abounded. The White Wagtail which we saw was the Masked Wagtail. Jackdaws were common, together with plenty of Carrion Crows, but no Hoodies.

We left Kras-no-yarsk' on Saturday evening at eight o'clock, and reached Tomsk on Wednesday morning, August the 29th, at ten o'clock, travelling two only out of the four nights. The weather was fine, broken but by one thundershower; in the afternoon, however, we found it very hot, with the sun striking in our faces. The roads were generally good, but dusty, and it was only now and then that we came upon a short stretch of corduroy road, which is certainly one of the most diabolical inventions for breaking the backs of poor travellers that can be conceived. The scenery was very fine. We seemed to be constantly driving through an English nobleman's park; the autumnal tints of the trees were wonderful, the same that I have seen in the fall in the American forests. The range of colours was exactly those of the finest Newtown Pippin, going from the richest chromeyellow to the deepest madder red. Some of the villages we passed were very large; occasionally we went through a Tartar village, where the crescent occupied the place of the cross on the church spire. We frequently came upon gipsies who had pitched their wigwams outside the gates. Now and then we met a Boor'-ry-at, a Trans-by-kal Mongolian. Birds The Carrion Crow was common for were very numerous. perhaps the first two hundred versts; during the next one hundred and fifty versts it was still found, but the Hooded Crow, and the Hybrid between the two, abounded, and for the last two hundred versts the Hoodie only was found.

The migration of Hoodies appears to have gone across country to Yen-e-saisk', leaving Kras-no-yarsk' to the south-east. A Pole,whom I met at one of the villages, a zealous Jäger, and therefore an observer of birds, told me that the Hooded Crow had been there as long as he had-that is, thirteen years. The Green Wagtail was common, but the White Wagtail appeared to me to be the Indian or European White Wagtail, and not the Masked Wagtail.

This journey cost me forty roubles. We might easily have made it in twelve hours less, but the steamer from Tomsk leaving only at 3 A.M. on the morning of the 30th, we preferred to take it easy. We were never absolutely stopped for horses, but we travelled under difficulties, for six horses had been reserved by telegraph at each station for General Sievers, who was on his way from Irkutsk, bent on catching the steamer for which we were bound. Early one morning we were told at one of the stations that there were no horses, not even for our crown padarozhna. We had, however, long ago reached that chronic state of stoical imperturbability into which all old travellers finally drift, and had ordered the samovar, and were discussing our second stakkan chai, when a cossack rode up full gallop, bearing orders from the Ispravnik of the town lying thirty miles behind, to the effect that the General might go to Hong Kong, but the Englishman must have the horses.

At Tomsk we found a capital hotel, the "European," kept by a one-armed Pole, and we spent a pleasant evening with one of the telegraph officers with whom my travelling companion was acquainted. Here we learned that Captain Wiggins had

sold the wreck of the Thames for six thousand roubles. I afterwards learned that the Yen-e-saisk' merchants who bought her were successful in saving her in the spring, but that they made the mistake of attempting to tow her up to Yen-e-saisk.' After a series of disasters she was finally stranded on a sandbank, where it was impossible to save her when the ice broke up, and she was dismantled, and what was left of her abandoned.

From Tomsk to Tyu-main'-An old acquaintance-Cost of steamboat travellingCooking-Tobolsk-Contrast between Russian and Tartar villages-Threading the labyrinth of the Toor-a-The Black Kite-Cormorants-Asiatic White Crane-Notes of Sandpipers-Tyu-main'-Russian hotel accommodation-Bad roads-Ekatereenburg-Recrossing the Ural-Iron works-Kongoor-New railways-The big village.

WE left Tomsk on Thursday the 30th of August. The water in the river was so low that the steamer was not able to come up to the town, so we were obliged to hire a droshky to drive us three miles to the station on Wednesday evening, when we got into a small tug steamer which weighed anchor at three o'clock in the morning. The Kos-a-goff-sky was lying about forty-five versts down the river, and we were

comfortably quartered on board of her in time for a late breakfast. She was a smart iron vessel, built in Tyu-main', and would not have disgraced an English dockyard. As we were going on board we met an old acquaintance, the secretary of old Von Gazenkampf of Toor-o-kansk', and we arranged to take a private second-class cabin for us three. The price was fifty roubles (about £2 each at the then rate of exchange), which, for a journey of 3200 versts, or upwards of 2000 miles, was very cheap. For our luggage, we paid at the rate of one rouble per pood, or about eight shillings per cwt. Our meals were served in our own room, and we had an excellent dinner, consisting of five courses, for a rouble each.

We had an excellent cook on board, and had an opportunity of tasting the celebrated Siberian fishes to perfection. Fried sterlet is undoubtedly one of the finest dishes that can be put upon the table; it reminds one both of trout and eel, but possesses a delicacy superior to either. Nyelma, or white salmon, is, I think, an overrated fish; to my taste, it is immeasurably inferior to pink salmon. What it might turn out in the hands of an English cook I do not know. Our cook on board was the best I had met in Russia; indeed, I might say, the best I had met out of England. He could fry to perfection, but his roasts and his boils were not up to the mark; they evoked a suspicion that our cordon bleu had tried to kill two birds with one stone. His boiled meat had been stewed with an idea of making as much soup out of it as he dared, and his roast joints never underwent destructive combustion in any part; they were only a shade better than