386 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



them. Alexander Samarokoff assured me of this, and he is a large 

 employer. 



In view of the Trans-Siberian railway, the Russian Government has 

 in the Samoyeds of its tundra an agency which, if allowed, will do no 

 small part in developing the resources of Arctic and Northern Russia. 

 As workmen they might be useful ; as carriers they would be pre- 

 eminently so. 



But one consideration demands imperative attention. The great fail 

 ing of the Samoyed — one which he shares with the peasants of Northern 

 Russia — is a love of vodki. Unless the Russian Government will 

 make it a criminal offence to give spirits to a Samoyed, the Samoyeds 

 are doomed. 



At the present moment the Samoyeds are I believe responsible, for 

 the purposes of taxation, to two overseers. Some extension of the 

 system with a view to supervision might be well. By men who under- 

 stood their characteristics, and who would treat them kindly, they could 

 easily be managed and become willing workmen. Anyhow, it will be 

 the wisdom of the Russians to nurse their Samoyeds and not to kill 

 them. And as trade advances these most useful and interesting people, 

 unprotected, will surely die. 



