THE NATIVE RACES 309 



cut to fit each piece. Sometimes glass is dispensed with 

 altogether, and pieces of semi-transparent fish-skin are 

 stitched together and stretched across the window-frame. 

 In winter double windows are absolutely necessary to 

 prevent the inmates of the houses from being frozen to 

 death. The outside windows project about six inches in 

 front of the inside ones. If the inside window reveals 

 the poverty of the inhabitants, the outside window seem- 

 ingly displays his extravagance. To all appearances it is 

 composed of one solid pane of plate-glass nearly three 

 inches thick. On closer examination this extravagant 

 sheet of plate-glass turns out to be a slab of ice carefully 

 frozen into the framework with a mixture of snow and 

 water in place of putty. 



On Sunday, the 6th of May, I had a short stroll if 

 walking on snow-shoes can be called strolling in the 



o o 



forest, but I shot nothing except a blackcock. In the 

 afternoon I put together all the notes I had dotted 

 down about the geographical distribution of the native 

 tribes in these parts. Most of this information I obtained 

 from my most intelligent friend the second priest of 

 Turukansk, whom Captain Wiggins and his friends had 

 nicknamed the " Thirteenth Aposde." 



The most northerly race are the Samoyedes. They 

 extend from the Kanin peninsula in Europe to the 

 north-east cape in Asia. They occupy a strip of land 

 extending from the coast southwards for about three 

 hundred miles, exceeding that distance at the gulf of the 

 Ob and the Taz, the whole of the shores of which they 

 frequent. 



The Yuraks are a small race nearly allied to the 

 Samoyedes. They occupy the district between the east 

 shore of the gulf of the Taz and the Yenesei from the 

 Arctic Circle to about 70 North latitude. 



