A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 229 



and the smoke from the balagans, quite distinctly. 

 But when we proposed to row over there, the Golchikans 

 shook their heads. From their account, Swerifskye 

 was of as evil report as the Cities of the Plain, and 

 its inhabitants were thieves and murderers all. There 

 was a legend that, during the previous summer, two men 

 from the south had gone there to fish. Some days 

 later they went on board Kutcherenkoff's steamer, 

 and besought him to ship them home in any capacity, 

 for they could no longer live with the people of 

 Swerifskye. 



However, instead of deterring us, this made us the 

 more anxious to visit the place ; and as at about the 

 same time Madame Antonoflf wished to go down to Och 

 Marino to see how Hachenkoff's fishery was prospering, 

 we agreed to join forces and hire Sylkin's boat to 

 take us across the river, Sylkin was quite ready to go, 

 because some Yurak friends of his were living in the 

 Swerifskye chooms. However, he took it for granted 

 that the outing was to include his family as well as 

 himself ; and when he brought the boat to call for us, 

 it had already a full cargo of children and dogs. We 

 were obliged to explain to him that we could not cross 

 the Yenesei with either a Noah's ark or a kindergarten, 

 and waited while he ejected all the dogs, and most of 

 the children. Then, after picking up Madame Antonoff 

 and Nill at the fishing station, we started ofi". Sylkin 

 took the paddle, and his two boys were at the oars. 

 The elder son, Nicolai, had been baptized in the 

 Orthodox Church, and wore a Christian token round 

 his neck, but the younger, Nerobi, was still un- 



