A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 55 



Late on the same evening, Captain Ello called me 

 to the bridge to look at Lukovoi Protok, where in 1895 

 Mr. Popham found the red-breasted goose breeding. 

 The Oryol did not stop at the place, but in the distance 

 could be seen the row of cliffs, still speckled with snow, 

 at the foot of which the nests were found. 



After we passed Dudinka, the steamer and the 

 barge began to empty fast. Every few versts there 

 was a balagan, i.e. a low, turf-roofed hut, and here a 

 whole family, with children, nets, and cooking pots, 

 would go ashore with a boat and half a dozen barrels of 

 salt and a sack of flour. Some of these folk travelled 

 a thousand versts down the river and back again each 

 summer, just for the sake of the fishing season, which 

 lasts only for six weeks. Some of the Yenesei fisheries 

 belong to the Government, and some to the natives. 

 The fishing at the latter is free, and consequently the 

 Siberians prefer to settle there rather than at the 

 Government stations where a rent must be paid. But 

 this is rather hard on the poor Yuraks and Samoyedes, 

 who are thus gradually ousted from their ancient 

 rights. 



Below Krestova, the river suddenly opens out into 

 the magnificent estuary which is here over forty miles 

 from shore to shore. The low, bleak coast appears as 

 little more than a distant horizon, and where the wind 

 meets the water, a nasty choppy sea can spring up in 

 an hour or two. And so indeed we found it, for on 

 22nd June the weather changed, and for forty-eight 

 hours we were storm bound. In the evening, some 

 fishermen were sent ashore. They managed to put up 



