no SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. x. 



shooting the male. We also shot a pair of marsh tits. 

 Between this bird's habits and its note and those of our 

 English bird I could distinguish no difference. 



When I returned, on the morning of the 20th after a five 

 hours' solitary ramble in the woods, I found the sportsmen 

 still fast asleep. My entrance roused them, and we soon 

 proceeded to make " tchai." We were sitting down to our 

 pipes after our late breakfast, when we were startled by the 

 appearance of M. Znaminski, who had just gone out, and 

 who now came hurrying back in a state of great excitement, 

 beckoning to us to come. 



We seized our guns, expecting to see some great and rare 

 bird ; we rushed to the door, and there we paused and stood 

 still, gazing before us in mute astonishment. Our road was 

 in movement, and was going to Ust-Zylma at the rate of 

 two or three miles an hour. There was no doubt about it, 

 the Zylma was breaking up. The scene was wild and pic- 

 turesque. In a few hours it was very impressive. The rush 

 of ice had broken into the Petchora at the mouth of the 

 Zylma. Here and there piles of it lay upon the banks. 

 Finally it had blocked, and gradually the Zylma became a 

 confused mass of jammed ice ; tree trunks or an occasional 

 ice-floe, thicker than the rest, formed where the water had 

 been stiller and deeper, rising above the level. While the 

 ice moved the sound was like that of a waterfall: as it 

 cracked on the Petchora, the noise was as that of rumbling 

 thunder. The water was rapidly rising, and our predicament 

 was serious. It was obvious that no horses could reach us. 

 T'he Eussians, who at first did not realise the situation, soon 



