378 THE LOSS OF THE "THAMES" 



morning the ship would, no doubt, be high and dry on a 

 daily enlarging sandbank, and we should have to dis- 

 mantle her, sell her as a wreck in Dudinka, and go down 

 the river in the Ibis. To our great surprise and delight, 

 however, our last manoeuvre succeeded. The anchor 

 held sufficiently to draw us off; we steamed into deep 

 water, and at one o'clock cast anchor in safety. From the 

 Ostiaks we bought a sturgeon a yard long for half-a-crown, 

 and some sterlet half that length for a penny a piece. 



The following morning, whilst the Captain was taking 

 in fresh ballast, I went on shore and had a few hours' 

 shooting and birds'-nesting. The mosquitoes were 

 swarming in clouds ; there were so many between the 

 eye and the sight of the gun that it was almost impossible 

 to see a small bird. I came upon an encampment con- 

 sisting of three Ostiak chooms, and about fifty reindeer. 

 The shore was very muddy, and between the river and 

 the forest was a long, gently-sloping bank, sprinkled 

 over with willows. In these trees wisps of dry grass 

 were hanging, caught between the forks of the branches, 

 and left there after the high water had subsided. In one 

 of these, about two feet from the ground, a bird had 

 built its nest, or rather it had appropriated one of these 

 wisps for its nest. There was scarcely any attempt at 

 interlacing stalks. It was undoubtedly the most slovenly 

 and the most loosely-constructed nest I remember to 

 have seen. It was not much more than a hole, about 

 two and a half inches in diameter, with one side a little 

 higher than the other, the entrance somewhat smaller 

 than the diameter of the interior, which was globular in 

 form, and carefully lined with capercailzie and willow- 

 grouse feathers. The tree in which it was built was 

 about fifty yards from the small encampment, and the 

 feathers of both these birds would naturally be found 



