CHAP, v.] 



PERSONNEL OF THE EXPEDITION. 



produce dinners under the most trying circumstances which would 

 not have disgraced the table of an alderman. European servants 

 are, in rough travel, by no means always an unmixed good, and it 

 is pleasant therefore to have to 

 record an instance to the con- 

 trary. jSTor were we much less 

 fortunate in our two guides. 

 Both were old sable -hunters 

 and good backwoodsmen. Jacof 

 Ivanovitch was a solemn, but 

 good-humoured Siberian Paissian, 

 who knew the country well ; and 

 Afanasi Waren, in whom there 

 was more than a suspicion of 

 English blood, spoke our lan- 

 guage very fairly. The latter 

 was a jovial soul with a merry 

 eye, and if report ran true, a 

 great lady-killer. Under the sobriquet of " Half-nasty " he after- 

 wards became an equally great favourite with our crew. Our 

 complement was made up with three half-breed natives, in charge 

 of the packhorses, in whose favour there is but little to say. Of 

 the misdeeds of one of them, whom, from his partiality for the 

 liquor of the country, we afterwards nicknamed Yodki, I shall 

 have more to say in the sequel. Lazy, untruthful, and apt brutally 

 to ill-treat their horses whenever we were not at hand to interfere, 

 they caused the only trouble we had during the first part of our 

 journey. The inhabitants of the river settlements that we were 

 destined to meet with later were, however, as will be seen, far worse ; 

 and in comparison with them, our horseboys came afterwards to be 

 regarded in a far more favourable light than they really deserved. 



The pack-saddles used throughout the country are of an ex- 

 cellent pattern, and owing to the hooks with which they are 

 provided, the necessity for the many lashings wldch are so in- 



AFANASI WAREN. 



