48 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



side, one could readily find their way about from 

 9 A.M. until 3 P.M. 



Christmas was celebrated in the usual Swedish 

 style with Christmas - tree, Christmas presents, 

 fish, and sweet-porridge. Christmas Eve was spent 

 between decks, which for the occasion was decorated 

 with suitable flags and signals. A wooden spar with 

 willow-branches (which had been brought from in- 

 land) tied to it, did duty as a Christmas-tree. It 

 was hung with paper flags and 200 presents, which 

 latter were divided by lottery among the whole 

 company. 



During the winter we had several opportunities of 

 sending home news of us, of which we naturally took 

 advantage, although uncertain if these communica- 

 tions would ever arrive at their intended destina- 

 tion. So early as October we were visited by the 

 chief Menka, mentioned before, and by him we sent 

 letters and telegrams to Anadyrsk, to be forwarded 

 from thence to Sweden. There is, however, no 

 regular postal communication between Anadyrsk 

 and the larger Siberian towns lying further west. 

 The letters would not arrive at Nijni Kolymsk until 

 March, when a great annual market is held there. 

 From thence they would be conveyed by visitors 

 to the market homeward bound to Yakutsk, with 

 which regular communication exists. In this way 

 we could not expect our letters to arrive in Sweden 

 before June or July. On several occasions we sent 



