MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRfiK 



175 



siasm. After having sojourned for several weeks at Toropkowa, a small island 

 at the confluence of these two mighty streams, he ascended the Obi in July as 

 far as Surgut, where he arrived in the beginning of August. 



In consequence of the overflowing of its waters, the river had spread into a 

 boundless lake, whose monotony was only relieved, from time to time, by some 

 small wooded island or some inundated village. The rising of the stream had 

 spread misery far and wide, for many Ostiak families had been obliged to aban- 

 don their huts, and to seek a refuge in the forests. Those who had horses 

 and cows had the greatest difliculty to keep them alive ; and as all the meadows 

 were under water, and the autumn, with its night-frosts, was already approach- 

 ing, there was scarcely any hope of making hay for the winter. 



As Castren proceeded on his journey, the low banks of the river rose above 

 the waters, and appeared in all their wild and gloomy desolation. The number 

 of inhabitants along the Obi is utterly insignificant when compared with the 

 wide extent of the country ; and as hunting and fishing are their chief occupa- 

 tions, nothing is done to subdue the wilderness. The weary eye sees but a dull 

 succession of moors, willow bushes, dry heaths, and firs on the higher grounds. 

 Near every flourishing tree stands another bearing the marks of decay. The 

 young grass is hemmed in its growth by that of the previous year, which even 

 in July gives the meadow a dull ash-gray color. Cranes, wild ducks, and geese 

 are almost the only living creatures to be seen. From Siljarski to Surgut, a 

 distance of 200 versts, there are but three Russian villages ; and the Ostiaks, 

 who form the main part of the population, generally live along the tributary 

 rivers, or erect their summer huts on the smaller arms of the Obi, where they 

 can make a better use of their very imperfect fishing implements than on the 

 principal stream. 



Surgut, once a fortress, and the chief town of the Cossack conquerors of Si- 

 beria, is now reduced to a few miserable huts, scattered among the ruins of re- 

 peated conflagrations. 



Here Castren remained till September 24, occupied with the study of the va- 

 rious dialects of the neighboring Ostiak tribes, and then ascended the Obi as far 

 as Narym, a distance of 800 versts. Most of the fishermen had already retired 

 from the banks of the river, and a death-like stillness, rarely interrupted by an 

 Ostiak boat rapidly shooting through the stream, reigned over its waters. 



Fortunately the weather was fine, at least during the first days of the journey; 

 and the green river-banks, the birds singing in the trees, and the sunbeams 

 glancing over the wide mirror of the Obi, somewhat enlivened the monotony 

 of the scene. 



After having enjoyed at Xarym a remarhatly mild Siberian winter, as no 

 CTOios had been frozen to death, and having increased his knowledge of the Os- 

 tiak dialects, Castren proceeded in the following spring, by way of Tomsk, to 

 Krasnojarsk, on the Jenissei, where he arrived in April, 1846, and was welcomed 

 in a most agreeable and unexpected manner. It will be remembered that dur- 

 ing his stay at Ishemsk, in the tundra of the Samoiedes, he found warm-hearted 

 friends and protectors against the insane bigotry of the Raskolniks in the Is- 

 prawnik and his young and amiable wife. Of the latter it might truly be said 



