A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 259 



craft to and fro so adroitly to hasten the laggards, and 

 soon recognised the white wolfskin cap of our old friend 

 Vassilli SotnikofF from the choom. I greeted him and 

 asked him where he was going. 



He waved a vague hand towards the south as he 

 answered in the naive fashion of his race: " DaleJco, 

 daleJco" (far away, far away). That is all that you can 

 ever learn from a native. He is going " into the tundra, 

 far, far away." I asked after Nicolai and Maxim and the 

 little old mother. Nicolai was here with the sledges, 

 but the rest were waiting in the tundra. They had 

 come here to buy tea and soushki for the journey. To- 

 morrow they would all go south before the snow came. 

 Already the nights were cold, and their warm clothing 

 had been left behind them in their winter choom at the 

 border of the forest. We said : " Prastchai" (farewell) 

 many times, and wished each other luck in pidgin-Russ. 



Next morning all the sledges had gone, and the 

 river-bank was deserted. Cold embers and a litter of 

 worn-out garments and cracked cooking-pots were all 

 that was left of the summer settlement. The people 

 had all gone " into the tundra." 



This same morning — the 26th of August — was hot 

 and still. Soon after midday we were returning from a 

 walk, when we saw Vassilli gesticulating like a madman 

 from the roof of the hut. There, just off the island, 

 was a steamer at last. Robinson Crusoe was not more 

 delighted than we, for a ship meant news of the outside 

 world — the first that we had received for weeks. We 

 tumbled pell-mell into the boat and rowed off in haste 

 down the river ; but as we reached Kutcherenkoff's fish 



