CHAPTER XIIL 



The fall of the year — The departure of the chooms — The arrival of the 

 Yeaesiesk — First news of the war — Packing up — A dinner with the 

 Antonoffs — Church parade at Golchika — the Turukhansk and 

 Le)ia arrive — Stormbound — News of home — The Oryol again — 

 Joseph Gerasimvitch — Disappointed hopes — The English steamers — 

 A native wedding — Nosonovsky Ostrov. 



August the 14tli, the day on which we returned from 

 Kazachye, was the turning-point of the summer. It 

 was difficult to say exactly wherein the change lay, but 

 there was a subtle difterence in the air, and on the 

 following morning, as surely as if the great fiat had 

 gone forth to the proclamation of trumpets, we knew 

 that summer was over and autumn had begun. Those 

 who live much alone in the wilderness are the first to 

 discern the great seasonal changes, and act upon their 

 warning. That very day the natives in the settlement 

 began to repair their nets after the season's fishing, and 

 cut up wood to build their winter sledges. Yet more 

 promptly the birds responded to the change. Even the 

 least observant of my companions remarked upon the 

 sudden flux of feathered life on the mud-banks in front 

 of the hut. All day long, turnstones, stints, and ruffs 

 came and went in companies, and the divers left the 

 tundra lakes and flew down to the river, screaming 



jubilantly as if in anticipation of their autumn journey. 



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