ARCHANGEL 163 



We returned across the lake to the village, and after 

 tea we started back for Ijma village. Carl and I walked 

 the eight versts in an hour and a quarter, or 1 hour 

 20 minutes ; the others came in half an hour after us. 



July 6. 



On Saturday, the 6th of July, we skinned, adding 25 

 skins to our list, including young Black Game, etc., 

 brought in by Vassili. We paid for our lodgings, 23 

 bowls of milk, use of samovar, etc., two roubles; then 

 packed and walked back to the boat, six versts. We 

 made ' tchai ' and started again, drinking it in the boat. 



We shot a Terek Sandpiper (Kuleek) and obtained two 

 young ones larger than the last ones we got ; also two 

 fine Kedpolls were brought in by Piottuch and Carl 

 during our walk to the boat. In four hours we reached 

 Talaga, where we propose remaining twelve hours. 

 Nicholai and Jacof returned to the landing-stage at Ijma, 

 where Alston found he had left his big knife (one made 

 by Wilkinson, of London). They expect to return in ten 

 hours. At Talaga we found good quarters, and Piottuch 

 set about cooking at once. 



July 7. 



On Sunday, the 7th of July, while Alston, Carl, and I 

 slept for five hours, Piottuch went out, coming in with a 

 Little Bunting, two Wood Sandpipers, and two young 

 ones, two 'flapper' Wild Ducks, one Terek Sandpiper, 

 and one Northern Marsh Tit. 



Besides the Wood Sandpipers, Piottuch got five young 

 Arvicola ratticeps, seeing the female but failing to secure 

 her. The young ones were not in a regular burrow, but 

 in a hole below a root about a span from the surface. 



Alston and I then went out, taking different directions, 

 but nearly all the luck fell to me. Between the village and 

 the mouth of a backwater, or kuria, I killed a female 



