466 FROM YENESEISK TO TOMSK 



nomad Tatars, who collected them in the steppes whilst 

 feeding their flocks ; and Erman mentions that they " are 

 found in graves which, as the present Tatar inhabitants 

 of the circle maintain, belong to a race now extinct and 

 totally different from theirs." 



Doctor Peacock presented me with a complete suit of 

 Tungusk summer clothes, a quiver full of arrows, and the 

 pipe and belt which he had got from a Tungusk at the 

 gold mines. In one of these districts Dr. Peacock was for 

 some years a physician, and he told me that on his arrival, 

 out of a population of five thousand men under his charge, 

 he had found no less than eighteen hundred suffering from 

 scurvy. He soon discovered that they were in the habit 

 of bleeding themselves twice a year, in spring and in 

 autumn. To this he put an end, and the following year 

 the number of patients afflicted with scurvy was re- 

 duced to eight hundred, and the year following to two 

 hundred. 



Kibort, the Pole, who had promised to get me skins 

 and eggs of birds, I found had done nothing, so after 

 blowing him up sky high, I left loo roubles with Dorset, 

 the Krasnoyarsk "vet," who vowed to look after the 

 delinquent ; and in consequence I have received many 

 interesting parcels of birds from this district. 



During our stay at Krasnoyarsk the weather was very 

 unsettled ; one day we had to put up with showers of 

 rain, and another with clouds of dust. The country in the 

 neighbourhood looked charming — mountain, river, rock, 

 and forest alternating with grassy plains and naked hills. 

 Birds abounded. The white wagtail which we saw was 

 the masked wagtail. Jackdaws were common, together 

 with plenty of carrion crows, but there were no hoodies. 



We left Krasnoyarsk on Saturday evening at eight 

 o'clock, and reached Tomsk on Wednesday morning, 



