THE BREAK-UP AT LAST 325 



wind and hard frost in the shade. The river rose three 

 or four inches during the day, but it froze as fast as it 

 rose. Several flocks of geese passed over, evidently 

 yesterday's rash birds who had turned back and were 

 now all going south. Half a dozen snow-buntings put 

 in an appearance, and the hen-harrier was twice seen. 



The last day of May was warm, with a gentle breeze 

 from the north-west. I had a very long round in the 

 forest, and saw a few Lapp-tits and a nuthatch. During 

 the day many swans and geese flew over, all going north- 

 wards again. I saw a hen-harrier and a sparrow-hawk, 

 but no snow-buntings. I shot a hazel-grouse, and saw a 

 couple of Siberian herring-gulls steadily migrating down 

 the Yenesei. 



On the ist of June a revolution took place in the ice. 

 There had been scarcely any frost during the night. 

 The wind was south, not very warm, but the sun was 

 unusually hot. As we turned out of the cabin after 

 breakfast we were just in time to see a small range of 

 mountains suddenly form at the lower angle of juncture 

 between the Kureika and the Yenesei. The river had 

 risen considerably during the night, and the newly- 

 formed strip of thin ice on each side of the centre ice 

 was broader than it had ever been. The pressure of the 

 current underneath caused a large field of ice, about a 

 mile long, and a third of a mile wide, to break away. 

 About half the mass found a passage down the strip of 

 newly-formed thin ice, leaving open water behind it ; the 

 other half rushed headlong on to the steep banks of the 

 river, and, driven on irresistibly by the enormous pres- 

 sure from behind, it piled itself up into a little range 

 of mountains, fifty or sixty feet high, and picturesque 

 in the extreme. Huge blocks of ice, six feet thick and 

 twenty feet long, in many places stood up perpendicularly. 



