26 SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA 



was so full of his own grievances, and so utterly without 

 interest in Russia and everything Russian, that we soon 

 gave it up in despair. Poland is evidently the Ireland of 

 Russia. Both the Irish and the Poles seem crazy on the 

 subject of home-rule, and in many other points show a 

 similarity of temperament. They are both hot-blooded 

 races, endowed with a wonderful sense of humour, and 

 an intolerable tolerance of dirt, disorder, and bad 

 management generally. 



At Mezen we were much interested in watching a 

 large flock of snow-buntings. Their favourite resort was 

 the steep bank of the river, where they found abundance 

 of food in the manure which was thrown away. In a 

 country where there is plenty of grass in summer and 

 very little corn is cultivated and where the cattle have to 

 be stall-fed for seven or eight months out of the twelve, 

 manure apparently is of little value, and hundreds of cart- 

 loads are annually deposited on the steep banks of the 

 river, where it is washed away by the floods caused by 

 the sudden melting of the snow in May. The snow- 

 buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in the 

 ice on the river, where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained 

 their supply of water. In both places the boys of the 

 village had set white horsehair snares, and seemed to be 

 very successful in their sport. At this time of the year 

 these birds are fat and are excellent eating. We were 

 told that in a fortnight they would be here in much 

 greater numbers, and would be sold for a rouble the 

 hundred, or even less. None of the birds we got were 

 in full summer plumage, yet they looked extremely 

 handsome as they ran along the snow like a wagtail or a 

 dotterel, or fluttered from place to place with a butterfly- 

 like kind of flight. We occasionally saw them hop, but 

 they generally preferred to run. The most interesting 



