A SUMMER ON THE YENESEl 41 



in the forest, but always followed up the river-bank, 

 or walked beside some watercourse, which in the end 

 would guide me back to the ship. 



The steamer stopped at the mouth of the Kureika 

 to set down two merchants who were prospecting 

 for graphite about sixty miles up the river. Their 

 venture, however, turned out very badly. They entered 

 into a contract for the shipment of the graphite to 

 Europe via the Kara Sea, but the contractor very 

 prudently insisted that his money should be paid in 

 advance. When the European War broke out, the 

 merchants wished the contract to be void, but the 

 contractor held them to their bargain. The unfortunate 

 men lost their money, and, for all I know, their graphite 

 is still lying beside the Kureika. 



After we had crossed the Arctic Circle we came in 

 for a spell of stormy weather. Late in the evening, 

 after we had passed the Kureika, the wind rose, and, 

 for the sake of the barge, we were obliged to lie to 

 under a willow-grown island. A regular blizzard was 

 driving over the river, and all the leafless trees by the 

 waterside moaned and rattled their branches together 

 like dancing skeletons. Most birds were hidden out 

 of sight. Those who were in evidence included a 

 party of mealy redpolls (Carduelis linaria) in the adult 

 frosted-roseleaf plumage, and a terek sandpiper who 

 jumped up from a clutch of fresh eggs under a fallen 

 tree-trunk. Fieldfares were breeding in the willows, 

 and I saw a bluethroat and a little bunting. Vassilli 

 went off to shoot ducks for the pot, and secured a 

 widgeon, a teal, and a tufted duck, while I wasted a 



