THE MAINLAND 369 
channels. For two rivers enter this gulf, viz., the Kam- 
balnitsa and the Kolokolkova. But we grounded so often 
that we gave it up, and with great difficulty worked our 
way down again, and so lay with a foot of water under 
our keel. 
One of the mainland Samoyeds, whose name was 
Pronia, crossed again, and returned bringing his wife to 
call upon our old Anka. They both rowed, with the 
baby on the bottom of the boat between them. I was 
much amused with the women’s quaint politenesses to 
one another. Mrs. Pronia wore earrings with bunches 
of hare’s fur in them. These people brought kambola, 
which our crew ate raw. They told me there are no 
salmon here, but admitted they had never set nets to 
see. On this evening, as our fuel is reduced to two logs, 
we went by invitation to supper with Alexis. 
On our return our visitors dropped the baby into their 
tiny boat (which a man could easily lift on to his shoulder) 
and pulled off across the dark river-mouth with a two- 
mile journey before them. 
The following morning opened fine, and Alexander 
had quite made up his mind to run out with the tide and 
make for the Timanskii Schar, behind Sengenskii Island, 
which is only a hundred versts from his home. He has 
never before been in our present harbour, and does not 
like it. But just as we were off a fog came on, and then 
the wind chopped to the north, and we were prisoners. 
So there was nothing for it but to warp the boats to 
2A 
