3o8 WAITING FOR SPRING 



the Kureika in the afternoon. We were about three 

 hours in the forest. My bag was one hazel-grouse, four 

 pine grosbeaks, three Lapp-tits and one mealy redpoll. 

 The latter was the first of this species which I had shot 

 since leaving Yeneseisk. In the evening the man whom 

 I had commissioned to shoot crows for me came from his 

 village without any. I asked him why he had neglected 

 my orders. He told me that it was unlucky to shoot a 

 crow, that a gun which had once shot a crow would never 

 shoot any other bird afterwards ; and he assured me that 

 he had once shot a crow, and had been obliged to throw 

 his gun away. So much for the intelligence of the Russian 

 peasant ! 



The next morning I walked across the Yenesei to the 

 village where the crows were, but I could not get a shot 

 at them, they were so wary. I found the peasant had 

 shot me a couple of striped squirrels * and a brace of 

 black-grouse, but no crows. I had a round in the forest, 

 but came home with an empty bag. The wind was as 

 cold as ever, but when I got back to the ship I heard 

 that a swan had been seen flying over it, so we began to 

 look forward a little more hopefully to the possibilities of 

 approaching spring. 



One of the peculiarities of this part of the country is 

 that it is a land of dear glass. You rarely see a window 

 with square panes. In the houses of some of the poorer 

 peasants it is not an uncommon thing to find one entirely 

 composed of broken pieces of glass of all sizes and 

 shapes, fitted together like a puzzle, and carefully sewn 

 into a framework of birch bark which has been elaborately 



* The striped squirrel (Tamias asiaticus) is common to both continents. In 

 America it is called the chipmunk. A very near ally (Tamias lysteri) is also found 

 on the latter continent, but this species has a somewhat more southerly range, 

 being found as far south as Mexico. The former species is arctic or subarctic in 

 its range, and has never been found so far south as the British Islands. 



