II.l 
CHABAR(3VA. 
75 
a clay bottom. The Lena was still wanting. We feared that 
the little steamer had had some difficulty in keeping afloat 
in the sea which had been encountered on the other side of 
North Cape. A breaker had even dashed over the side of 
the larger Vega and broken in pieces one of the boxes which 
were fastened to the deck. Our fears were unwarranted. The 
Lena had done honour to her builders at Motala works, and 
behaved well in the heavy sea. The delay had been caused by 
a compass deviation, which, on account of the slight horizontal 
intensity of the magnetism of the earth in these northern 
latitudes, was greater than that obtained during the examina¬ 
tion made before the departure of the vessel from Gothenburg. 
On the 31st the Lena anchored alongside the other vessels, and 
thus the whole of our little Polar Sea squadron was collected at 
the appointed rendezvous. 
Chabarova is a little village, situated on the mainland, south 
of Yugor Schar, west of the mouth of a small river in which, at 
certain seasons fish are exceedingly abundant. During summer 
the place is inhabited by a number of Samoj^eds, who pasture 
their herds of reindeer on Vaygats Island and the surrounding 
tundra, and by some Russians and Russianised Fins, who come 
hither from Pustosersk to carry on barter with the Samoyeds, 
and with their help to fish and hunt in the neighbouring sea. 
During winter the Samoyeds drive their herds to more 
southern regions, and the merchants carry their wares to 
Pustosersk, Mesen, Archangel, and other places. Thus it has pro¬ 
bably gone on for centuries back, but it is only in comparatively 
recent times that fixed dwellings have been erected, for they are 
not mentioned in the accounts of the voyages of the Dutch in 
tliese regions. 
The village, or Samoyed town ” as the walrus-hunters 
grandiosely call it, consists, like other great towns, of two 
portions, the town of the rich—some cabins built of wood, 
with flat turf-covered roofs—and the quarter of the common 
