s, at Verkhoyansk it is eighteen
roubles, at Viluisk, south of Yakutsk, only twelve! Fortunately,
deer-meat is fairly cheap here, but all other provisions are
outrageously dear. Flour, for instance, costs twenty-five kopeks or
about 6_d._ per pound, milk (in a frozen condition) five kopeks or about
3_d._ per pound, but the latter is bought from the Yakutes, and is
generally in a filthy and undrinkable condition. Tea and sugar are so
dear that the former is boiled over and over again, but Abramovitch said
that he suffered more from the loss of light than anything else, for
candles (or rather tallow dips) cost a rouble a pound. My friend was
therefore reduced to the dim light shed by the flickering logs of his
fire throughout the dreary winter, when daylight disappears for two
months. And even in summer time there is no way of eking out the slender
sum allowed for existence, which must suffice for lodging and clothes as
well as food. Poultry does not exist, the Yana yields few fish, and the
soil stubbornly refuses to produce vegetables even of the hardiest kind.
By dint of ceaseless care Katcherofsky had contrived to grow a few
watery potatoes, which were served at table with as much ostentation as
early strawberries or asparagus in England; but the experiment was not a
success. The _ispravnik_ had also tried cabbages, with a similar result.
This seems strange, seeing that Yakutsk, only six hundred miles further
south, is a fertile land of plenty, but an exile told me that even in
midsummer the forests around Verkhoyansk appear withered and grey, the
very grass seems colourless, and the daisies and violets scentless
immortelles. This sterility of nature seems to be confined to a radius
of about twenty miles of Verkhoyansk, for beyond this arid circle trees
flourish, grass grows freely as far as the timber line, while beyond it
the _tundra_, from May until August, is gaily carpeted with wild
flowers.

Verkhoyansk is not unhealthy. The worst season of the year is in autumn,
when dense mists from the river Yana often shroud the place for days
together. Bronchitis and rheumatism are then very prevalent, also a kind
of epidemic catarrh, which, however, was not confined to the fall of the
year, but was raging at the time of our visit. Of this fact we had
unpleasant proof, as a couple of days after leaving the place the whole
expedition (except Stepan) were attacked with this troublesome
complaint, which, in my case, was only cu