Soft roads-Sledging with dogs-Sledging with reindeer-We reach the Thames -Cost of travelling--The Yenesay river-Good health of the Thames crewPrecautions against scurvy-Fatal results of neglect-Picturesqueness of our winter quarters-View from the house-Through the forest on snow-shoesBirds-The Nutcracker-Continued excursions in the forest-Danger ahead. THE road from Toor-o-kansk' to the Koo-ray'-i-ka is very little frequented. So far to the north the traffic has dwindled down to almost nothing. Consequently the snow never gets trodden down hard, and sledging in heavy sankas is impossible. We were therefore obliged once more to abandon our sledges, and to have still lighter ones. As there were only four stages we decided to hire them from

stage to stage, and repack our baggage into fresh sledges at each station. We had the remains of the Captain's merchandise to take with us, so we required six sledges, each drawn by one horse. The first stage was on land, wearisomely long, with bad roads and worse horses. The second stage was on the river, a much better road, but in consequence of bad horses very slow. The baggage was packed as before, on three one-horse sledges. To each of our three sledges, containing also a fair share of baggage; were harnessed six dogs. They went splendidly, never seemed tired, and never shirked their work. The pace was not rapid, but at the next stage we had to wait an hour for the horses with the baggage. The harness was simple in the extreme; consisting merely of a padded belt across the small of the back, and passing underneath between the hind legs.

The two last stages were travelled with reindeer. We had six sledges, as before, for ourselves and the baggage, and four sledges for our drivers. Each sledge was drawn by a pair of reindeer, so that we required twenty reindeer to horse our caravan. This was by far our fastest mode of travelling. Sometimes the animals seemed to fly over the snow. During the last stage the reindeer that drew my sledge galloped the whole way without a pause. The journey from Toor-o-kansk' to the Koo-ray'-i-ka is 130 versts, and occupied about twenty-two hours.

We reached the winter quarters of the Thames on Monday the 23rd of April at three o'clock in the afternoon-delighted once more to be amongst English voices and English cooking. We had sledged from Nishni Novgorod to the

Koo-ray'-i-ka, a distance of 4860 versts, or 3240 English miles. Including stoppages we had been forty-six days on the road, during which we had made use of about a thousand horses, eighteen dogs, and forty reindeer. The total number of stages was 229. My share of the expenses from London was 877., exclusive of skins, photographs, &c.; purchasedan average of about 3ąd. per mile, including everything. The Yen-e-say' is said to be the third largest river in the world. In Yen-e-saisk' the inhabitants claim that the waters of their river have flowed at least two thousand miles (through Lake By-kal') to their town. In Yen-e-saisk' the river must be more than a mile wide. From Yen-e-saisk' to the Koo-ray'-i-ka is about eight hundred miles. During this distance it has gradually increased to a little more than three miles wide. From the Koo-ray'-i-ka to the limit of forest growth; where the delta may be said to begin, is generally reckoned another eight hundred miles, for which distance the river will average at least four miles in width. To this we must add a couple of hundred miles of delta and another couple of hundred miles of lagoon, each of which will average twenty miles in width, if not more.

On reaching the ship we found the crew well and hearty. The men' had been amply provided with limejuice, had always some dried vegetables given them to put into their soup, and the captain had left strict orders with the mate that exercise should be taken every day, and that during the winter trees should be felled and cut into firewood ready for use on board the steamer on her voyage home. The consequence of these sanitary precautions was, that no symptoms

of scurvy had presented themselves. On the other hand, we afterwards learned that the crew of Sideroff's schooner, which had wintered four degrees further north, not having been supplied by Captain Schwanenberg with these wellknown preventives, had suffered so severely from scurvy that the mate alone survived the winter.

Our winter quarters were very picturesque. The Thames was moored close to the north shore of the Koo-ray'-i-ka, at the entrance of a small gully, into which it was the captain's intention to take his ship as soon as the water rose high enough to admit of his doing so, and where he hoped to wait in safety the passing away of the ice. On one side of the ship was the steep bank of the river, about a hundred feet in height, covered with snow, except here and there

where it was too perpendicular for the snow to lie. On the top of the bank was the house of a Russian peasant-merchant, with stores and farm buildings adjacent, and a bath house occupied by an old man who earned a living by making casks. One of the rooms in the house was occupied by the crew of the Thames during the winter. As we stood at the door of this house on the brow of the hill, we looked down on to the "crow's nest " of the Thames. To the left the Koo-ray'-i-ka, a mile wide, stretched away some four or five miles, until a sudden bend concealed it from view, whilst to the right the eye wandered across the snow-fields of the Yen-e-say', and by the help of a binocular the little village of Koo-ray'-i-ka might be discerned about four miles off on the opposite bank of the great river. The land was undulating rather than hilly, and everywhere covered with forests, the trees reaching frequently two, and in some rare instances three, feet in diameter.

Not long after our arrival I purchased a pair of snowshoes, unpacked my gun, and had a round in the forest. The sun was hot, but the wind was cold. On the river the depth of the snow was six feet, but in the forest I found it rather less. The trees were principally pine, fir, larch and birch. I found more birds than I expected. A pair of what I took to be Ravens were generally in sight, and now and then a small flock of Snow-Buntings flitted by. Outside the door of the sailors' room, picking amongst the refuse thrown out by the cook, were half-a-dozen almost tame Nutcrackers* hopping about. They allowed us to go within

*The range of the Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) extends from