174 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 
against stream^ and laid his vessel up in winter-quarters just 
within the entrance of the Koo-ray'-i-ka river^ on the arctic 
circle^ where she was frozen up the next morning. When the 
ice on the river had frozen sufficiently hard to make sledging 
safe^ Capt. Wiggins left his ship in charge of the crew_, and 
returned to England by the overland route. 
I did not meet Capt. Wiggins until the 24th of February ; 
but finding that he was intending to return to his ship almost 
immediatelyI came to the conclusion that an opportunity 
of visiting the Yen-e-say' in company with a gentleman who 
knew the way so well might never occur again^ and I hastily 
made up my mind to return with the captain to his ship_, and 
take my chance of coming home in her by the Kara Sea. I 
am much indebted to Count SchouvaloflP for kindly providing 
me^ almost at a moment^s notice, with letters of introduction, 
which proved of the greatest service to me. 
We left London on the evening of the 1st of March, and, 
after spending a few days in St. Petersburg, reached Nishni 
Novgorod on the morning of the 10th, a distance of about 
2400 English miles. At Nishni we bought a sledge, and 
travelled over the snow 3240 English miles, employing for 
this purpose about a thousand horses, sixteen dogs, and forty 
reindeer. We left Nishni on the evening of the 10th of 
March, and travelled day and night in a generally easterly di¬ 
rection, stopping a couple of days at Tyn-maiu', and a day at 
Omsk, and reached Kras-no-yarsk' on the morning of the 
2nd of April, soon after crossing the meridian of Calcutta. 
We rested a day in Kras-no-yarsk', and sledged thence nearly 
due north, spending four days in Yen-e-saisk' and three days 
in Toor-o-kansk', and reached the ^Thames^ on the Koo- 
ray'-i-ka in the afternoon of the 23rd of April. 
For the first few days we found sledge-travelling somewhat 
irksome; but we soon got into the full swing of it. After 
having sledged a thousand miles or so, we began to feel that 
the process might go on for weeks or months, or even years, 
without serious results. I soon began to enjoy it. My 
sledge-fever entirely left me; and I used to find a pleasant 
lullaby in the never ceasing music of the wrangling and the 
