BACK TO SCHAROK 309 
So I wrote a third note to be left in the chapel, 
and sent Verrmyah galloping off with this after his 
father. 
This was a memorable day because of a great thunder- 
storm. At one time it was pouring rain and flashing 
lightning on every side. Only where we were was a 
single clear spot. 
Our poor Samoyeds were very frightened by thunder- 
storms. They were good Christians while it lasted. At 
every extra big flash or peal they crossed themselves 
religiously. Mrs. Uano brought out a little ikon (a 
picture image) on a stick, which she stuck in the ground. 
When first we came we saw a good deal of this little 
ikon. (1 think it was St. Vasili of Solovetsk.) For we 
were then supposed to have come from the Governor of 
Archangel. But in the familiarity of these later days 
poor little Vasili had been kept in the bag, and now he 
was only brought out for thunderstorms. 
To-day Mekolka brought me in wonder a common 
earthworm—just lumébricus terrestris to all appearance— 
which he had found lying on the ground. But I had no 
spirit for its preservation. It interested me much. When 
one considers that the ground for seven months out of 
twelve is frozen solid, it seems strange that a creature so 
highly specialised as the earth-worm, a creature too, 
whose development is direct, should be able to survive. 
But Mekolka had never seen a worm before, and this one, 
oT suspect, had been brought over in the crop of a gull. 
