TO THE HOLY HILLS 321 
strong. He had a great deal of the oracle about him 
because he had been to St. Petersburg. 
Alexander received us in his hut, where he fed us on 
raw salmon, raw flounder (which they had taken with their 
nets from the creek), some milk and vodki; and after- 
wards with flounder cooked, cooked reindeer, rum and tea. 
We stayed long with him, and he told us many things. 
He said that he feared his cousin Alexis was lost in 
the ice, for he had left the Petchora in the beginning of 
June, and had not been heard of since. 
August 21st to 24¢2.—Well, all these days passed 
without any event of moment. On the first we picked a 
tin-full of cloudberries, not ripe, but nearly so. The 
next day Mekolka came down, and brought with him my 
little sleigh and a complete set of miniature harness. On 
the following day the blue fox came back for another 
look at the geese, and finding the spot occupied sheered 
off, and came cantering jauntily past me within ten yards. 
Aug. 25¢h.—On this day it was arranged that I should 
go and visit the high mountains. Alexander, besides 
having a part share in Uano’s deer, had a herd of some 
two hundred or so away in the hills near the rising of 
the Gobista river. These deer were under the charge 
of a second Marrk (not our old goosing friend) whom 
we had not yet seen. And in the course of the afternoon 
he turned up with reindeer—with two teams, 
Hyland, who was ill with a chill, was not able to get 
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