ard, under former sovereigns. Count Golofkin, one
of the ministers of Catherine II., was banished to Nijne Kolymsk,
where he died. It is said that he used to put himself, his servants,
and house in deep mourning on every anniversary of Catherine's
birthday. Two officers of the court of the emperor Paul were exiled to
a small town on the Yenesei, where they lived until recalled by
Alexander I.

The settlers on the Angara are freed from liability to conscription,
on condition that they furnish rowers and pilots to boats navigating
that stream. The settlers on the Lena enjoy the same privilege under
similar terms. On account of the character of the country and the
drawbacks to prosperity, the taxes are much lighter than in more
favored regions. In the more northern districts there is a
considerable trade in furs and ivory. The latter comes in the shape of
walrus tusks, and the tusks and teeth of the mammoth, which are
gathered on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the islands scattered
through it. This trade is less extensive than it was forty or fifty
years ago.

[Illustration: TAIL PIECE]

CHAPTER XLI.

I spent three days in Krasnoyarsk, chiefly employed upon my letters
and journal. My recent companions were going no farther in my
direction, and knowing this beforehand, I arranged with a gentleman at
Irkutsk to travel with him from Krasnoyarsk. He arrived two days
behind me, and after sending away a portion of his heavy baggage, was
ready to depart. There was no snow to the first station, and so we
sent our sleighs on wheels and used the post carriages over the bare
ground. A peasant who lived near the station sought me out and offered
to transport my sleigh for three roubles and a little drink-money. As
I demurred, he proposed to repair, without extra charge, one of my
fenders which had come to grief, and we made a bargain on this
proposition.

My companion, Dr. Schmidt, had recently returned from a
mammoth-hunting expedition within the Arctic circle. He had not
secured a perfect specimen of this extinct beast, but contented
himself with some parts of the stupendous whole, and a miscellaneous
collection of birds, bugs, and reptiles. He despatched a portion of
his treasures by post; the balance, with his assistant, formed a
sufficient load for one sleigh. The doctor was to ride in my sleigh,
while his assistant in another vehicle kept company with the relicts.
The kegs, boxes, and bundles of Arctic zoolog