148 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



exposed to contiuual snowstorms in winter and to close fogs 

 during the greater part of summer, which here is extremely 

 short, it seems as if they could not offer their inhabitants 

 many opportunities for enjoyment, and the reason why this tract 

 was chosen for a residence, especially in a country so rich in 

 fertile soil as Siberia, appears to be difficult to find. The 

 remains of an old simovie (Krestovskoj). which I saw in 1875 

 while travelling up the river along with Dr. Lundstrom and Dr. 

 Stuxberg, however, produced the impression that a true home 

 life had once been led there. Three houses with turf-covered 



RUINS OF A SIMOVIE AT KKFSTOVSKOJ. 



After a drawing by A. Stuxberg. 



roofs then still remained in such a state that one could form an 

 idea of their former arrangement and of the life which had 

 been carried on in them. Each cabin contained a whole laby- 

 rinth of very small rooms ; dwelling-rooms with sleeping places 

 fixed to the walls, bake-rooms with immense fireplaces, bathing 

 houses with furnaces for vapour-baths, storehouses for train-oil 

 with laro^e train-drenched blubber troughs hollowed out of 



I 



ni tlie former dwelliners at the mouth of tlie Yenisej may be seen from 

 Xeueste Nachrichten iiber die nordlichsfe Gegend von Slbirien zirischen den 

 Flussen Pjiissida und Chatanga in Fragen und Antirorten abgefaast. Mit 

 Einleitung und Anmerhungen vom Ilerausgeber (K. E. v. Baer und Gr. v. 

 Helmersen, Be'itrage. zur Kenntniss des i-ussischen Belches, vol. iv. p. 26i*. 

 St. Petersburg, 1841). 



