First there was a grand banquet, attended only by gentlemen, mainly much like similar affairs elsewhere, with the addition that the new governor, a short, fat gentleman, was repeatedly tossed up by vigorous arms high over the heads of the guests, and then conducted to his residence. Then, two days after, came a ball. To us the most notable incident in this ball was just after supper, when all the ladies disappeared, as if by enchantment. Bush undertook to discover their whereabouts, and found them in a private room, every one of them smoking cigarettes.

October 20.-To-morrow we are off to begin our real work of exploration. Our stay of thirty-five days at Nikolayefsk has given us opportunity for becoming acquainted with the metropolis of Eastern Siberia. It is a new place, first founded in 1851 as a trading post. Three years after the troops and munitions of war were brought here from Petropaulovski. It now contains some 5000 inhabitants, mainly soldiers and convicts, with a number of merchants of different nations. These merchants live in good style, and show themselves gentlemen in every way. There is a semi-monthly mail from St. Petersburg, which brings the latest newspapers -a great improvement upon Petropaulovski, where the latest news may be any where from three months to three years old. There is also a small weekly newspaper published here. A couple of photographic galleries are established, which now and then produce very respectable pictures. The main business of the common people seems to be the keeping of "prasniks," or holy-days. These holy-days comprise every Sunday and every saint's day, besides the birthday and death-day of every body of note. Taking the year through, two days out of three are prasniks, upon which no work must be done. In some weeks there are eight prasniks, the saints being obliged to ride double. The mode of observance is very simple. It is simply to go to church in the morning, and get drunk in the afternoon. The favorite tipple is alcohol, more or less diluted. A "good square drunk" on this fluid will last for several days, if properly managed.

The festivities being over, we were busy making our preparations for departure, the governor and all the officers giving us every assistance. We were lucky enough to engage as interpreter Mr. Swartz, a Pole; and the governor detailed Yakov, a Cossack, to accompany us to Oudskoi, a month's journey on our way, where the ispravnik, or magistrate, was directed to replace him by another Cossack for the remainder of the way.

We learned that reindeer were the only means of transport for the first part of our journey, and that these were very scarce, being only used by a few scattered families of Tungusians. By sending messengers in every direction we at last succeeded in getting together twenty of these animals. Four were to be used for riding by Mahood, Bush, Swartz, and Yakov; two by a couple of Tungusians, who had been engaged as guides; the remaining fourteen were to be used as beasts of burden. Our outfit is not to be very luxurious, for we find that we must leave behind most of our baggage. We retain the furs brought from Petropaulovski, and two or three changes of under-clothing. We have a little tent, made for us at the government sail-loft, twenty-six canvas panniers, and four wooden packing boxes, a couple of thermometers, flints, steel, and compasses. take tea and sugar, and a little pork. We expect to procure fresh meat from the natives, to pay for which we carry ten gallons of alcohol. Our kitchen apparatus consists of a teakettle, frying-pan, tin pail for making soup, three iron cups and saucers, with wooden spoons; for the rest, we depend on our sheathknives and fingers. For weapons we have our

We

For a fortnight we awaited the arrival of Admiral Furruhelm, the new governor. All this time the town was on tiptoe of anxiety, making arrangements for grand entertainments in honor of the old governor and of welcome to

December 19.-For three weeks we have been halting at Oudskoi, about a third of the way to Okhotsk, where we hope to hear of Abasa and Kennan. I jot down some memoranda of the occurrences of the last two months. The first part of our way lay along the river to the lake, or rather lagoon, of Osell, near which we were to meet with our reindeer. To accomplish this the governor placed at our disposal a little iron steamer, the Gonetz. The morning of our departure, October 21, was pleasant; but before night it began to grow colder, and

GILAK ENCAMPMENT.

at 7 P.M. the thermometer indicated +22°, ten degrees below freezing - point. At night we tied up to the shore, having made about thirty miles. Next morning was not quite so cold, but ice was rapidly forming, and soon it was an inch thick, through which we could hardly force our way. At half past nine a furious snow-storm sprung up, hiding every thing. Fuel was running low, and we feared that our trip was cut short at the very outset; but the men set to work cutting wood, and, the weather moderating a little, we got under way again, and finally reached the head of the lake, where the steamer left us at a Gilak encampment, and returned to Nikolayefsk.

This Gilak encampment was our first actual experience of native life. It consisted of a sort of roof composed of strips of birch bark, open in front and at the ends, sloping down to the ground. In front of it a woman was cooking dinner over a small fire, upon which was a pot containing several fine trout. Under the shed was a layer of green boughs, covered with deer-skins, upon which lay half a dozen humans and as many dogs. At one end was a cradle, suspended upright by thongs from the ridge-pole, in which was strapped an infant. It hung just high enough to enable the little one to reach the ground with his toes, so that he could swing himself back and forth. Near by were a couple of women squatted upon the ground diligently sewing away upon some skin garments. Other children were fighting with the dogs, and one old hag was picking vermin from the head of a dirty-faced girl, disposing of her prey as we sometimes see monkeys do in a menagerie. On the bank behind the encampment was the sacred place of the people. Upon low poles were the skulls of bears, placed there as a kind of votive offering. When a skull is put up it is anointed with tobacco spittle and the juice of roots and berries, after which it must not be

disturbed. The sanctuary was a venerable one, for many of the skulls were thickly covered with moss, and so brittle as to crumble when touched.

