IV.] NOEWEGIAN TRAFFIC WITH THE SAMOYEDS. 
209 
of harbours. They now, however, land occasionally to take in 
water, and perhaps to barter the tobacco they have saved from 
their rations, knives they have no use for, and old-fashioned 
guns, gunpowder, lead, &c., for the products of the Samoyeds’ 
reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing. At first the natives 
fled when they saw the Norwegians coming, and, when they 
could not make their escape, they saluted them with great 
humility, falling on their knees and bending their heads to the 
earth, and were unwilling to enter into any traffic with them 
or to show them their goods. But since the Samoyeds observed 
that the Norwegians never did them any harm, the mistrust 
and excessive humility have completely disappeared. Now a 
visit of Europeans is very agreeable to them, partly for the 
opportunity which it offers of obtaining by barter certain 
articles of necessity, luxury, or show, partly perhaps also for 
the interruption thereby caused in the monotony of the tundra 
life. When the walrus-hunters row or sail along that open 
coast, it often happens that natives run backwards and forwards 
on the shore, and by signs eagerly invite the foreigners to land ; 
if they do so, and there are any wealthy Samoyeds in the 
neighbourhood, there immediately begins a grand entertainment, 
according to the customs of the people, with more than one 
trait reminding us of the sketches from the traditionary periods 
of the civilised nations. 
What I have stated here is about all that we know of Yalmal, 
and we see from this that a very promising, yet untouched field 
for researches in ethnography and natural history here lies 
before future travellers to the Yenisej. 
What sort of winter is there at the mouth of the Yenisej ? 
We have for the present no information on this point, as no scien¬ 
tific man has wintered there. But on the other hand we have a 
very exciting narrative of the wintering of the Fin, Nummelin", 
at the Briochov Islands in the Yenisej in lat. 70° 48' north. 
p 
