ARRIVAL AT SREDNE KOLYMSK. 443 



house four days, and during that time he had devoted him- 

 self entirely to me, trying to make amends for the ill con- 

 duct of my traveling companion Wanker, who, by the by, 

 had told the Russians we met at Diardlowran, that he had 

 brought me to the Kolyma because I was big and strong, 

 and he was going to keep me at his house until the winter 

 was past, and then I would be a good hand to catch fish for 

 him. 



I reached Sredne Kolymsk on Sunday, the 5th of March, 

 and was met in the street by a fine looking old gentlemen in 

 a handsome uniform, who addressed me in French and in- 

 formed me that he was the Prefet de Police for the district, 

 and invited me to his house. It sounded most delightfully 

 to hear once more a familiar Christian language, and not to 

 be compelled to converse with intelligent people in the lan- 

 guage of the savage. At this house I met also M. Kotcher- 

 offski, formerly prefet of the district of Verkhoyansk, but 

 who had just arrived to relieve my host, M. de Varowa, as 

 the latter informed me, at the same time stating that he 

 would start for Yakutsk in a few days, and extending me 

 an invitation to accompany him. I gladly accepted his 

 offer. 



Sredne, or Middle Kolymsk, is a Russian settlement of 

 about 500 inhabitants, including Russians, Yakuts, and a 

 few Chukches. The houses are all built of hewn logs, are 

 but one story high, and the windows are glazed with blocks 

 of transparent ice. Some of the houses have windows of 

 glass, but these are always much broken and mended, so 

 that seen from the outside they look like stained glass win- 

 dows of a church. The most conspicuous building there, as 

 in all the little Russian towns, is the church edifice, which 

 is of Oriental architecture, with a dome surmounted by a 

 cross and exceedingly florid in its style of ornamentation. 

 Adjoining the church and within the same enclosure is a 

 small wooden tower, surrounded by a block house, which 

 was built by the first settlers of Sredne as a means of de- 

 fence against the savage Yakuts and Chukches. The town 



