CHAPTER IV. 



A morning theft — Cockroaches — Spring at Golchika — A dog sledge — 

 A trip to Och Marino — A Siberian household — The Eastern golden 

 plover — A change in the weather — Eough water on the Yenesei — 

 Return to Golchika. 



We were awakened next morning by a stealthy move- 

 ment at the window, followed immediately by a loud 

 clatter. Jumping out of bed, we found that one of the 

 Siberian sledge dogs had thrust his shaggy head 

 through a broken pane of glass, and had tried to 

 capture an egg which lay on the table just beyond his 

 reach, by insinuating his long red tongue beneath it. 

 Of course the egg had rolled on to the floor, and the 

 smash had so alarmed the thief that, in his guilty 

 eff'ort to escape unobserved, he had knocked over the 

 kettle and half a dozen tin plates. This incident 

 aroused us eff'ectually, and we hastened to dress and 

 prepare breakfast, the latter a task of some little 

 difficulty on this first morning, as there was no stove in 

 the room, and most of our goods had been left in the 

 shed on the river-bank, owing to lack of space. It was 

 now that we observed something that on the previous 

 evening we had been too tired to notice — namely, that 

 both the bakery and our own room swarmed with 

 cockroaches. Half a dozen of the creatures scuttled 

 out of my sleeping-bag when I went to roll it up, and 



