PREFACE. 



The following pages contain the narrative of a 

 trip, which I made in the year 1875, to the lower 

 valley of the Petchora, in North-East Russia, in 

 company with my friend J. A. Harvie-Brown^ Esq., 

 of Dunipace, a naturalist well known in ornitho- 

 logical circles for excellent field-work in various 

 parts of Scotland, in Archangel, and in Transylvania. 

 I have endeavoured to pourtray the character of the 

 people with whom we came in contact with as little 

 political or religious bias as possible, and to give as 

 vivid a picture as I was able of a country widely 

 different from our own, and possessing a climate of 

 an almost opposite character to that of England. 

 Little or nothing of importance has been added since 

 my return home. I have given the reader credit for 

 wishing to know something more of the birds we 

 met with than we learnt on our trip, and I have 

 endeavoured to give him an opportunity of satisfying 

 his curiosity by foot-notes, to which he may refer or 



