264 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi. 



it has ever been my ill-luck to travel in. There is no 

 support for the back, nothing to hold on by the sides ; only 

 three bare poles to sit on, and not height enough from the 

 ground to swing one's legs about in peace. On the way we 

 saw sand-martins, hooded crows, arctic terns, common gulls, 

 ringed plover, and Temminck's stints. We got young in 

 down of the ringed plover and arctic tern, and shot a long- 

 tailed duck with her brood of ducklings. At Kuya we saw 

 both the common and the tree sparrow. 



The morning had been intensely hot ; in the afternoon 

 the wind rose, veered round to the north, and the night was 

 stormy and cold. The next day the chill continued, and for 

 the time being the plague of mosquitoes was stayed. It was 

 a pleasant surprise, on reaching Alexievka, to find anchored 

 in the river an English schooner, the Triad, Captain Taylor. 

 She had come over from Iceland, where she had carried 

 coal, and was now chartered for larch to Cronstadt. We 

 at once planned to secure berths in her to carry us to 

 Copenhagen, which she intended sailing for in ten days. 

 She was likely to make Elsinore in a month. 



The cold weather continued the next day. We spent two 

 hours at Wassilkova, but saw little of interest. The red- 

 throated pipits were in the moult, and not worth shooting. 

 We brought home some of their young, also those of the 

 yellow-headed wagtail and dunlins, and a pintail duck and its 

 half-grown ducklings. The next day my companion secured 

 another specimen of our new pipit, which we had been 

 , looking for in the neighbourhood. The day was memorable 

 for having brought successfully to a conclusion our negotia- 



