440 RETURN TO KUREIKA 



fallen away some distance since we had abandoned the 

 vessel, but the sand in which she lay had a considerable 

 slope ; still it seemed the general opinion that she might 

 yet be got off before the season was over. In a few days 

 the captain was expected down with the Zessedatel to 

 hold an inquest on the ill-fated vessel, the result of which 

 could not be foretold, except that one might be perfectly 

 sure that a certain imaginary friend in Omsk would be 

 considerably enriched thereby. It was grievous to see 

 so fine a craft thrown away. The captain had no doubt 

 done his best by her; but he was a man lacking 

 administrative skill, whose actions always seemed guided 

 by the impulse of the moment. Nevertheless, his crew, 

 who half hated and half despised him, were obliged to 

 confess that he was every inch a sailor. 



The first real summer day we had had for a long 

 time was August ist. We steamed up the river under a 

 cloudless sky, and with scarcely a breath of wind. We 

 passed a large colony of sand-martins about noon. In 

 the evening I landed for half an hour on an island. The 

 shore was bare sand, covered higher up with a dense 

 growth of Equisetums which soon ended in impenetrable 

 willow-thickets. The island was some miles long. Boiling 

 said he remembered it fifteen years ago without a tree or 

 a green leaf upon it, nothing but bare sand. Birds were 

 not abundant. I saw yellow-headed and white wagtails, 

 old and young, and heard the cries of ducks and divers 

 and terek-sandpipers beyond the willows. Temminck's 

 stints were common. The absence of grass prevented 

 other birds frequenting the island. 



The following day we cast anchor at the village of 

 Kureika, at four in the morning, to take in wood, and I 

 availed myself of the opportunity to go on shore and 

 have an hour's shooting on our old hunting-grounds, and 



