SIGHT-SEEING IN YAKUTSK. 345 



the home of a dyer, was scrupulously clean. They raise 

 some cattle, sheep, and swine, and also an excellent quality 

 of wheat ; I have eaten bread made from some of it, and can 

 attest its goodness. They also raise barley, oats, potatoes, 

 and onions. A few strawberries occasionally ripen, but the 

 summer is short. The people neither drink liquors or smoke, 

 nor do they eat any meat. 



The fire engines of Yakutsk consist of a number of barrels 

 mounted on wheels. When starting out for fires in cold 

 weather the water in the barrels is heated, because, if it were 

 not, before they could dip it out with their long-handled 

 bailers and throw it on to the fire by means of buckets, it 

 would all freeze solid. 



After our arrival at Yakutsk the temperature became 

 colder than it had been on our journey thither. Much moist- 

 ure was in the air, and in the early morning it looked almost 

 like falling snow. 



One day I went to see an old structure, a sort of retreat 

 or fortress some 250 years old, which was used by the Yakuts 

 when at war with the Russians. It was built log-cabin 

 fashion, some 500 feet long, with towers perched at both 

 ends. These towers were some thirty feet square and sixty 

 or seventy feet high. The logs, on the outside, were full of 

 bullet holes made during the attacks of the Russians. Though 

 the fortress was generally dilapidated, many of the logs were 

 sound. 



On the evening of December 29th I paid a visit to the 

 family of a Russian merchant, and for the first time in two 

 and one-half years heard piano music. The next day, accom- 

 panied by Captain Groenbek, I visited the steamer Lena, 

 which was hauled up at this place for the winter. This noted 

 steamer came around the northern coast of Europe and Asia 

 with Nordenskiold's ship, the Vega, and afterward ascended 

 the Lena River under command of Captain Johanuesen. 

 She plies on the river, but draws rather too much water to 

 be a success. She is a nice little screw vessel, built of Bes- 

 semer steel, schooner-rigged, and about 100 tons burthen. 



