ACCOUNT OF SOME WILD SHRUBS. 
21 
unusually large; its outstretched wings, with the feet and head, 
comprehending an extent of 7 fathoms; and is so ravenous as to 
eat till it cannot move. The grey with white spots, are like 
ours in Europe, and resemble the goworuschka, except that 
they are rather smaller. The latter derive their name from sit¬ 
ting on the water and continually screaming. Mortyschka, the 
smallest kind, has short red feet, and a forked tail. The last de¬ 
scription are black, of a middle size, with two long feathers in 
their tails. They never catch fish themselves, but plunder them 
from others; from which circumstance they have received their 
appellation. 
CHAP III. 
———■■ - 
MR. BILLING’S ARRIVAL AT OCHOTSK.-MY FARTHER 
JOURNEY.-DANCE OF THE FOOT TUNGUSES.-ON THE 
INSTINCT OF THE FISH.-THE DOCTOR’S ASSISTANT 
LOSES HIS WAY.— DIFFICULTIES ON THE ROAD.-AR¬ 
RIVAL AT THE FORTRESS OF WERCHNE-KOLYMSK.—Jli- 
KAGIRCANS.-THEIR MODE OF LI VIN G.— UNEXPECTED 
FIRE. 
-M”r. Billing, our commander, arriving at Ochotsk, in 
July, with the remainder of the expedition, I was again dis¬ 
patched to the fortress of Werchne-Kolymsk, and being provided 
with some attendants and a hundred of the best horses just come 
from Irkutsk, I setoff on the 1st of August. 
Our road, for the hist 75 versts, to the village of Mundakan, 
was very good, with the exception of occasional floods, through 
which we w r ere obliged to wade. It afforded us every where 
fine prospects. The woods consisted principally of larch-trees, 
here and there intermixed with beeches and alders. The islands 
scattered along the rivers are covered with willows, poplars, 
and pines; the leaves of which latter trees afford a very delight¬ 
ful aromatic odour. The road itself is often lined with eglan¬ 
tine and shimolost, which yields sweet berries that are in great 
esteem here. The shimolost, or Lonicera xvlosteum> is a shrub, 
not exceeding a fathom in height, having a grey smooth bark 
and spiral leaves. Two white blossoms grow on each stem. 
The fruit is an orbicular, succulent, red berry, having four small 
Stones, and is the favourite diet of many birds. The w r ood is 
used for ram-rods, pipe-tubes, &c. The Tartarian shimolost 
is a finer species of this kind, which grows much higher, and 
has smoth leaves in the form of a heart; its double blossom is 
of a pale flesh colour, and its berries of a pale orange colour. 
It is a native of Siberia, and is literally a species of wild cherry. 
Bilberries and knaesheniza are likewise to be found in some 
