214 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP, xviir. 



Feodor, our boatman, returned, bearing with him the longed- 

 for trophy — the swan's skin. He told us he had gone to 

 Mekitza, only to learn there that the peasant whom he 

 sought had departed to another island to fish. Going to his 

 house he found, however, that the man had left the skin with 

 his wife, and she, good soul, had cut off the beak and given 

 it to her children for a plaything. Feodor paid her a rouble 

 for the skin, with the feet still attached to it, and got the 

 beak into the bargain. There was no other swan's skin in 

 the house, nor, as far as we could ascertain, was there another 

 in the village ; this one was still soft and greasy, showing 

 the bird had been but recently killed. This, undoubtedly, 

 was the skin of a Bewick's swan ;* the beak also was equally 

 indisputable. The eggs in our possession were exactly the 

 size one would expect a swaij so much smaller than the wild 

 swan would lay. We had every reason to believe and none 

 to doubt that this was, indeed, the skin of the bird caught 

 upon the nest containing the two eggs we had purchased. 

 The chain of evidence connecting them was in all reason 

 complete, and the identification of the eggs satisfactory. 

 Let us recapitulate and go over the links of the narrative, 

 the more fully to establish the conclusion we had arrived at. 

 Two peasants are fishing together at Pyon'ni, an island near 

 the mouth of the delta of the great river, twelve versts north 



' Bewick's swan (^Cygnus minor, 

 Pall.) is occasionally fouad in winter 

 in the British Islands. It breeds on 

 the tundras above the limit of forest 

 growth from the valley of the Petchora 



eastwards probably to the Paci6c. In 

 winter it is found in various parts of 

 Europe and Asia as far south as China. 

 In the valley of the Petchora we found' 

 it as far north as we went. 



