32 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



town to buy stamps ; and the magnitude of our purchase 

 fairly staggered the postmaster, who had probably 

 never before sold letter stamps by the dozen. After- 

 wards we tried to buy biscuits, but it was after midnight, 

 and the houses were all shut up. However, at last we 

 found a little shop, whose owner was not only awake, 

 but could also talk German. He seemed to take great 

 interest in us, and asked us to drink a glass of tea with 

 him, but we had to decline with thanks, for the steamer 

 was about to start. A great deal of this was kindly 

 Siberian hospitality, but there was besides a certain 

 amount of curiosity. Our party was a matter for 

 wonderment all along the river. The most popular 

 explanation of our presence on the Yenesei was that we 

 were Suffragettes who had been exiled there by the 

 British Government ! But if that had really been the 

 case, it would have been doubly kind of the Monastir 

 shopkeeper to ask us to tea. 



We went to bed at 2 a.m., and awoke next morning 

 to find that the Oryol was anchored at Old Turukhansk, 

 .about thirty versts farther on. It was a fine bright 

 morning, and I lost no time in going ashore. Turuk- 

 hansk stands on some rising ground in the middle of 

 water meadows. Behind it lie miles and miles of broken 

 country, of pasture, marsh, and forest, all swarming with 

 bird life. I saw the little bunting here for the first 

 time. This was one of the nests that I was most anxious 

 to photograph while on the Yenesei, and I spent a con- 

 siderable time in searching for one ; but the birds were 

 still coquetting in pairs along the woodside, and did not 

 seem to have begun to breed yet. Seebohm took his 



