A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 167 



our denials, we were really merchants, who had chosen 

 disguise as a subtle kind of advertisement. 



When we had put up a few pegs and shelves the 

 hut began to look quite homelike. Gerasim Androvitch, 

 who, I think, was as pleased with the place as if he had 

 been going to live there himself, lent us a small table, 

 besides which we had brought another with us, and 

 also some campstools. Needless to say, there was not 

 a great deal of space for the possessions of three people 

 in a room twelve feet by fifteen, and therefore during 

 the daytime many things were piled up on the bunks. 

 Miss Czaplicka's bed contained notebooks and calipers, 

 and above it gradually appeared a fine assortment of 

 native implements — knives, pipes, and pieces of rein- 

 deer harness — hung upon the wall. Miss Curtis was 

 fortunate in that her "stock in trade" consisted of 

 brushes and sketching books which would pack away 

 flat ; but my corner was the most crowded of all, and 

 whenever I was not occupying it myself there was not 

 a square inch which was not strewn with a collection 

 of birds' skins, photographic apparatus, and specimen 

 boxes. 



Although the Golchika flowed within twenty yards 

 of the door, it was too bitter and muddy to drink, and 

 all the water had to be fetched from a little stream 

 which ran down from the tundra, about a furlong 

 away. Wood was to be had for the gathering, for at 

 Golchika the river banks for miles are littered with 

 the timber which the spring floods bring down from 

 the forests. Most of the driftwood is willow and 

 poplar, thoroughly seasoned by the water, and the 



