412 GOLCHIKA 



Petersburg advised me not to throw good money after 

 bad, and it remains unpaid to this day. I was delighted 

 when the affair was at last settled, and the Russians 

 could no longer accuse us of acting in a dog-in-the- 

 manger fashion. Sotnikoff's steamer left that evening 

 with the two captains and the Ibis, and, what was much 

 more to the point, he was accompanied by the voracious 

 Zessedatel. I paid my P.P.C. visit to him, received the 

 Zessedatel's official kiss, and got off cheaply by giving 

 him ten roubles for a wolf's skin worth half that sum. 



When we rose the next morning we found that 

 Ballandine's steamer had sailed during the night, leaving 

 us with the last steamer at Golchika. We were told to 

 hold ourselves in readiness to start the first moment the 

 water rose high enough to float us, but we did not weigh 

 anchor until the afternoon, and the evening was spent 

 in getting on and off the shoals at the mouth of the 

 Golchika river. We did not get clear of the sandbanks 

 until four o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, nor 

 should we have done so then had not a smart breeze 

 from the north-west backed up the waters of the Yenesei, 

 and raised us from two to three feet. The harbour of 

 Golchika will shortly have to be abandoned, for the 

 sandbanks at the mouth of the river increase every 

 year. The channel through them is tortuous, and is 

 rapidly becoming more shallow. No ships drawing 

 more than five feet of water ought to venture near it, and 

 then they should only enter it with great care and 

 vigilance. When the ice thaws in spring, the water 

 rises three or four feet. The year of our visit it had 

 risen more, and stood three feet deep in the houses ; but 

 this was an extraordinary occurrence, and, we were told, 

 had never happened before during the ten years that 

 steamers had been in the habit of visiting Golchika. 



