446 BY STEAMER TO YENESEISK 



glimpses of thrushes excited my hopes as the wary birds 

 frequented the thick underwood. I was specially on the 

 t gui vive for rare thrushes. I had shown my friend the 

 priest the skin of the Siberian ground-thrush, the solitary 

 example of which rare bird I had obtained at Kureika, 

 and he had immediately recognised it as the chorna 

 .drohst, and told me that it was more abundant in the 

 district round Turukansk than anywhere else. I searched 

 far and wide in the forest, but in vain. I was not 

 fortunate enough to obtain a second example. A good 

 specimen of the dark ouzel in its first spotted plumage 

 was, however, some compensation for my trouble. In 

 my efforts to explore the country I nearly lost myself a 

 second time. I had been wandering" for some hours in 



o 



the forest when my appetite warned me that it was time 

 to return home. I took out my compass and steered 

 west, but the further I went the more impassable the 

 forest became. I found myself in a swamp so deep that 

 I could only make slow and uncertain progress by 

 struggling from one fallen tree-trunk to another, and 

 finally I stuck fast altogether, and had to turn back. 

 The question to decide was, should I try to round the 

 swamp to the north or to the south ? I had not the least 

 idea which way I had come, but fortunately I had a good 

 map in my pocket and succeeded in striking the Yenesei 

 without making any very serious detour. 



When the steamer came back from Turukansk we 

 heard that it had had sundry misadventures on the way. 

 Once or twice it had run aground on a sandbank, and 

 had got off with difficulty. To provide against these 

 accidents twenty or thirty long poles are kept on board, 

 and it is very amusing to see them in action. The 

 moment the ship grounds all is noise and confusion. 

 The captain shouts to the two men who, one on each 



