I IO Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIX, 



of Cossacks about the middle of the i8th century. Most of 

 the people now living in this section of Siberia are descendants 

 of these early settlers and the native women, principally 

 Chukchees, whom they took for wives. The population of 

 Gichiga, Christova, Kooshka, and the few isolated fishing 

 stations along the river, numbers about 375. Nearly all of 

 the able-bodied men are enlisted as Cossacks and provided 

 with rations by the government. The affairs of the colony 

 are administered by the local governor, or nechalnik, and his 

 two assistants. 



The salmon, which ascend the rivers in immense numbers 

 during July and August, when they are caught and dried, 

 constitute the people's chief supply of food. These, together 

 with the reindeer they obtain from the Tunguses and Koryaks, 

 the wild fowl which they shoot in the summer, and the plain 

 birch tea and sugar which they get from the traders in ex- 

 change for work and furs, complete their bill of fare. Owing 

 to the limited resources of the country very few of the inhabi- 

 tants are able to obtain anything more than a poor existence 

 from it. While many valuable skins and furs are received 

 yearly by the traders at the few scattered settlements in 

 Northeast Siberia, still the territory that they represent is so 

 vast and so thoroughly travelled by the numerous wandering 

 natives and hardy Russians that one finds an amazingly 

 small number of fur-bearing mammals, or indeed of any kind 

 of animal life that will serve for food, in any limited area. 

 Northeastern Asia has undoubtedly for centuries had a vastly 

 larger native population than northeastern America, and the 

 natives there have been in contact with Russians, and ac- 

 quainted with the use of firearms, for nearly 250 years, so 

 that to-day the animal life of northern Siberia, outside of the 

 timbered portion, is less than that of the barren portion of 

 Alaska. 



Snow begins to fall in the valleys the first week in October, 

 and the rivers and lakes freeze over a few days later. The 

 snow falls at intervals from this time on until the middle of 

 May, but probably does not exceed a depth of eighteen inches 

 on the level. However, this is a hard matter to determine, as 



