CHAP. VIII.] 
THE SKOPTZI. 
391 
catching and eating fish, and from selling to us, who in any 
case were lost beings, a fine fat ox, on condition that our own 
people should slaughter it. Their abstinence from some 
kinds of animal food had besides the good result of inducing 
them to devote themselves to the cultivation of the soil. 
Bound about their cabins accordingly there were patches of land 
growing potatoes, turnips, and cabbage, which at least that year 
yielded an abundant crop, though lying under the Arctic circle. 
Farther south such plots increase in size, and yield rich crops, 
at least, of a very large potato. There is no proper cultivation of 
grain till we come to Sykobatka, situated in 60° N.L., but in a 
future, when forests and mosses are diminished, a profitable 
agriculture will be carried on far to the northward. 
Along with the dwellings of the Russians, the tents of the 
natives, or, as the Russians call them, “ the Asiatics,” are often 
to be met with. They have the same shape as the Lapp kota.” 
The Samoyed tent is commonly covered with reindeer skins, the 
Ostyak tent with birch bark. In the neighbourhood of the 
tent there are always large numbers of dogs, which during 
winter are employed for general carrying purposes, and in 
summer for towing boats up the river—a means of water trans¬ 
port which greatly astonished the Norwegian sailors with whom 
I travelled up the river in 1875. To see people travelling in a 
boat drawn by dogs appeared to them more remarkable than 
the Kremlin of Moscow, or the bells of Kiev. For such a 
journey a sufficient number of dogs are harnessed to a long line, 
one end of which is fastened to the stem of the boat. The dogs 
then go along the level bank, where they make actual foot¬ 
paths. The boat being of light draught is kept afloat at a 
sufficient distance from land partly by means of the rudder 
which is managed by a person sitting in the stem of the boat, 
and partly by poling from the fore. Small boats are often 
hollowed out of a single tree-stem, and may notwithstanding, 
thanks to the size which some of the pines attain in those 
