196 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvn. 



pair of wood sandpipers, and caught three of their young, 

 apparently a couple of days old. We also saw a raven and 

 many Buffon's skuas. During the day the mosquitoes were 

 very troublesome in the sheltered parts of the tundra, but 

 a cold north wind kept the hilltops clear. 



Hitherto, we had been unable to identify the swans that 

 during our voyage had flown overhead, or settled on the ice 

 in the river. We were convinced in our minds that there 

 were two different sizes, but had been unable to establish the 

 fact. On one island, near Kuya, we had found one nest 

 containing four large eggs, but we had failed to secure the 

 bird. To determine the breeding haunts of Bewick's swan 

 was the hope and one of the principal objects of our journey ; 

 as yet the offer of five roubles reward for any swan's eggs 

 accompanied by the parent bird, had resulted only in two or 

 three nests being brought to us, but in no case had the swan 

 been snared. Our Samoyede now brought us two swan's 

 eggs that he had found thrown out of a nest, and advised us 

 of a second nest containing four eggs. We despatched him 

 at once with a trap to the nest to try and catch the swan. 

 That day we also bought two very small swan's eggs, smaller 

 than those of the ordinary wild swan, from a fisherman. He 

 told us that his mate had the skin of the parent bird, which 

 he had caught at the nest. The fishing encampment from 

 which he came was lower down the river, on an island 

 opposite the hamlet of Stanavialachta. We could not 

 think this was a made-up story, for the man could not have 

 heard of the reward we had offered for eggs accompanied 

 with the captured parent bird, as we were the first to speak 



