262 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



distance of about two hundred versts to the south. 

 Here Miss Curtis and I were to disembark and live on 

 one of the lighters until the English expedition arrived. 



Since we might have to leave at any moment, we 

 spent the rest of the day in a whirl of packing and 

 preparation, but on the following morning, instead of 

 the Oryol, the Turukhansk and, later on, the Lena 

 appeared. They stopped only for a few hours at 

 Golchika, for they were both going on to the Sopochnaya 

 to take up a cargo of fish. The Yenesiesk lay where 

 she was, for she had not enough coal to take her to the 

 river's mouth. 



On the third morning, however, there was still no 

 Oryol, for a boisterous easterly wind held her storm- 

 bound about fifty versts up the river. Perhaps the 

 week that followed was the most trying that we spent 

 in Siberia. The gale raged without intermission for six 

 days. Each evening we expected the wind to drop, but 

 morning after morning it roared over the tundra and 

 lashed the river into foam. Most of our goods were 

 packed up, and as at any hour we might have to start 

 in a hurry, we did not like to open the boxes. Each 

 meal we hoped would be the last that we should eat in 

 the hut. We partook of it, figuratively speaking, as 

 the Israelites ate before the Exodus, with our loins 

 girded and our staves in our hands. We began to run 

 very short of food also ; and as five people cannot live 

 for an indefinite time on condensed milk and sardines, 

 we were reduced to buying salt beef from the Prokop- 

 chuks. Besides this, we were very anxious lest the con- 

 tinued storm should blow the ice into the river's mouth. 



