438 RETURN TO KUREIKA 



fevers of various kinds. Consumption and scurvy, so 

 common among the Russians, are almost unknown to 

 them. No doubt their fondness for raw flesh, coupled 

 with their active open-air life, prevents the latter malady. 

 Since their increased intercourse with the Russians, 

 both syphilis and smallpox have unfortunately appeared 

 among them with dire effect. 



About fifty versts before we reached Dudinka, we 

 noticed several red-breasted geese with their young 

 broods on the banks of the river, but I could not per- 

 suade the captain to stop to give me the chance of a 

 shot. Occasionally we saw a pair of peregrines and a 

 small bird of prey, which I took to be the rough-legged 

 buzzard. 



I went on shore on Sunday at Vershinsky, walking 

 three versts on the banks of the river to the place where 

 the steamer stopped to take in wood ' for the engine 

 fires. I crossed a succession of little valleys full of alder 

 and willow-trees, and frequently having a pretty little 

 tarn in their hollow. The high land was tundra, with 

 abundance of reindeer moss, and thinly scattered over it 

 were stunted and weather-beaten larches. Vershinsky is 

 the most northerly point (lat. 69°) at which I met Pallas's 

 house-martin. I shot a young Little bunting and white 

 and yellow-headed wagtails. The Little bunting was 

 unusually common. I saw both the Arctic and common 

 willow -warblers, and also several pairs of European 

 golden plover. The latter were very anxious to entice 

 me away from their young. Occasionally they uttered 

 their plaintive cry from the ground, but oftener from the 

 topmost branch of a larch-tree. I shot one, perched at 

 least fourteen feet aloft. Another bird which frequented 

 the tops of the larch-trees was the wood-sandpiper. I 

 shot a pair of redwings and some young fieldfares; 



