138 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIII. 



SiderofFs steamer. The most curious features in these forests 

 were open and slightly hollow places, like tarns or half dried- 

 up tarns, the bed carpeted with moss and a network of last 

 year's Potamogeton. The shallow places were quite dried up, 

 but the deeper ones had still a lakelet glistening in the 

 centre. These hollows are doubtless filled with water when 

 the Petchora reaches its highest flood point in June, and 

 many are not yet dried up when an early winter sets in, and 

 the remaining water becomes ice-bound. 



Our three days' stay at Habariki was marked by very 

 variable weather. Thursday was calm and warm, with bright 

 sunshine. Friday, bitterly cold, with a strong gale from the 

 north, and only occasional gleams of sunshine, and slight 

 storms of rain and snow. On Saturday morning the gale had 

 subsided, and the greater part of the day the sun shone, but 

 a violent hailstorm fell during the afternoon, and in the 

 evening we had a dead calm. Notwithstanding the generally 

 unfavourable weather we saw a vast number of birds, and 

 added to our lists in these three days more than half as 

 many species as we had seen during the whole of our stay 

 at Ust-Zylma. 



We saw several eagles, but one only near enough for iden- 

 tification. It showed no traces of white on the tail, and we 

 concluded it might be a golden-eagle or a white-tailed eagle 

 of the first year. We identified an osprey * as it flew past us 



* The osprey (Pandion haliaetus, 

 Linn.) is a regular though rare visitor 

 to the British Islands during the spring 

 and autumn migrations. It is a circum- 



polar bird, and may almost be said to 

 be cosmopolitan in its range, breeding 

 both in Europe, Asia, Africa, America 

 and Australia, and has been recorded 



