ALL THAT CAN BE SAID OF AYAN. 481 
IIow singularly mournful such partings often arc! — 
such abrupt terminations of unexpected but pleasant 
associations of a few days! Our jovial host lost his 
laughing roughness as he emptied the ashes from his last 
pipe, and Ids voice softened, and I thought his eye was 
more brilliant than usual, as lie bade us farewell, — we who 
had broken in upon their silent solitude and helped them 
to pass so many pleasant hours. 
‘‘I’ll tell 3^ou what it is,” he said, slowly, as lie passed 
from one to the other with outstretched hands, “you fel- 
lows don’t know what a serious thing you are about to do. 
You are going to leave us here to our solitude just as 
the long winter is coming over us. You are going to 
return to your friends and homes in the civilized world, 
while we are to be frozen in here with our useless bil- 
liard-table and the stores we bought from the Leveret. 
Don’t you think that furs ought to sell high when Chris- 
tian men have to live such a life to get them? I wish 
they were twice as dear: then my paj' would be double, 
and I should only have to stay here half as long.” ^ 
And thus we parted, and the next morning’s sun shone 
upon the “old John” as she steamed slowly away from 
those isolated but truly hospitable mansions toward the 
scene of future work. 
After all that has been said, it would be needless to 
add that we did not find any coal at Ayan. And now for 
a parting word in regard to that slightly-known place. I 
forgot its exact position, but its latitude is about 56° Jf. 
and longitude 138° E., and it is about half-way between the 
larger town of Okotsk and the mouth of the Amoor River. 
It contains some thirty or forty scattering houses, a Greek 
31 
