A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 189 



did not arrive until noon. His canoe was just big 

 enough to hold three people, two guns, and a kettle, 

 and it needed some care to stow away my camera, 

 but in the end I was glad that I had taken the 

 latter. 



We rowed past the house of Prokopchuk, and 

 round the point beyond which lay the open tundra. 

 Vassilli and I soon landed on the left bank, and 

 leaving Sylkin to pull the canoe against the stream, 

 which here ran swiftly, we tramped over the bog. 

 The marsh was still half submerged, and in the drier 

 parts it was overgrown with dwarf willows which had 

 not yet broken into bloom. These willows were full 

 of Temminck's stints, but the latter are very late 

 breeding birds, and we found only one nest, which 

 contained fresh eggs. Presently, Vassilli flushed a 

 male grey phalarope from a clutch of four eggs. Like 

 all the nests of these species found at Golchika, the 

 situation was so wet that the bird must literally have 

 been sitting in the water. Reeves were very common, 

 but we did not stop to hunt for their nests in the 

 coarse herbage, for I was anxious to press on to the 

 breeding-grounds of the geese. In the rough tussocky 

 grass, we flushed a Lapland bunting from five eggs, 

 and Vassilli shot a long-tailed duck. Dunlin were so 

 common that their husky 'pchurr was heard everywhere, 

 but the Siberian dunlin seems not to use that shrill, 

 trilling call that is so characteristic of the bird's British 

 nesting-grounds. We did not beat this bog very ex- 

 haustively, for it was within easy reach of Golchika, 

 and might therefore be worked another day. When 



