76 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



He had spent three years in the Kolymsk district of 

 Northern Siberia, and while living in the settlement 

 of Nijni-Kolynisk had been in a position to notice 

 the disastrous intiuence of native Tchukchis on the 

 Russian population. The same lack of morals, with 

 the exception of pagan superstition, reigned in the 

 town. Community of wives, drunkenness, and general 

 lawlessness had grown to such an extent in this place, 

 cut off from communication with the rest of the world, 

 that the greatest anomalies had become quite natural 

 in the eyes of those unfortunate outlaws, and no 

 attempt was made to conceal indiscriminate passion. 

 Illegal intercourse between Russians and natives was 

 no less frequent ; a current proverb confirming these 

 views, "A woman is no pear; she cannot be swal- 

 lowed by a single person." 



It must be remembered that Nijni-Kolymsk lies 

 at the mouth of the Kolyma river, some 2,000 miles 

 north-east of Yakutsk, that steamers do not call 

 there every year, and that life in such conditions may 

 drive anvone mad. The town itself consists of a 

 hundred or more low wooden huts with two or three 

 Government buildings, a church, and a hospital. In 

 the centre of the settlement, said our companion, 

 there was a dense wood, through which it was un- 

 commonly difficult to find one's way, and the houses 



