128 OUR VOYAGE TO THE DELTA 



and the first church that we had seen since leaving Ust- 

 Zylma. It is reputed to be the residence of several rich 

 peasants, one of whom is the owner of 10,000 reindeer 

 valued at a sovereign each. Without exception it is the 

 dirtiest place I have ever been in. The peasants keep 

 cows, but as they have no arable ground the manure is 

 valueless and is thrown outside the house to be trodden 

 under foot. There was an excellent shop in the place, 

 where we laid in a store of tobacco, white flour, etc. In 

 the village we saw a sand-martin and a magpie, but no 

 sparrows. 



On leaving Viski we entered upon the true delta, a 

 labyrinth of water and islands, one almost as dead a flat 

 as the other. The islands — which but a little while ago 

 had lain three or four feet deep under the overflow of the 

 great river — were almost all alike. They were monotonous 

 willow-swamps, with here and there narrow strips of sandy 

 land appearing, thickly covered with grass and sparingly 

 sprinkled with willows and alders. Everywhere were 

 the winding kurias and chains of lakelets. On the dry 

 places ducks of various sorts were breeding. We identi- 

 fied a shoveller, and there were wigeons, scoters, and 

 teal. On one island we found two pintails' nests with 

 eggs, and I shot our first tufted duck, a species which we 

 found very rare in the Petchora. As soon as I fired there 

 rose between me and it a flock of red-necked phalaropes, 

 which alighted between me and the floating body. I 

 shot five : they were the first we had yet secured, but 

 later in the day we brought down four more. My com- 

 panion meanwhile was exploring another island, where he 

 fell in with a flock of ruffs at their " leaking " place. He 

 shot two. Geese were becoming more and more plen- 

 tiful ; in one instance we marked aflock of fifty at least. 

 Swans often passed us by twos and threes. The sand- 



