VIII.] 
RUSSIAN HOUSES. 
385 
trading with the natives, for fishing, and at some places for 
washing gold. Not till we come to the middle of the country 
is the Russian population more numerous; here it spreads out in 
a broad belt over the whole of the immense expanse between 
the Ural and the Angara. 
In the farthest north the Russian dwelling-places consist of 
single cabins built of logs or planks from broken-up lighters,^ 
SIBERIAN RIVER BOAT. 
Used by the Norwegian traveller Clir. Hansteen on the river Angara. • 
and having flat, turf-covered roofs. Such carvings and orna¬ 
ments as are commonly found on the houses of the well-to-do 
Russian peasant, and whose artistic outlines indicate that the 
^ Provisions and wares intended for trade with the natives are trans¬ 
ported on the Yenisei, as on many other Siberian rivers, down the stream 
in colossal lighters, built of planks like logs. It does not pay to take 
them up the river again, on which account, after their lading has been 
taken out of them, they are either left on the bank to rot or broken up for 
the timber. 
C C 
