A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 155 



from foxes." Prokopchuk, who took some interest in 

 birds, recognised this as a habit of the white-fronted 

 geese that bred near Golchika. He compared them to 

 the wild reindeer, who, in the summer-time, will bring 

 forth their young safely by the lairs of the wolves who 

 may hunt them to death later on. Possibly it was the 

 same wish for protection that led the bar- tailed godwits 

 mentioned by Mr. Popham ^ to nest in the breeding- 

 ground of a pair of BufFon's skuas. 



It is impossible both to eat your cake and have it 

 at the same time, and the cold season that brought the 

 curlew-sandpiper and the grey phalarope to the southern 

 limits of their range, cut down the supply of lemmings, 

 and, with the lemmings, the numbers of the birds of 

 prey. Falcons and buzzards were scarce, and I saw the 

 snowy owl only three times altogether. Skuas, both 

 long-tailed and arctic, were seldom seen, but early in 

 July I picked up two or three of the former species dead 

 in the tundra. Probably they had been poisoned by 

 the baits laid down for foxes. 



The failure of the lemmings probably affected the 

 numbers of foxes, and this directly touched the people 

 of Golchika, for much of their income is derived from 

 furs. From what I could learn, there were three kinds 

 of fox traps in use at Golchika. The first was a large 

 wooden contrivance on the dead-fall principle, by which 

 the victim was crushed by the fall of a baulk of timber. 

 The second, used by the Siberiaks, was an iron gin, like 

 an English rat trap, but with fangless jaws. The third, 

 I never saw at work, but a model was made by Sylkin's 



1 Ibis, 1897, vol. iii. 



