Farewell to Norway. 129 



forsaken " colony. " Every summer two or three mer- 

 chants or peasant traders, generally from Pustozersk, 

 come for the purpose of bartering with the Samoyedes, 

 and sometimes the Syrianes, too, for their wares bear- 

 skins, blubber, and sealskins, reindeer skins, and such 

 like giving in exchange tea, sugar, flour, household 

 utensils, etc. No transaction takes place without the 

 drinking of brandy, for which the Samoyede has an 

 insatiable craving. When the trader has succeeded in 

 making a poor wretch quite tipsy, he fleeces him, and 

 buys all he wants at some ridiculous price the result of 

 the transaction generally being that the Samoyede is in 

 debt to his 'benefactor.' All the traders that come to 

 the colony bring brandy, and one great drinking bout 

 goes on all the summer. You can tell where much 

 business is done by the number of brandy casks in the 

 trader's booth. There is no police inspection, and it 

 would be difficult to organise anything of the kind. As 

 soon as there is snow enough for the sledges, the mer- 

 chants' reindeer caravans start from the colony on their 

 homeward journey, loaded with empty brandy casks and 

 with the proceeds of this one-sided bartering." 



" On July 3oth [this ought to be 2Qth] Trontheim saw 

 from the shore, first, smoke, and soon after a steamer. 

 There could be no doubt of its being the Fraiu. He 

 went out in a little Samoyede boat to meet her, and 

 called out in Russian that he wanted to be taken on 

 board. From the steamer they called back asking who 



K 



