16 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



what we saw, she was the most comfortable of the 

 steamers that ply up and down the river. She formed 

 one of a fleet of European boats which the Russian 

 Government bought in 1905, and sent out to the 

 Yenesei via the Kara Sea, in order to carry foodstuffs 

 to the starving people of Siberia, who were reduced to 

 great want owing to the Russo-Japanese War. The 

 Oryol had been used for passenger work on the Clyde, 

 and her old Scottish name, Gleiimore, still appeared on 

 her bell and buckets. She had accommodation for a 

 few first-class passengers aft, but forward she was 

 crowded during the whole trip. The third-class berths 

 were divided into "numbered" and "unnumbered." 

 The passengers in the first division paid a little more, 

 and were certain of a sleeping-place each night. Those 

 in the second slept where they could, and it was almost 

 impossible to move about between decks, for every corner 

 was occupied by bundles of bedding, kegs of butter, 

 cooking utensils, or sleeping children. The older people 

 sat about in groups and drank tchai steadily all day 

 long, or else cracked sunflower seeds and the nuts of the 

 Siberian cedar (Pinus cemhra). Not only was the 

 steamer herself thus crowded. Behind her, she towed 

 a barge as large as Noah's Ark, and almost as unwieldy 

 as that commodious vessel must have been. Every 

 nook in it was thronged with poor Siberians, and on 

 deck was piled a medley of goods — empty fish barrels, 

 fishing skiffs, spars, and flour sacks ; and among them 

 all a great Russian cross in cheap white wood, evidently 

 destined for some distant trapping station, and ordered 

 during the previous autumn when the last steamer went 



