SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. IV. 



were all in pairs. We fancied that the call note of these 

 bullfinches differed from that of our bird. Speaking from 

 memory it seemed to us to be louder and harsher, by no 

 means so plaintive, and not badly represented by the word 

 <kak.' 



After leaving Umskia we looked anxiously out for the 

 first glimpse of the distant Petchora, and it was not long 

 before we crossed a low range of hills, from the ridge of 

 which we had a view of the mighty river. As we sledged 

 down the Zylma, and finally reached its junction with the 

 Petchora, the vastness of this river impressed us beyond all 

 our expectations. We were 300 miles from its mouth, and 

 to our left the huge flood stretched away in a broad white 

 stream as far as the eye could reach, and fifteen times as 

 wide as the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge. On the oppo- 

 site bank, a mile and a half off, we could discern the churches 

 and houses of Ust-Zylma, round which the river swept to 

 our right. Piottuch had arrived at the town some hours 

 before us, and we found comfortable apartments in the house 

 of a Knssian peasant, of the name of Boulegan, where we 

 were visited by M. Znaminski, the PreestafT of Ust-Zylma, 

 and drank a toast (the success of our visit to the Petchora) 

 in a bottle of excellent Crimean champagne. The total 

 course of the mighty river covers nearly one thousand miles. 



occurred in the British Islands. It 

 breeds in the south Arctic and north 

 temperate regions of Europe and Asia, 

 from Scandinavia eastwards as far as 

 the watershed of the Yenesay and the 

 Lena, beyond which it is represented 



by a somewhat nearly allied species, 

 P. griseiventris (Lafr.). It winters in 

 South Europe and South Siberia. In 

 the valley of the Petchora we did not 

 see it farther north than latitude 

 65|. 



