A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 11 



town on the Yenesei and a great centre of the gold- 

 mining trade. It stands among wide, low meadows, 

 and its mellow-toned wooden houses and shady grass- 

 grown streets are much more picturesque than the 

 blatant newness of Krasnoyarsk. As we steamed 

 down the river on a fine summer's evening, its timbered 

 houses, dominated as usual by the green and white 

 cupolas of the church, looked curiously barbaric and 

 Byzantine. 



We went ashore at once to the post-office, where, to 

 our relief, we found a telegram from Mr. Hall at 

 Krasnoyarsk to say that the luggage had arrived, and 

 that he expected to join us on the following day. I 

 had been given a letter of introduction to Mr. Stephan 

 Vassillievitch Vostratine, the member of Duma for the 

 Yenesiesk Government, but we had already been told 

 at Krasnoyarsk that he was in St. Petersburg. How- 

 ever, Miss Czaplicka had an introduction to his brother, 

 Mr. Vassilli Vassillievitch Vostratine, who, with his 

 wife, showed us the greatest kindness during our stay 

 at Yenesiesk. 



From an ornithological point of view, the neigh- 

 bourhood of Yenesiesk is full of interest, and I was 

 sorry that I had no opportunity of spending a day out 

 in the country ; but we had only two days to pass in 

 the town, and much of the time was taken up in many 

 final preparations for our journey to the north. 

 Yenesiesk was full of the bustle of the coming of 

 summer, and the quay was humming with life. 

 Stacks of timber, hundreds of fish barrels, boats, sacks 

 of flour, household goods — in fact, every conceivable 



