CHAPTER XXX. 



WAITING FOR SPRING. 



Scarcity of Birds — Arrival of Ostiaks — Snow-spectacles — Ostiak Dress- - 

 Poverty of the Ostiaks — Schwanenberg goes in search of Graphite — Osiiak 

 Ideas concerning the Covering of the Hair — Hazel-grouse — Difference of 

 Tungusk and Ostiak Hair-dressing — The Weather — Superstition about 

 shooting Crows — A Token of coming Spring — Scarcity of Glass — Double 

 Windows — Geographical Distribution of the Samoyedes — Of the Yuraks 

 —Of the Ostiaks— Of the Dolgans— Of the Yakuts— Of the Tungusks. 



On the ist of May a long round in the forest, with a 

 cool wind and a burning hot sun, did not result in much 

 more than so many hours' practice on snowshoes. In 

 one clump of spruce-fir I got a couple of pine grosbeaks 

 and a pair of Lapp-tits. In another I shot a three-toed 

 woodpecker and a nuthatch, letting the tits go by. I 

 picked up an odd tit afterwards, saw another pine gros- 

 beak and a few black-game, which complete the list of 

 all the birds I saw in six hours. Every excursion I made 

 impressed upon me two facts — the scarcity of birds and 

 the g-resfariousness of the few there were. 



