A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 257 



And although we civilised folk were less sensitive 

 to weather influences than either the birds or the 

 Samoyedes, yet we too felt an indefinable something — 

 perhaps a legacy from the days when our fathers were 

 as simple as they — which made us long to pack up our 

 things and likewise take our leave of Golchika. 



At this time our plans were rather nebulous. Miss 

 Czaplicka and Mr. Hall had arranged to travel back to 

 Turukhansk by the Oryol, and from thence make their 

 way into the tundra, in order to study the Tungus 

 tribes. Miss Curtis and I were to return to Eno-land 

 for the winter. We wished if possible to obtain a 

 passage on one of the ships of the Siberian Steamship 

 Company, which, each year, sends an expedition for 

 trading purposes to the mouth of the Yenesei. This 

 expedition was expected to reach Golchika at the end 

 of August ; but there was always some uncertainty 

 about its arrival, owing to the condition of the ice in the 

 Kara Sea, which in some years completely closes the 

 Yenesei against shipping. If the Anglishi paraliod 

 (English steamer), as the Golchikans called it, did not 

 arrive, we could return to Krasnoyarsk in the Oryol, 

 and from thence make our way overland by the Trans- 

 Siberian Railway. Our hopes as to the punctual arrival 

 of the steamer were a good deal dashed by the report 

 of some Samoyedes who came to Golchika at the begin- 

 ning of August. They had travelled up from the wild 

 tundras which lay far away at the mouth of the river, 

 and they said that, farther north, they had been unable 

 to fish, for the season was so cold that the ice on the 

 lakes had never broken up at all. However, in any 

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