Here we expected to meet our guides with the deer, but for a whole day they did not make their appearance. At evening of the next day we heard a shout of Alane! which we had learned meant "deer." Rushing in the direction of the sound, we got our first view of the famous reindeer of which we had read so much from boyhood. Alas! the illusions of youth were rudely dispelled. Picking their way along the beach was a group of animals looking in the distance like a herd of ill-conditioned cows. Mounted on the shoulders of the leading deer was a man so thickly clad in fur that he looked like a giant. In his hand he carried a heavy staff, with which he kept pounding upon the sides or horns of the poor beast, while his heels kept up a tattoo on the ribs, every blow or kick accompanied by a cluck with the tongue. With all his exertions, he could not urge the deer beyond a walk. Behind the leading deer were eight or ten others, each fastened by a halter to the one preceding it. Then came another rider, with as many more pack-deer in tow.

When they came up the deer formed a motley crowd. Most of them were white, but some had brown backs, with yellowish bellies. They were about five feet high, with big heads, thin bodies, slender legs, and large, cloven hoofs. The hoof spreads when the animal plants it upon the ground; when the foot is raised the toes come together with a click, like the sound of a castanet, making a continuous rattle when on the march. Two or three had complete antlers. Of the others, some lacked one horn; others had both chopped off six inches from the skull, leaving a savage-looking prong, not unlike a human hand with stumps of fingers spread out in a fan-like shape. These were bucks trained for riding, their horns having been cut off for the safety of the riders.

As the first rider dismounted and threw back his fur hood we recognized him as Mikhaeloff, one of the Tungusians whom we had seen at the governor's residence in Nikolayefsk. Constantine, his companion, was a stranger. Their names were Russian, and had been bestowed upon them when they were baptized into the Greek Church. A few days afterward, when laid up by a storm, Bush persuaded Mikhaeloff

man beings we had met for a fortnight. They were just starting for Tugur, a small Russian post near by; and we joined their company. Reaching this place, we found, to our disappointment, that it was deserted. On the door of the principal hut was tacked a notice that, for want of supplies, the occupants had gone to another whaling station seventy miles off.

We were sadly disappointed; for here we had expected to be able to replenish our supplies. This also was the end of the distance to which Constantine and Mikhaeloff had agreed to conduct us; and no persuasions would induce them to go further, as they wished to return to their homes to hunt sable. The next station was Algasee, fifteen days distant. From an old woman whom we found crouched over a few embers in a little hut we learned that there was a man, in charge of a few cows, residing two or three miles away; and from him we learned that a few miles beyond was a settlement of Yakouts, where resided the starasta, or head-man of the district, who could furnish us with supplies; and, as we were provided with documents from the governor of Nikolayefsk, we had no doubt of getting fresh deer for our journey.

The old starasta was hard at a bargain; but we finally succeeded in hiring deer; and also engaged Vassilly and Eoff, the two hunters whom we had overtaken, to act as guides, and to take care of the deer. Vassilly had a special reason for accompanying us; for he was going on in order to be married to a daughter of a chief, whom he had purchased for his wife, paying eighty reindeer-a large price, for deer are here very scarce, the owner of a dozen being considered well off. A deer trained for carrying or riding is worth from twenty-five to forty dollars. Notwithstanding their anxiety to be at home, Mikhaeloff and Constantine were sorry to part with us. On their departure we gave them letters to the governor, which we hope secured the expected reward of swords and medals.

INTERIOR OF A YAKOUT YOURT.

We set off on the 15th of November, in the face of a keen wind, the thermometer at -10°. Our route lay across the Arla Hills, which rise to a height of 4000 feet. Our deer were great improvements upon the former ones. We could hardly believe that they belonged to the same species. The one which Bush rode was especially lively, and treated him to several enforced dismountings. The snow was two and a half feet deep, through which we had to break a path. We sadly felt the want of snow-shoes, and upon halting Eoff made a rude pair out of the boughs of a tree. The proper Tungusian snow-shoe is quite an elaborate affair. They are of wood, hewn very thin, and soled with seal-skin, the hair pointing backward. They thus glide forward easily, and the lay of the hair prevents them from slipping backward. But as we had no skins, we had to content ourselves with ordinary wooden shoes. By-andby we had to give up riding, for it was as much as the deer could do to flounder through the snow. We followed as well as we could in their trail. This was no easy task, as the animals take long steps, each one planting his feet in the tracks made by those ahead. These tracks form deep holes thirty inches apart, and not more than six inches in diameter. The ascent of the mountains is very gradual, and we hardly realized it until reaching the top, when the whole region which we had been traversing for three days lay spread below us like a chart.

We were heading to the yourt, or huts, belonging to Solavaoff, a famous cattle-dealer in those parts, doing a large business with Nikolayefsk. During the Crimean war, while the Russian troops were in great straits for provisions, he drove a whole herd to the Amoor. The Czar rewarded him with a coat, gorgeous with gold-lace and fringe. Unluckily he is a small man, while the coat was cut for a very large one. In spite of the bad fit he is very proud of it. Solavaoff's store-houses and stables are built of logs, but the dwelling-houses look like mounds of clay. The principal apartment is twenty feet square. Eight windows, a foot or two square, give light. Some have panes of glass, but most only thin skins or cakes of transparent ice. An ice window will last the whole winter. There is a fireplace and chimney, built of poles, and plastered over with layers of mud. It projects far into the room, and is so thick that when once heated it will retain the warmth for hours. Along three sides of the room is a kind of divan, used as seats by day and beds by night; but it is sufficient to accommodate only a part of the family; the remainder sleep upon piles of deerskins on the floor. Of course