CHAPTER I 



TO THE HOLY HILLS 



August 2\st. — Now it is time to explain something- of 

 these Russian merchants with whom we were to live. 



Years ago — fifty years ago — in the days, perhaps, when 

 the priest had visited Kolguev, there had been quite 

 a considerable traffic between the up-country traders, 

 men of Mezen, Indiga and the Petchora, and the Samoyeds 

 of Kolguev. The Samoyeds had lived there always, I 

 believe. I could never learn of a time in their traditions 

 when they were not dwellers on the island. 



They were very useful to the Russians traders. Not 

 only did they supply them with skins of polar bear, 

 walrus, and seal, the feathers and down of ducks and 

 geese, but also they were pasturers of the Russians' 

 reindeer. They entirely owned a proportion of the deer, 

 but also they tended many herds which belonged to the 

 Russians solely, or in which they had a half interest. 

 In those days there were, according to Alexander 

 Samarokoff, no fewer than 25,000 reindeer on the island, 

 of which 10,000 were owned by one man, Alexis, a 

 Russian. 



Then there fell the first of those terrible reindeer 



319 



