i6 ARCHANGEL 



witnesses on the Petchora, the British Consul kindly acting 

 as interpreter for us. We got the best information from 

 Peter Kotzoff, a Russian pilot, who showed us a chrono- 

 meter which was presented to him by the British Govern- 

 ment for assisting in the rescue of the crew of the 

 Elizabeth, which was wrecked at the mouth of the 

 Petchora. He was for some years a pilot on the great 

 river, and acted as guide to Count Wilczec on his return 

 journey overland from the Austrian- Hungarian Arctic 

 Expedition. Another interesting acquaintance which we 

 made was that of Father Inokentia, the present arch- 

 priest of Archangel, who lived seventeen years in the 

 Petchora, principally east of Ishma. He was sent out by 

 the Russian Government as a missionary amongst the 

 Samoyedes, to convert them from their so-called idolatrous 

 faith to the Greek Church. He told us that he remem- 

 bered meeting with Schrenck, and that Castren stopped 

 some time at his house, at Kolva, on the river Ussa. 

 He left the Petchora in 1847, so that his information was 

 somewhat out of date. Father Inokentia seemed to be a 

 jolly fat friar of the old school, and was very kind and 

 patient in answering our numerous questions. How far 

 he succeeded in his mission it is difficult to say. Most 

 of the Samoyedes on the west side of the Ural now 

 profess to belong to the Greek Church, but we were 

 repeatedly informed that many of them still secretly 

 retain their old beliefs, and continue to practise their 

 ancient rites. We went through most of the Samo- 

 yede vocabulary given in Rae's " Land of the North 

 Wind," and found it to be on the whole correct. 

 No doubt, in districts so widely separated as the 

 Kanin peninsula and the valley of the Ussa. consider- 

 able differences of dialect must be expected. But 

 perhaps the most interesting information which we 



