Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia, 177 
rather than hilly, and everywhere covered with forest, the 
trees reaching frequently two, and in some rare instances 
three, feet in diameter. The depth of the snow varied from 
four to six feet; and travelling without snow-shoes, except on 
the hard-trodden roads, was of course utterly impossible. I 
generally made two rounds a day through the forest, and soon 
exhausted the ornithology of the district. During the first 
week I succeeded in identifying twelve species of birds. For 
the next four weeks I only increased my list by a weekly 
average of three species. June is the month in which nearly 
all migratory birds arrive in the arctic circle. In the three 
weeks between the 29th of May and the 18th of June I added 
sixty-five birds to my list, and afterwards only occasionally 
picked up a new bird which had escaped my notice. 
We experienced great variety of weather on our journey 
out. In St. Petersburg we alternated between a slight thaw 
and a gentle frost. In Moscow and Nishni the snow was 
melting rapidly. On the Volga we had occasionally to sledge 
through a foot of water and half-melted snow. Over the 
Ural hills we had bright sunshine and hard frost. Across 
the steppes the weather was mild, but there was no absolute 
thaw, and we had now and then slight snow-storms. After 
leavingTomsk the weather became decidedly milder; and when 
we reached Kras-no-yarsk' we found a warm south-wester 
blowing, the streets running with water, and everybody travel¬ 
ling on wheels. Our journey northwards was a complete 
race with the south wind. The red hills of Kras-no-yarsk' 
were already bare of snow; the south-wester continued 
blowing as warm as ever; sledge-traveiling had, for the time 
being become impossible, and we were obliged to organize a 
caravan. For two stages we travelled in a tyel-ay'-ga, with 
one tar-an-tass' for our baggage, and a second for the empty 
sledge. For the next two stages the road was covered with 
snow, though it was somewhat soft; but we dismissed a couple 
of our equipages, travelling ourselves in the sledge, and re¬ 
taining only one tar-an-tass' for the baggage. For the rest of 
the journey to. Yen-e-saisk' we had brilliant sunshine and hard 
roads. The south wind, however, overtook us before we left 
SEE. IV.-VOL. II. 
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