198 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. xvii. 



now reset the trap, this time laying it over the eggs, and 

 carefully concealing it with the down. His hope was that 

 the bird would remove the down with her beak and be snared 

 by the neck. On the morrow he came back to us, however, 

 with the four eggs and no swan ; she had never returned, 

 having apparently forsaken her nest, as we had feared she 

 would. Simeon brought with him four ducks' nests, but the 

 down was all mixed and the find was therefore valueless. 

 These are some of the disappointments caused by the clumsy 

 mismanagement of untrained men. A cold east wind that 

 blew all day, prevented us doing much ; we went out for an 

 hour only, and shot a few yellow-headed wagtails, and a 

 phalarope. We had plenty to interest us however, in read- 

 ing the letters and papers that had reached us from England. 

 The steamer had arrived from Ust-Zvlma the day before, 

 bringing us tidings of home from April 4th to May 13th, 

 inclusive. The post had reached Ust-Zylma on the 26th; 

 the last letters had therefore been five weeks en route, and 

 so far as we know they had not been delayed in Archangel. 

 From Ust-Zylma to Alexievka they would have taken more 

 than another week to travel, had it not been for the steamer. 

 On the 13th of May the Consul at Archangel wrote that 

 the ice on the Dvina was expected to break up in seven 

 days. A letter dated the 26th described the Dvina as quite 

 free from ice for some days past, showing that it and the 

 Petchora broke up within a day or two of each other. 



The cold north-east wind that continued blowing kept us 

 near home, but as it also kept the mosquitoes at bay we did 

 not complain very bitterly of it. In the face of the cutting 



