248 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



we worked all day through a labyrinth of small streams, 

 passing' several hunting-lodges. At night we slept in two 

 houses on shore, and next morning we entered a large body 

 of water which we thought was the main river. About noon 

 we reached a point of land on which there was a deserted 

 village of about six well-built houses and a number of store- 

 houses. Wassili took us to a house and told us to couche, or 

 eat. I noticed that one of the natives went away in his 

 canoe. I then took a look at the village. The houses were 

 in good repair, and there were numerous troughs for feeding 

 dogs, and cooking utensils in them. The doors were not 

 locked, but those of the storehouses were well secured with 

 heavy iron padlocks of peculiar shape. 



Things looked more promising now, and I felt sure that 

 the winter occupants of these houses could not be far off. 

 During this resting spell I examined Leach's and Lauder- 

 baeh's feet and limbs. Leach's toes had turned black, and 

 Lauderback's legs were in a fearful condition, being greatly 

 swollen and having large patches of skin broken. We 

 dressed them as well as we could with some pain-extractor 

 that I happened to have along, and when that gave out we 

 used grease from the boat-box. 



In about an hour a boat appeared in sight, and a number 

 of people disembarked and entered a house near us. A few 

 minutes later, Wassili came and asked Melville and me to go 

 with him. He conducted us to the house, where we shook 

 hands with an old native named Spiridon, who had two very 

 hard-looking women with him, each of whom had lost the 

 left eye. They served tea to us, however, in china cups ; 

 also gave us some reindeer tallow, which they considered a 

 great delicacy. Spiridon looked to me like a regular old 

 pirate, and there was an air of mystery about the place that 

 made me tell Melville I thought Spiridon was an old rascal, 

 and that I was afraid to trust him. He gave us a large 

 goose, however, that was dressed and stuffed with seven 

 other geese, all boned, and this he said we must not eat 

 until sleeping-time on the following day. He also said that 



