246 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



offal lay on the sand. Joseph Gerasimvitch, with his 

 uncle and Micha, were in one of the balagans. They 

 were cooking fish, and invited us to join them. While 

 we were taking cover in the smoke from the raids of 

 the mosquitoes, Simeon Prokopchuk, who was almost 

 as anxious to oblige us as was his brother at Golchika, 

 told Miss Czaplicka that, about fifteen versts away, in 

 the middle of the tundra, were the remains of a mam- 

 moth. The actual place was known only to one of the 

 native Yuraks, who had discovered it. Miss Czaplicka 

 had long wished to secure some specimens of mammoth 

 bones, and therefore she most pluckily decided not to 

 rest here, but to take the native as a guide, and push 

 forward at once, accompanied by Mr. Hall. They 

 therefore took a little food in their pockets and started 

 out immediately, hoping to reach our base at Kazachye 

 on the following day. The three girls seemed to find 

 plenty of entertainment, judging from the peals of 

 laughter that came from the balagan, where they had 

 taken refuge from the mosquitoes and also from the 

 eyes of their chaperons, as I am afraid they regarded 

 us. Miss Curtis wanted to go to the cliooms to sketch 

 the Samoyedes, and we arranged that she and I should 

 meet at the balagan at six o'clock and walk back 

 to Kazachye together. The only drawback to the 

 arrangement was that we should thereby be obliged to 

 keep the boat out for a second night, and we none of 

 us liked to think of what Gerasim Androvitch might 

 say. However, he was fifty versts away, and, as they 

 say in Ireland : It is time enough to shake hands with 

 the devil when you meet him. 



