A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 79 



work with one hand. We had brought some food with 

 us, and when the samovar was bubbling, we set out our 

 contributions beside those of our hostess, and all had 

 tea. Meanwhile the room was gradually filling up 

 with natives who had wandered in from their chooms 

 to stare at the Angliski. The bed was taken up by 

 an immense old lady with voluminous felt petticoats 

 and a fat good-humoured smile which quite swallowed 

 up her eyes. She told us with pride that she weighed 

 seven pouds and had seventeen children. I think that 

 most of the seventeen must have followed her into the 

 kitchen, for by that time every nook and corner seemed 

 to be filled up by male and female Yuraks of every 

 age. Neither HachenkofF nor his wife seemed to resent 

 this intrusion into their already crowded kitchen, but 

 this is typical of the Siberians. They are notoriously 

 indulgent to the natives, and cases of cruelty to the 

 inferior race are very rare. My anthropological com- 

 panions were gleeful over such a collection of "specimens," 

 and as Michael Petrovitch had business to talk over 

 with HachenkofF, I went outside to see what bird life 

 the promontory harboured. 



The river has built up the long peninsula of Och 

 Marino in the same way as it has built up Golchika 

 Island, by alternate layers of alluvial mud and driftwood. 

 Two miles away to the west a range of low mud-hills 

 showed where the tundra came down to the coast, but 

 between them and the river lay a swamp, encumbered 

 with rotting tree-trunks, which at the time of my visit 

 was almost impassable with melting snow. 



I can never forget that glorious arctic midnight. 



