UETROSPECT1VE. 337 



I noticed that the Cossacks and Tung-uses had very fine 

 teeth all of them. This, I think, is largely due to the black 

 bread which they eat, and also to the absence of acids or 

 sweet things, except in very limited quantities. 



Our provisions were carried on five pack-horses. The 

 weather at this time was pretty cold, being from twenty-five 

 to thirty degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. 



After traveling about thirty versts, we stopped at. the best 

 povarnia I had yet seen. A good fire had been prepared 

 by the man in charge of the pack-horses, who arrived before 

 us, and some hot tea was soon served. After this we con- 

 tinued on until night, when we stopped again for sleep. The 

 condition of our party at this time was such that we could not 

 travel both day and night, but were obliged to stop for sleep 

 and rest. 



On Sunday, December 4th, we started off before dawn, 

 with three teams of deer and three sleds drawn by horses. 

 After various accidents and stoppages, and winding around 

 some really fine mountain scenery, with lofty woods, over 

 very bad, rough, tussocky ground, we reached a stansca 

 where we found quarters for the night. In our day's journey 

 we had crossed the Arctic Circle. How many things had 

 happened since we last crossed it in 1879 ! Thirty-three; 

 hearts were then buoyed with hopes for the future, or hopes 

 of what the future might bring. Of that number twenty 

 were now dead or missing. Time had made many changes, 

 and who could tell what had happened at home ? 



On December 6th we traveled by deer over very rough 

 roads, stopping once for tea and to warm our benumbed 

 bodies. Pushing on again, we passed a fine-looking Pole 

 going into exile. We traveled until nearly midnight, reach- 

 ing a stansea to find it occupied by a Russian trader and 

 other travelers, who had been at Yakutsk and were on their 

 way to a settlement on the Kolyma River. His principal 

 stock seemed to be vodka, with some calicoes, thread, needles, 

 etc. He was accompanied by an elderly woman, and by his 

 wife, a younger person, whom he had recently married, and 



