WANKER S HOME. 



441 



There was one thing that struck me with considerable 

 force when mv course was turned from the northern coast 



/ 



of Siberia into the Kolyma River. The second day of my 

 journey on that river, I noticed as we passed near the shore 

 first, higher grass than I had seen before, then a short 

 growth of bushes, then stunted shrubbery, and afterward 

 two solitary, lonely trees standing side by side. In the 

 course of a few miles the trees became more numerous 

 along the banks of the river until I reached Wanker's house, 

 which is situated in a grove of trees thirty or more feet high. 



BEAKEE SPONGES FKOM THE SEA OFF THE MOUTH OF THE KOLYMA. 



I had not expected to see all this climatic change in one 

 day's travel. 



At Wanker's house the entire family crossed themselves 

 in front of the pictures of saints in one corner, and bowed 

 as they muttered their prayers. Wanker, too, went through 

 the same forms, but not, I thought, sufficiently to make up 

 for the time he had lost in the Chukche's houses along the 

 coast. He spoke the Chukche language perfectly, so that I 

 felt certain that he was at least a half-breed. He wore their 

 amulets to cure him when he was sick, and was with them a 

 skillful shaman or medicine-man. No one could excel him 



