SAMOYEDES 395 



formed a little delta at the mouth of the dried-up Dudinka), 

 a pair of thrushes were loudly proclaiming the vicinity 

 of their nest. I shot one, and found it to be the dusky 

 ouzel, whereupon I commenced a diligent search for the 

 nest. In half an hour I found it, in the fork of a willow, 

 level with the ground. It was exactly like the nest of a 

 fieldfare, lined with dry grass, and it contained, alas ! five 

 young birds about a week old. This was very dis- 

 appointing, as the eggs of this bird were unknown. 



On the lakes were several ducks and divers, but they 

 took care to keep out of gunshot. After three hours' 

 stay on land we returned to our ship. 



At noon the wind changed to south-east with rain. In 

 the course of the morning we passed the mouth of the 

 Chetta river, said to be the highway to the Ob. In the 

 early summer boats are towed up this river to a lake, 

 whence a short cut across the tundra with reindeer leads 

 to a stream down which the boats can float into the Taz. 



During the afternoon we passed four Samoyede 

 chooms. The inhabitants seemed well off; many 

 reindeer sledges were lying round the tents, and five boats 

 were on the shore. Half a dozen of the Samoyedes 

 came alongside of us, wishing to buy tobacco. In several 

 places we saw huge lumps of turf, some more than twenty 

 feet thick, lying on the edge of the tundra like rocks. They 

 must have been floated down in days long past, when the 

 floods rose much higher than they do now, or before the 

 bed of the river had been channelled to its present depth. 



In the evening the wind got well back into its old 

 quarter, and it soon blew so stiff a gale that we dared not 

 round the "broad nose " of Tolstanoss, and had to cast 

 anchor under the lee of the mud cliffs of the Yenesei 

 about midnight. 



The gale continued next day with rain until noon. 



