432 RETURN TO KUREIKA 



their various articles of dress. The outside coat with the 

 hood is called sd-kob'-y ; the under coat ma-khdl'-kd; the 

 trousers chdr-kee' ; the stockings chay-zhee' ; the boots 

 bok-dr-ee ; the cap cho-bdk. In very cold weather a pair 

 ofover-boots are worn, Q.^}\t.di chert-d-ko'-dee. The girdle 

 round the waist \spdy'-dss. The men wear a belt across 

 the shoulders for their powder, etc., and a highly-orna- 

 mented front or breast-cloth ; but the names of these he 

 could not remember. I afterwards ascertained that of 

 the above names those for the trousers, boots, and girdle 

 were Russian names, which the Dolgans appear to have 

 adopted. 



We cast anchor on the following evening at Nikan- 

 drina in lat. 70^°. I spent a few hours on shore, and was 

 well rewarded for my trouble. The island was about 

 twenty versts south of Brekoffsky, and very similar to it 

 in character. It was nearly dead flat, not many feet 

 above the level of the river, and (judging from the drift- 

 wood of various ages scattered on the surface) must be 

 entirely under water when the river is at its height in 

 June. The lowest flats are swamps covered with carices, 

 in which reeves and red-necked phalaropes are found. 

 At a few inches greater elevation stretch swamps covered 

 with willows about a foot high ; and here the yellow-headed 

 wagtail and the Siberian pipit breed. Of the latter I 

 secured eight specimens. Hitherto I had found this bird 

 very difficult to shoot, for the female was hidden in her 

 nest among the willows, whilst the male soared lark-like, 

 singing in the air out of gunshot. Now both parents 

 were feeding their young with mosquitoes. My attention 

 was attracted to them by hearing repeatedly the call 

 note of a pipit, so loud that I at first mistook it for that 

 of a thrush. I soon found out that it proceeded from a 

 comparatively short-tailed bird flying round me in the 



