A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 99 



be elsewhere. There is a saying that, It is an ill dog 

 that bites a drunJcard or a child, and in this respect the 

 Russian law is as lenient as the canine. In Siberia it 

 is a punishable offence for a sober man to strike a 

 drunkard, however great the provocation may be. 



There are two aspects of inebriety — the humorous and 

 the revolting. To anybody who wishes to make a study 

 of the subject I should say. Go to the Yenesei. We had 

 a practical illustration of them both, two or three days 

 after the events related in the last chapter. The steamer 

 of Mr. Kutcherenkoff, " the Alcohol King," arrived at 

 noon, and by the evening there were only two sober 

 men in Golchika. One was Michael Petrovitch, and 

 the other was Kutcherenkoff himself We were sitting 

 in our room when our host brought in a young Siberiak, 

 whom he introduced as Michael Prokopchuk, a nephew 

 of Gerasim Androvitch of that ilk. Prokopchuk, with 

 his wife and child, was just preparing to start on a 

 fishing excursion down the river beyond Sopochnaya 

 and suggested that I should go too. Of course the 

 offer was a tempting one, for it would have given me 

 the opportunity of seeing many places of ornithological 

 interest ; but like all such expeditions on the Yenesei 

 there was not only the question of the outward journey 

 to be considered, but also that of the return. In this 

 case, I could have travelled northwards with the 

 Prokopchuks ; but in order to reach Golchika in time 

 to catch the steamer back to the south, it would have 

 been necessary to walk home, making thirty-mile stages 

 from one balagan to another. This, combined with the 

 difficulty of bringing home any specimens that I might 



