1^8 Mr. Henry Seebolim. 



anxious to buy theirs. They were, however, anxious not to 

 sell it him. When the accident to the Thames had happened 

 Captain Wiggins had made a bargain with him (Mr. Seebohm) 

 to rig the ship with all his best rigging, and when they got to 

 the mouth of the river to sell it and divide the proceeds. But 

 the men refused to serve in her, and it was no doubt a madcap 

 thing to attempt it. The end of it was that the ship was 

 transferred to the Russian captain, and in her he sailed out of 

 the Yen-e-say, had good luck not to meet with storms or ice 

 in crossing the Kara Sea, and eventuall)' got her down the 

 Baltic to St. Petersburg, where she now lay in the Yacht Club 

 premises as the only ship ever built in Siberia which had 

 succeeded in reaching Europe. The feat was, however, 

 entirely outdone by the journey of Nordenskiold. He started 

 out 4,000 miles from Halifax to Behring Straits, and at the end 

 of 3,850 miles was frozen in and obliged to stop for nine 

 months until open water again allowed him to come round to 

 the Red Sea and across the Suez Canal, and round by 

 England to Stockport, the most extraordinary Arctic expedition 

 which had ever been achieved. Having disposed of their 

 ship he (Mr. Seebohm) of course set his face homewards. 

 They met some still more interesting and curious natives. 

 For instance the Samoyades, living almost entirely in the 

 winter by the chase, and in the summer roaming the forests, 

 and spendmg their time in fishing. Another race frequented 

 the river Khatanga, and were called Dolghans, and another 

 were the Yakhuts, a copper-coloured race. He took the 

 numerals from i to 20, and found those of the Dolghans to 

 be much the same as those used in Constantinople at the 

 present time. Their religion is like that of the North 

 American Indians. There was also another race, the Yuraks. 

 Reindeer travelling was about the swiftest kind of travelling 

 one could have. For fifteen miles they never once stopped, 

 galloping the whole time. When he reached Yen-e-saisk he 

 had the good fortune to meet a Pole, and they travelled the 

 overland route together. All the travelling had now to be 

 done on wheels. To show of what importance their letters of 

 introduction were, he might tell them that at one stage they 

 were told they could not have any horses, as a general was 

 coming that way and required them, but a Cossack rode 30 

 miles from the last stage to say that the general might go to 

 Hong Kong, but the Englishman must have the horses. The 

 travelling was extremely cheap. For the hire of their horses 

 they only paid id. per mile ; they purchased excellent beef at 

 3id. a pound, and grouse at yd. per brace. On one occasion 

 during the journey home they met a caravan with 15 tons of 

 gold from the mines. The whole of the gold dug there had 



