152 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



was streaming out as we entered, and large pieces of 

 the ice-foot, which runs round the base of the cliffs, 

 frequently broke off with a mighty splash and floated 

 away to sea. One of the Russian schooners was 

 positively beset by the outward-going ice, and would 

 have been carried out of the harbour had not her 

 crew turned out and cut her free. 



From one of the walrus-hunters we had news of 

 the Eira she having been seen and boarded off this 

 coast on the 8th July last year the same day as the 

 Proven reported having seen her ; so we thus had 

 confirmation of previous intelligence, but nothing 

 new. The settlement at Karmakula consists of a 

 few wooden houses and a reindeer-skin tent or two ; 

 the inhabitants, when we were there, being a few 

 families of Samoyedes and- half-a-dozen shipwrecked 

 Russian walrus -hunters, who were living with the 

 Samoyedes. These people, who are akin to the 

 Esquimaux, are natives of the Samoyede peninsula 

 and neighbouring land along the coast of Siberia. 

 The men are stoutly built, and very short, being 

 only about five feet high ; they have a strong Mon- 

 golian type of feature, and olive-coloured skin. The 

 women are brighter-coloured in complexion than the 

 men, and three or four inches shorter. Both sexes 

 dress in seal or reindeer skin, trousers and boots in 

 one, with the hair outside ; and coat of the same 

 material, with a hood to pull over the head. They 

 stand about in clumsy attitudes, especially the 



