NATURALISTS' VOYAGES 5 



Harvie- Brown had been collecting information about 

 the river Petchora for some time, and it was finally 

 arranged that we should spend the summer of 1875 there 

 together. We were under the impression that, ornitho- 

 logically speaking, it was virgin ground, but in this we 

 afterwards discovered that we were mistaken. So far as 

 we were able to ascertain, no Englishman had travelled 

 from Archangel to the Petchora for 250 years. In that 

 curious old book called " Purchas his Pilgrimes," published 

 in 1625, may be found the narratives of divers merchants 

 and mariners who visited this river between the years 

 1 6 1 1 and 1 6 1 5 for the purpose of establishing a trade there 

 in furs and skins, especially beaver, for which Ust-Zylma 

 on the Petchora was at that time celebrated. 



In 1837 Alexander Gustav Schrenck visited the 

 Petchora under the auspices of the Imperial Botanical 

 Gardens at St. Petersburg, and published voluminous 

 information respecting the botany and the ethnology of 

 this district. 



In 1842 Castren was sent out by the Swedish Govern- 

 ment and collected much valuable information about the 

 Samoyedes and the other races of North-East Russia. 

 The following year, Paul von Krusenstern and Alexander 

 Graf Keyserling visited the Petchora, and published an 

 important work upon the geology and physical geography 

 of the country, but none of these travellers seem to have 

 written anything upon the subject of birds beyond a 

 mere passing mention of ducks and geese. In St. Peters- 

 burg we learnt that Dr. Pelzam, from the Museum at 

 Kazan, visited the Petchora in 1874, but he spent most 

 of his time in dredging and paid little attention to birds. 

 In Archangel we made a more important discovery. We 

 there met the man who had been guide to Henke and 

 Hoffmansegg about 1853. From him we learnt that 



