432 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



Early this morning we landed at Kuja, and were 

 introduced to the wealthy merchants who bring down 

 their cayucks full of the necessaries of life all the way 

 from Tcherdin, near Perm, on the Volga, and realise, we 

 are told, great profits. At the end of the summer they 

 sell their remaining stock, and even some of the cayucks, 

 and return with one kept for the purpose. 



These cayucks are huge Noah's-Ark-like structures, 

 quite different in shape from the grain and other 

 praahms of the Dvina, which are shaped like butter- 

 boats. They are like the boats, shallop-shaped with 

 low-water lines, high at bow and stern, and are roofed in 

 throughout nearly their whole length, and each has a 

 huge mast nearly amidships. A trap-door is opened in 

 the side of the roof, and on descending we found a 

 spacious store with a counter in front. 



Our purchases consisted of 23Jlbs. of sugar at 30 kopeks 

 per. Ib. = 7'57 roubles ; tea, at T70 kopeks per Ib. = 5'10 

 roubles ; matches, 20 kopeks ; and soap at 15 kopeks per 

 Ib. 60 kopeks. Besides these we purchased dried 

 apricots and plums, and Seebohm invested in a knife 

 which he believed to be made from steel from his own 

 works in Sheffield, and a slab of the black slate-like 

 stone (dominik) of which table-tops are made, and which 

 comes from Oochta, on the Ussa, where Sidoroff's naphtha- 

 springs are. One cayuck was lying at Kuja, and three 

 others at Mikitza. To reach the latter place we were 

 driven in the rough cart of the country, yclept a 'rospooski,' 

 and the discomfort of these five versts was in consequence 

 considerable. 



On the way we picked up two young King Dotterels 

 and a young Arctic Tern. 



Seebohm, Arendt, and M. Alin one of the merchants 

 and a young fellow who is reported as being very wealthy, 

 drove in one ' rospooski,' and Engel, Piottuch, and my- 



