4 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. i. 



this river between the years 1611 and 1615 for the purpose 

 of establishing a trade there in furs and skins, especially 

 beaver, for. which Ust-Zylma on the Petchora was at that 

 time celebrated. 



In 1837 Alexander G-ustav Schrenck visited the Petchora 

 under the auspices of the Imperial Botanical Gardens at 

 St. Petersburg, and published voluminous information respect- 

 ing the botany and the ethnology of this district. 



In 1842 Castren was sent out by the Swedish Government 

 and collected much valuable information about the Samoyedes 

 and the other races of North-East Kussia. The following 

 year, Paul von Krusenstern and Alexander Graf Keyserling 

 visited the Petchora, and published an important work 

 upon the geology and physical geography of the country, 

 but none of these travellers seem to have written anything 

 upon the subject of birds beyond a mere passing mention of 

 ducks and geese. In St. Petersburg we learnt that Dr. Pelzam, 

 from the museum at Kazan, visited the Petchora in 1874, but 

 from information we obtained on that river, it would appear 

 that he spent most of his time in dredging and paid little 

 attention to birds. In Archangel we made a more important 

 discovery. We there met the man who had been guide to 

 Hencke and Hoffmansegg some twenty or five-and-twenty 

 years ago, From him we learnt that those naturalists had 

 spent a year or more on the Petchora, had there collected 

 birds and eggs, and had been very successful in finding all 

 that they were in search of. We cannot, however, learn that 

 these gentlemen published anything respecting the birds of 

 the Petchora. They seem to have collected chiefly as a 



