TO RUSSIA AND BACK, 
With an Account of the Birds to be met with at the 
principal Markets, and a few 
Notes on the Museums and Zoological Gardens. 
— ny 
AT 6.15 p.m.,on the 11th of August, 1869, the “Ranger” 
left her moorings below London Bridge, and steamed 
rapidly down the Thames. It was a finer night than the 
weather had given any promise of, and I amused myself 
with standing on deck and watching the docks, and fields 
and houses, passing in a continually changing panorama, 
and a small flock of Gulls* lazily flapping over the water, 
until the waning twilight made it too dark to see. By 
day-break next morning we were at Gravesend, where the 
river is a considerable breadth, and plenty of shipping 
dotted about presented an animated scene. Here the river- 
pilot and the officer of customs wished us a prosperous 
voyage, and went ashore in the boat which brought the 
captain. 
. * In the autumn of 1871, I sent to the Zoological Gardens a Herring 
Gull which had strayed as far as Kentish*Town, by which time it had 
got exhausted, and afforded a fine Sunday’s amusement to sundry 
“loafers” who ran it down and captured it. This fellow hada fine 
appetite, and easily managed three herrings at a meal. 
B 
