AUTUMNAL TINTS 467 



August 29th, at ten o'clock, travelling two only out of 

 the four nights. The weather was fine, broken by but 

 one thunder-shower ; in the afternoon, however, we 

 found it very hot, with the sun striking in our faces. The 

 roads were generally good, but dusty, and it was only 

 now and then that we came upon a short stretch of 

 corduroy road, which is certainly one of the most diabolical; 

 inventions for breaking the backs of poor travellers that 

 can be conceived. The scenery was very fine. We 

 seemed to be constantly passing through an English 

 nobleman's park ; the autumnal tints of the trees were 

 wonderful, the same that J have seen in the fall in the 

 American forests. The range of colours was exactly 

 that of the finest Newtown pippin, varying from the 

 richest, chrome yellow to the deepest madder red. Some 

 of the villages we passed were very large ; occasionally 

 we went through a Tatar village, where the crescent 

 occupied the place of the cross on the church spire. We 

 frequently came upon gipsies who had pitched their 

 wigwams outside the gates. Now and then we met a 

 Buriat, a Transbaikal Mongolian. Birds were very 

 numerous. The carrion crow was common for perhaps 

 the first two hundred versts ; during the next one hundred 

 and fifty versts it was still found, but the hooded crow 

 and the hybrid between the two abounded ; and for the 

 last two hundred versts the hoodie only was found. The 

 migration of hoodies appears to have passed across 

 country to Yeneseisk, leaving Krasnoyarsk to the south- 

 east. A Pole whom I met at one of the villages, a zealous 

 jager and therefore an observer of birds, told me that the 

 hooded crow had been there as long as he had that 

 is, thirteen years. The green wagtail was common, but 

 the white wagtail appeared to me to be the Indian or 

 European white wagtail, and not the masked wagtail. 



