210 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm. 



herring, and even these did not appear to be at all plentiful. 



Leaving the shore, our curiosity led us first to visit the 



eyries of the two pairs of peregrine falcons, at each of which 



we had shot one of the birds. We found that the male 



of the first had paired with the female of the second; a 



fresh lining of feathers had been put into the latter's nest, 



and doubtless there would soon be eggs. The dotterels still 



haunted the hillsides. We shot some near each of the 



deserted houses two by one, three by the other. Doubtless 



the right thing to have done would have been to lie down 



and watch the birds on to their nests and to have taken the 



eggs. But, in the first place, a dotterel is very difficult to see 



through a mosquito-veil ; the next, to lie down and become 



the nucleus of a vast nebula of mosquitoes is so tormenting 



to the nerves, that we soon chose to adopt the consolatory 



conclusion that the grapes were sour and not worth the 



trouble of reaching after ; or, in plain words, that the birds 



had not begun to breed, and it w^as no use martyrising 



ourselves to find their eggs. The mosquitoes were simply 



a plague. Our hats were covered with them ; they swarmed 



upon our veils; they lined with a fringe the branches 



of the dwarf birches and willows ; they covered the tundra 



with a mist. I was fortunate in the arrangement of 



my veil, and by dint of indiarubber boots and cavalry 



gauntlets, I escaped many wounds ; but my companion was 



not so lucky. His net was perpetually transformed into a 



little mosquito-cage; his leggings and knickerbockers were 



by no means mosquito-proof; he had twisted a handkerchief 



round each hand, but this proved utterly insufficient pro- 



