore this out. 



