CHAP. ix. SUNRISE. 95 



castle was one solid mass of frozen snow. The exercise kept 

 me warm. I planted my last piece of willow twig and put 

 on my malitza, just as the sun appeared above the horizon, 

 amidst lake and vermilion clouds, behind the steep mud- 

 banks on the other side of the Petchora. Behind me rose 

 a thick wood of willow and decayed or decaying birch, a 

 pine rising here and there between. Presently I spied, 

 between my turrets of snow, a marsh tit silently searching 

 for food on a willow ; I changed one of my cartridges for 

 dust, put my feet into my snow-shoes, sallied forth, and shot 

 it. His mate soon began to call, and in half a minute I 

 secured her also, and returned to my cachet. 



An hour passed by ; now and then I heard the distant 

 " gag gag " of the geese, or the wild cry of some far-off swan, 

 but nothing came within range of less than cannon shot of 

 me. Fourteen large glaucous gulls slowly flew up the 

 Petchora ; I watched a pair of swans on the ice through my 

 telescope, and listened to the distant call of some smaller 

 gulls ; whilst redpoles and white wagtails often passed over 

 me, all flying up wind. 



At length I got tired of waiting and watching, and made 

 an excursion on my snow-shoes into the wood. All around 

 was dead silence ; nothing to be heard but the gentle rattling 

 of the east wind amongst the leafless branches of the willows. 

 The wood seemed as empty of bird-life as the desert of 

 Sahara. 



I returned to my cachet, and waited and watched with no 

 better result than before. A flock of snow-buntings came 

 fluttering up the Petchora, and alighted on some willow- 



