400 FROM DUDINKA TO GOLCHIKA 



agent at that station. This was the busiest place we had 

 yet seen on the river ; it contained three or four wooden 

 houses, a couple of chooms, and a yurt. The latter was 

 a turf and mud house, nearly square, built half under the 

 ground and half above it, a few larch-poles as rafters 

 supporting the turf roof, altogether making probably as 

 good a house for the summer as one could have in this 

 part of the world. When the cold north wind blows the 

 house may easily be kept warm with a small fire ; and in 

 the burning heat of the sun it forms a cool retreat, easily 

 cleared of mosquitoes by smoke. A small steamer lay at 

 the mouth of the kuria, as these arms of the river are 

 called ; along with her lay a barge, and in various places 

 Russian lodkas and Samoyede canoes were moored. On 

 land fishing-nets were piled in every stage of wetness, 

 dryness, fulness, and emptiness ; fish was being salted, 

 casks were being filled or packed in the barge. Some 

 hundreds of white-fox skins were hanging up to dry, and 

 men of various nationalities were going to and fro. The 

 more information I tried to obtain about these eastern 

 tribes, the more puzzled I became. I was presented to 

 a Samoyede of the name of Patshka, called the King of 

 the Samoyedes. When I asked him if he were a Samo- 

 yede he gave me a very hesitating affirmative, but freely 

 admitted that he was Yurak. He emphatically denied 

 that he was Ostiak, Tungusk, or Dolgan. The natives 

 did not seem to recognise the word Samoyede, except 

 perhaps as a Russian term for an Asiatic. One told 

 me he was a Hantaiski, another that he was Bergovoi, 

 another that he was Karasinski, whilst a fourth called 

 himself an Avamski. The only conclusion I could come 

 to was that they were all Yuraks, and that the names by 

 which they called themselves referred to their respective 

 districts. 



