306 WAITING FOR SPRING 



in severe weather an overcoat is worn, made of similar 

 material, shaped like a dressing-gown. In summer, 

 similar dresses are worn made of reindeer-leather, 

 stained or dyed in fanciful patterns. I am of opinion 

 that the Ostiaks of the Yenesei are a race of Samoyedes, 

 who migrated southwards into the forest region, and 

 adapted the national dress to a more southerly climate, 

 borrowing more or less the costume of the Tungusks. 

 They seem to be very poor. Living, as they do, prin- 

 cipally on the banks of the mighty river, fishing in the 

 summer-time and hunting in the winter, they come far 

 too much into contact with the Russians, who, with the 

 aid of their accursed vodka, plunder them to almost any 

 extent. 



On the 3rd of May Captain Schwanenberg left us on 

 a wild-goose chase up the Kureika in search of graphite. 

 He and eight men went up the river for about a hundred 

 versts. He chartered a party of Ostiaks, who engaged 

 to take him, his men, and his baggage, including a pump 

 and a sledge-load of spades, pick-axes, etc., at the rate 

 of 30 kopeks per pood. His destination was a waterfall 

 in a part of the river which is very narrow, and where 

 the banks are perpendicular rocks of graphite. A 

 quantity of this graphite had been brought down to the 

 winter quarters of the Thames the previous autumn. 

 Captain Wiggins took a sample with him to London, 

 which was unfavourably reported upon ; so Sideroff, who 

 has the concession for these mines, instructed Schwanen- 

 berg to dig deep into the ground and try to find graphite 

 of a better quality. Of course the expedition turned out 

 a disastrous failure, as will hereafter appear. 



The Ostiaks seem to reverse St. Paul's recommenda- 

 tion to women to have the head covered. In summer 

 the men wear no head-dress out of doors. In the house 



