5G8 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
of the tents. Sweepings and offal from the proceeds of the 
ehase had there produced a vegetation, which, though concealed 
by snow, yielded to the hares in winter a more abundant supply 
of food than the barren tundra. It was remarkable that the 
hares were allowed to live between the tents and in their neigh¬ 
bourhood without being disturbed by the score of lean and 
hungry dogs belonging to the village. When farther into the 
winter for the sake of facilitating the hare-hunting I had a hut 
erected for Johnson the hunter, he chose as the place for it 
the immediate neighbourhood of the village, declaring that the 
richest hunting-ground in the whole neighbourhood was just 
there. The shooters stated that part of the hares became 
snow-blind in spring. The hares here are larger than with us, 
and have exceedingly delicious flesh. 
On our ^arrival most of the birds had already left these 
regions, so inhospitable in winter, or were seen high up in the 
air in collected flocks, flying towards the south entrance of 
Behring’s Straits. Still on the 19th October an endless pro¬ 
cession of birds was seen drawing towards this region, but by 
the 3rd November it was noted, as something uncommon, that 
a gull settled on the refuse heaps in the neighbourhood of the 
vessel. It resembled the ivory gull, but had a black head. 
Perhaps it was the rare Larus Sabinii, of which a drawing has 
been given above.^ All the birds which passed us came from 
the north-west, that is, from the north coast of Siberia, the 
New Siberian Islands or Wrangel Land. Only the mountain 
owl, a species of raven and the ptarmigan wintered in the 
region, the last named being occasionally snowed up. 
The ptarmigan here is not indeed so plump and good as the 
Spitzbergen ptarmigan during winter, but in any case provided 
us with an always welcome, if scanty change from the tiresome 
preserved meat. When some ptarmigan were shot, they were 
therefore willingly saved up by the cook, along with the hares, 
^ Sae p. 119. 
