viii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER V 



PAQB 



People of Golchika — Protyvik — AntonofF and his household — The 

 Prokopchuk family — Sylkin the Sainoyede — His sayings — His 

 religion — The natives at Golchika — Their manners and 

 customs — The need for medical missions — The colonisation 

 and future of Siberia . . . . . .90 



CHAPTER VI 



The birds of Golchika — Seebohm — Popham — The effect of the season 

 — The curlew-sandpiper — The grey phalarope — The red- 

 necked phalarope — The little stint — The Temminck's stint . 119 



CHAPTER VII 



The Eastern golden plover — The bar-tailed godwit — The distribution 

 of birds at Golchika — The dotterel — Some other birds — The 

 Siberian herring-gull — The long-tailed duck — The king-eider 

 — The wild swan — The black-throated diver — The red- 

 throated diver — The white-fronted goose — The red-breasted 

 goose — The migration of geese — Scarcity of birds of prey — 

 The Ijlue fox — Some smaller birds — The Lapland bunting — 

 The red-throated pipit — The autumn migration — Young blue- 

 throats . . . . . . . .142 



CHAPTER VIII 



First days at Golchika — The coming of the steamers — Our hut — The 

 commissariat — A home-made sundial — The Lena — A dis- 

 turbance in the Prokopchuk family — " The Alcohol King " — 

 Mosquitoes — Native fishermen — The people of the balagan — 

 An unwilling ferryman — The spell of Golchika . .163 



CHAPTER IX 



Bird's-nesting on the Golchika — A morning call— Grey phalarope — 

 Dunlin — A Dolgan — Red-throated divers — Pintail duck — 

 Richardson's skua— Peregrine falcon — Sylkin's perplexity— 

 Willow-grouse — Vino — A fish hunt — White-fronted geese — 

 Grey plovers — A narrow escape — A bird pirate— Plovers' eggs 188 



