ed from one side to another of
a narrow gut, and there left. It was of no avail examining it until
morning, for the fish only come out at night.

There was not a man of the party who had his exact sense about him,
while the dogs lay panting on the snow, their tongues hanging out,
their eyes glaring with almost savage fury. The trees round the bank
were large and dry, and not one had an atom of soft bark on it. All
the resource they had was to drink huge draughts of tea, and then
seek sleep. Sakalar set the example, and the Kolimsk men, to whom such
scenes were not new, followed his advice; but Ivan walked up and down
before the tent. A huge fire had been made, which was amply fed by the
wood of the river bank, and it blazed on high, showing in bold relief
the features of the scene. Ivan gazed vacantly at everything; but he
saw not the dark and glancing river--he saw not the bleak plain of
snow--his eyes looked not on the romantic picture of the tent and its
bivouac-fire: his thoughts were on one thing alone. He it was who
had brought them to that pass, and on his head rested all the misery
endured by man and beast, and, worst of all, by the good and devoted
Kolina.

There she sat, too, on the ground, wrapped in her warm clothes, her
eyes, fixed on the crackling logs. Of what was she thinking? Whatever
occupied her mind, it was soon chased away by the sudden speech
of Ivan. "Kolina," said he, in a tone which borrowed a little of
intensity from the state of mind in which hunger had placed all of
them, "canst thou ever forgive me?"

"What?" replied the young girl softly.

"My having brought you here to die, far away from your native hills?"

"Kolina cares little for herself," said the Yakouta maiden, rising and
speaking perhaps a little wildly; "let her father escape, and she is
willing to lie near the tombs of the old people on the borders of the
icy sea."

"But Ivan had hoped to see for Kolina many bright, happy days; for
Ivan would have made her father rich, and Kolina would have been the
richest unmarried girl in the plain of Mioure!"

"And would riches make Kolina happy?" said she sadly.

"Young girl of the Yakouta, hearken to me! Let Ivan live or die this
hour; Ivan is a fool. He left home and comfort to cross the icy seas
in search of wealth, and to gain happiness; but if he had only had
eyes, he would have stopped at Mioure. There he saw a girl, lively as
the heaven-fire in the north, good, generous, kind