16 CRASNOI LAIS. 



Along the edge of the ice, where the open water 

 began, lines of cormorants stood solemn and patient, 

 fringing the ice with a black border of upright 

 forms for miles. Beyond these in the open water 

 were myriads of crested duck (anas fuligula), 

 golden-eye pochards, scaups, and whistlers. Here 

 and there in bevies, with hoods extended, the great 

 grebes sailed about, while great northern divers and 

 rosy-breasted mergansers all added their quota to 

 the beauty of the scene. More beautiful than all 

 others, groups of smews, with their plumage of 

 delicately pencilled snow, ducked and curtsied on 

 the swelling wave, while overhead the pintail 

 whistled by, the large fish-hawks poised in air, and 

 the gulls laughed and chattered perpetually. 



For the last few weeks most of my time had 

 been spent among the wild-fowl or skating with 

 the fair ladies of Kertch on the rink by the jetty. 

 But one fine morning the lines of the Indo-Euro- 

 pean Telegraph Company between Taman and 

 Ekaterinodar were good enough to break down, and 

 my friend the chief of the Kertch station was 

 ordered to make an inspection of them along their 

 whole length from one point to another. It seemed 

 to him a long and wearisome journey to make by 

 himself, so that like a good man and considerate, 

 he asked me to share his sledge with him. Always 

 glad to give me a chance of enjoying myself in my 

 own way, my kind old chief readily agreed to the 



