.l/A' SEE B Off ATS nfSCOVERY 213 



and pure, and the melting of the snow discloses the 

 hushes with the unconsumed last year's crop hang- 

 ing on them, or lying ready to be eaten, on the 

 ground. The frozen meal stretches across the 

 breadth of Asia. It never decays, and is accessible 

 the moment the snow melts. Ages have taught the 

 birds that they have only to fly to the Arctic circle 

 to find such a store of 'crystallised fruits' as will 

 last them till the bushes are once more forced into 

 bearing by the perpetual sunlight. The same heats 

 which free the fruits bring into being the most prolific 

 insect life in the world, the mosquito swarms on the 

 tundra. No European can live there without a veil 

 after the snow melts; the gun-barrels are black with 

 them, and the cloud often obscures the sight. Thus 

 the insect-eating birds have only to open their mouths 

 to fill them with mosquitoes, and the presence of 

 swarms of tender little warblers, chiff-chaffs, pipits, 

 and wagtails in this Arctic region is accounted for. 

 Having found by his visit to the Petchora where the 

 birds went to and why they went, Mr Seebohm made 

 his next expedition to the valley of Yenisei, in Asiatic 

 Siberia. This adventure was hardly so fruitful in 

 results as the first. It included ' two shipwrecks, 

 which were not part of the original programme/ and 

 he wintered too far north to encounter the main 

 stream of migrating birds. But he was able to 



