vm.J A THANKSGIVING SERVICE. 279 



with the rulers of Siberia, and also of the difficulty and un- 

 willingness with which the savage learns the language of the 

 civilised nations. 



It was not until the 7th September that the delta was finally 

 passed, and the Lena steamed in the river proper, where the 

 fairway became considerably better. Johannesen says in his 

 account of the voyage that it is improbable that any of the 

 western arms of the Lena are of importance, partly because the 

 mass of water which flows in an easterly direction is very 

 considerable in comparison with the whole quantity of water in 

 the river, partly because the western and northern arms which 

 Johannesen visited contained only salt water, while the water 

 in the eastern arm was completely free from any salt taste. On 

 the 8th, early in the morning, the first fixed dwelling-place on 

 the Lena, Tas-Ary, was reached. Here the voyagers landed to 

 get information about the fairway, but could not enter into 

 communication with the natives, because they were Tunguses, 

 In the afternoon of the same day they came to another river 

 village, Bulun. Impatient to proceed, and supposing that it 

 too was inhabited wholly by " Asiatics," ^ Johannesen intended 

 to pass it without stopping. But when the inhabitants saw the 

 steamer they welcomed it with a salute from all the guns that 

 could be got hold of in haste.^ The Lena then anchored. Two 

 Crown officials and a priest came on board, and the latter 

 performed a thanksgiving service. 



Even at that remote spot on the border of the tundra the 

 Asiatic comprehended very well the importance of vessels from 

 the great oceans being able to reach the large rivers of Siberia, 

 I too had a proof of this in the year 1875. While still rowing 

 up the river in my ow^n Nordland boat with two scientific men 

 and three hunters, before we got up with the steamer Alexa7uhr 

 Ave landed, among others, at a place where a number of Dolgans 

 were collected. When they understood clearly that we had 

 come to them, not as brandy-sellers or fish-buyers from the 

 south, but from the north, from the ocean, they went into com- 

 plete ecstasies. We were exposed to unpleasant embraces from 

 our skin-clad admirers, and finally one of us had the misfortune 

 to get a bath in the river in the course of an attempt which the 

 Dolgans in their excitement made to carry him almost with 

 violence to the boat, which was lying in the shallow water some 

 distance from the shore. At iJudino, also, the priests living 

 tliere lield a thanksgiving service for our happy arrival thither. 

 Two of them said mass, while the clerk, clad in a sheepskin 

 caftan reaching to his feet, zealously and devoutly swung an 



^ A common name used in Siberia for all the native races. 



- This has been incorrectly interpreted as if they shot at the vessel. 



