FETCH OR A 309 



have long bothered us, and we cannot think that there 

 are above a very few pairs in the town. I thought I 

 had seen them before at this same place and neighbour- 

 hood, and always felt more than half convinced they 

 were House Sparrows. Seebohm afterwards killed two 

 males and two females, all within a circle of less than a 

 hundred yards round M. Znaminsky's and M. Bouligan's 

 houses, which seem, as far as observed, the centres of 

 attraction for the species. The males are handsome, 

 with the feathers of the back and wings arid the chest- 

 nut on the sides of the head and the top of the shoulder 

 very bright and clean, but they are not as handsome 

 as some we saw at Archangel. 



To-night we left to join M. Znaminsky and M. Sacharoff, 

 the postmaster, at the petite maison (a la Piottuch) at the 

 Goose-and-Duck ground at the other side of the river, six 

 versts from Ust Zylma. 



May 19. 



On Wednesday, the 19th of May, the new arrivals were 

 Greenshank, Curlew, and Shoveller. 



The wind was east or north of east with bright sun. 

 There was a great change in the appearance of the 

 Petchora, and still more in that of the Zylma. Looking 

 down the great river as we were crossing it last night, it 

 seemed vaster and calmer, if possible, in the still night ; 

 looked like a great limitless desert or plain towards the 

 north with a wooded oasis or two (islands) on the horizon. 

 Scarcely any snow remains on the surface, and large 

 lakes of snow-water lay here and there, those near the 

 shore fed by considerable streams and runlets from the 

 high ground behind the town. 



But the character of the Zylma ice was, to say the 

 least of it, suggestive. Waterholes were not scarce, wells 

 of water bubbling up through cracks and thin places, 

 like springs, and large surfaces in consequence covered 



VOL. II, 22 



