176 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



went over to the island to receive the fish that the 

 boats brought for KutcherenkofF. 



It would be too tedious if I were to tell of our 

 doings every day during our stay at Golchika, for 

 although really full of incident to ourselves, the details 

 of our life would make but humdrum reading. Immedi- 

 ately after breakfast my companions set out to sketch 

 or visit the natives on the other side of the river, and 

 I went for a long ramble over the tundra with gun or 

 camera. We were usually out all day, and only met 

 in the evening. Vassilli was cook, but his culinary 

 efforts, although they were all right as far as they went, 

 required some supervision. We had brought flour with 

 us, but as we found that we could buy excellent bread 

 both from Madame Antonoff and the Prokopchuks, we 

 had no need to use it, which was fortunate, for Vassilli's 

 attempts to bake on one of the wood stoves would not 

 have been very appetising. As the summer went on, 

 fish could almost be had for the asking. In Golchika, 

 indeed, it is a point of etiquette that if a stranger asks 

 for fish you shall give, not sell, it to him. The principal 

 fish caught was the omul, a kind of white-fleshed sea 

 trout. It made excellent eating and yielded a very 

 good red caviare. There was also the nyelma, or white 

 salmon. It was larger than the omul, and, I thought, 

 very nasty, for its flesh was pale and flabby, like the 

 flesh of what fishermen call a " spent " fish. Vassilli and 

 I sometimes provided ducks for the pot. We had been 

 warned that the flesh of these Yenesei duck was rank 

 and fishy, but all those that we ate were excellent. 

 Even the flesh of the king-eider, although a little tough, 



