60 THE VOYAGP: OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



a clay bottoin. The Lena was still wanting. We feared that 

 the little steamer had had some difficulty in keeping afloat 

 in the sea which had been encountered on the other side of 

 North Cape. A breaker had even dashed over the side of 

 the larger Vega and broken in pieces one of the boxes which 

 were fastened to the deck. Our fears were unwarranted. The 

 Lena had done honour to her builders at Motala works, and 

 behaved well in the heavy sea. The delay had been caused by 

 a compass deviation, which, on account of the slight horizontal 

 intensity of the magnetism of the earth in these northern 

 latitudes, was sfreater than that obtained durino- the examina- 

 tion made before the departure of the vessel from Gothenburg. 

 On the 31st the Lena anchored alongside the other vessels, and 

 thus the whole of our little Polar Sea squadron was collected at 

 the appointed rendezvous. 



Chabarova is a little village, situated on the maiidand, south 

 of Yugor Schar, west of the mouth of a small river in which at 

 certain seasons fish are exceedingly abundant. During summer 

 the place is inhabited by a number of Samoyeds, who pasture 

 their herds of reindeer on Vaygats Island and the surrounding 

 tundra, and by some Russians and Russianised Fins, who come 

 hither from Pustosersk to carry on barter with the Samoyeds, 

 and with their help to fish and hunt in the neighbouring sea. 

 During winter the Samoyeds drive their herds to more 

 southern regions, and the merchants carry their wares to 

 Pustosersk, Mesen, Archangel, and other places. Thus it has pro- 

 bably gone on for centuries back, but it is only in comparatively 

 recent times that fixed dwellings have been erected, for they are 

 not mentioned in the accounts of the voyages of the Dutch in 

 these regions. 



The village, or " Samoyed town " as the walrus-hunters 

 grandiosely call it, consists, like other great towns, of two 

 portions, the town of the rich — some cabins built of wood, 

 with flat turf-covered roofs — and the quarter of the common 

 people, a collection of dirty Samoyed tents. There is, besides, a 

 little church, where, as at several places along the shore, votive 

 crosses have been erected. The church is a wooden building, 

 divided by a partition wall into two parts, of which the inner, 

 the church proper, is little more than two and a half metres in 

 height and about five metres square. On the eastern wall during 

 the time the region is inhabited, there is a large number of 

 isacred pictures placed there for the occasion by the hunters. One 

 of them, which represented St. Nicholas, was very valuable, the 

 material being embossed silver gilt. Before the lamps hung 

 large dinted old copper lamps or rather light-holders, resem- 

 bling inverted Byzantine cupolas, suspended by three chains. 

 They were set full of numerous small, and some few thick wax 



