A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 177 



was quite palatable. The eggs of the long-tailed duck, 

 however, had a distinctly fishy flavour. I found a nest 

 with a newly laid clutch, and we scrambled them for 

 supper over a spirit-lamp. The result was excellent, 

 and the fishy taste was really an improvement to the 

 dish. Sometimes we bought a little reindeer meat from 

 Prokopchuk, but, on the whole, the venison was tough 

 and nasty. However, it made a change from perpetual 

 fish and tinned food. It is wonderful how the people 

 in those bitter climates manage to live without either 

 fresh or preserved fruit and vegetables. Potatoes and 

 lemons are both very expensive, owing to the cost of 

 freight down the river, and are only seen on the tables 

 of the better- to-do settlers. It is no wonder that 

 scurvy is very common in Northern Siberia. 



The Lena and the mosquitoes arrived at Golchika 

 almost on the same day. We had heard so much of 

 these pests, and had brought such a defensive para- 

 phernalia of veils and gloves that we were agreeably 

 surprised to find that things were not nearly as bad 

 as we expected. The mosquito season lasted only for 

 a month, and although they were very tiresome during 

 hot weather, yet for days together, if the wind was 

 cool, we saw nothing of them. I generally took a veil 

 on my excursions into the tundra, but owing to the 

 discomfort of it, and the diflSculty of watching a bird 

 through the meshes, I seldom wore it. Luckily the 

 bite of the arctic mosquitoes was not nearly so virulent 

 as that of these insects in the south. The Siberiaks and 

 natives did not seem to mind the nuisance. I have 

 seen a Samoyede go calmly about his business while 



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