T 93-] Allen, Mammals from Northeast Siberia. 117 



Bogoras, Mr. Axelrod, and Mr. Sokolnikoff could join him there ; 

 consequently I gave orders to my Cossacks to prepare to leave 

 on the 23d. At one o'clock that day, after bidding good-bye 

 to Mrs. Bogoras, Mr. Sokolnikoff, and his secretary, Mr. 

 Dedenko, Dr. Calleenen, Mr. Axelrod, and the host of kind 

 people who had gathered to see me depart, I was lifted into 

 my pavoska by my faithful Cossacks, who released their 

 frantic dogs and we went dashing out of the village in a cloud 

 of snow which glittered like diamond dust in the bright sun- 

 light. Our return journey was uneventful except for being 

 lost in a blizzard one day between Mickina and Quail, when 

 our sledges became separated and again met, each going in 

 opposite directions, after several hours' wandering. The dis- 

 tance from Quail to Christova we accomplished in thirty-six 

 hours of continuous travelling, where we arrived April i , and 

 on the following day we reached Kooska. 



The tide- water broke through the ice on the river April 2 1 , 

 but it was not until May 26 that the ice moved out of the 

 river. The snow began to disappear from the tundra about 

 the middle of May, but was not entirely gone before the first 

 week in June. Where it was heavily drifted, in ravines and 

 along the coast, some remained all summer. In the middle 

 of May I went with sledges to the rocky islets lying along the 

 Taiganose Peninsula, travelling over the ice across the head 

 of the Gichiginski River. Later in the season I again visited 

 these places several times, and also made one trip down the 

 mainland coast as far as Varkhalam Bay. 



The first birds arrived about the 2oth of April, but no 

 species became common before the end of the first week in 

 May, and the height of the migration was not reached until 

 the last week of May. None of the sea-birds, except the gulls, 

 come up the bay further than Chaibuga Point, some six or 

 seven miles south of my station, and all the other birds stop 

 but a few days at the mouth of the river before continuing 

 their journey inland, where they breed. 



The long, vigorous winter suddenly jumps into the short 

 arctic summer, and the grass and flowers spring up before the 

 land is entirely free from snow. The vegetation is abundant, 



