43 § A E Y T S CIIE \V *S TRAVELS. 
their kettle on the fire, and did not leave it until we pursued oiif 
journeyi They spent the intervals of test in eating; and prac¬ 
tised petty thefts on each Other, when their own stock was ex¬ 
hausted. Thus they passed the whole night without sleep, and 
Were drowsy throughout the next day. 
It might naturally be expected, for such extraordinary voracity 
to be attended with ill consequences; and yet this was by no 
means the case. What they itiade a practice of devouring at 
one meal, would have killed almost any other person; but on 
them it had no visible effect. Their stomachs seemed to be of 
the ostrich kind, well fitted for the task of perpetual digestion. 
One of our men had an allowance of four poods of butter and fat, 
(above 100 English pounds) and two poods of rye-flour, an ample 
provision for the heartiest labourer; and yet a fortnight had not 
elapsed, before he began to complain of having nothing to eat, 
I could not credit what he said, until the other Jakuts informed 
me, to my infinite astonishment, that this man occasionally con¬ 
sumed at home, in the space of 24 hours, the hind-quarter of a 
large ox* and half a pood of fat, with a proportionate quantity 
of melted butter for his drink. But the appearance of the man 
did not bear them out in their assertions ; for he was small of 
stature, and very meagre. Having therefore a mind to make the 
trial of his gormandizing powers, I had a thick porridge of rice 
boiled with three pounds of butter, weighing together 28 pounds. 
.Although the glutton had already breakfasted, yet he sat 
dow n w ith great eagerness, and, to my perfect amazement, con¬ 
sumed the whole without stirring from the spot. The extension 
of his stomach betrayed indeed a more than ordinary fullness* 
but otherw ise, he discovered not the slightest symptom of having 
been injured or molested by it; and would in fact have been pre-* 
pared for the renewal of his gluttony the next day* 1 advised 
our cormorant, however, to practise a little forbearance in fu¬ 
ture, and portion out the allowance given him for the time ap¬ 
pointed. He now abstained from making himself any more 
porridge, and mixing his flour alone with cold water, ate it in 
that raw state, that he might be the sooner satisfied. 
The banks of the river continued, as before, to be partly sd 
low as to admit the water over them, and partly mountainous, 
according as the river itself wound through a high or low country* 
The wood consisted principally of larches, with here and there 
of poplars, alders, and others. For the distance of 250 versts 
both the banks w ere enclosed by, or ran parallel with mountains, 
from whence this track is called Stscheki, (cheeks). On the 
7th of August the water rose within 24 hours so high as to 
break its bounds, and by the violence of its stream, brought a 
quantity of wood into the river, I should conclude from tins 
