134 FARTHEST NORTH 



and difficult journey with our dogs. The account was 

 written by A. Kryloff from Trontheim s story. The fol- 

 lowing is a short resume : 



After having made the contract wdth Baron Toll, 

 Trontheim was on January 2Sth (January i6th by Rus- 

 sian reckoning) already at Berezoff, where there was then 

 a Yassak-meeting," and consequently a great assembly of 

 Ostiaks and Samoyedes. Trontheim made use of this 

 opportunity and bought 2,3 (this ought probably to be 

 40) choice sledge dogs. These he conveyed to the little 

 country town of Muzhi, where he made preparations for 

 the "very long journey," passing the time in this way 

 till April 1 6th. By this date he had prepared 300 pud 

 (about 9600 lbs.) of dog provender, consisting chiefly of 

 dried fish. For 300 roubles he engaged a Syriane, 

 named Terentieff, with a reindeer herd of 450, to convey 

 him, his dogs, and baggage to Yugor Strait. For three 

 months these two with their caravan — reindeer, drivers, 

 dogs, women, and children — travelled through the barren 

 tracts of northern Siberia. At first their route lay 

 through the Ural Mountains. " It was more a sort of 

 nomadic life than a journey. They did not go straight 

 on towards their destination, but wandered over wide 

 tracts of country, stopping wherever it was suitable for 

 the reindeer, and where they found lichen. From the 

 little town of Muzhi the expedition passed up the Voikara 



* Yassak is a tax paid in fur by the Siberians. 



