perished
from starvation in consequence of this premature indulgence in our
"emergency rations."

[Footnote 34: "Carnyl" (invented by Dr. Yorke-Davies) is a patent food I
can heartily recommend to Arctic explorers, as it is not only sustaining
but very palatable.]

Shortly after leaving Aditscha, we crossed the river of that name, which
flows into the Yana below Verkhoyansk. The former stream is noted for
its abundance of fish, which, in summer time, is salted and exported in
large quantities to the various settlements throughout the district.
Travelling steadily for forty-five versts we crossed the Tabalak
mountains (or rather hills), and from here under fifteen versts brought
us to Tostach, where the accommodation was a shade less atrocious than
at Aditscha, and where we again had to pass the night to await a relay.
Stepan tried the effect of threats, and then of kicks, but even the
latter failed to arouse the postmaster to any great extent, for the
Yakutes add laziness to their other numerous vices, which include an
arrant cowardice. Treat one of these people with kindness and he will
insult you; thrash him soundly, and he will fawn at your feet. This
constant delay in the arrival of the deer now began to cause me some
anxiety, for Stepan said that he had frequently had to wait three or
four days for these animals at a _stancia_.

Tostach was only outwardly cleaner than Aditscha, for when the inmates
of the _stancia_ had retired to rest, the warmth and firelit silence
brought out such overwhelming legions of vermin that I rose and,
lighting a candle, proceeded to beguile the hours until the dawn with a
"Whitaker's Almanack," which, with a Shakespeare and "Pickwick," now
composed our library. And here an incident occurred which might well
have startled a person with weak nerves, for the most practical being
scarcely cares to be suddenly confronted, at dead of night, with a
ghostly apparition unpleasantly suggestive of graveyards. On this
occasion the spectre might have dropped from the clouds, for I looked up
from my book for an instant, and noiselessly as a shadow it appeared
before me, a shapeless thing in rags with a pale and gibbering face
framed in tangled grey locks. A tinkling sound accompanied every
movement of the creature, and I then saw that the figure was adorned
from head to heel with scraps of iron, copper coins, rusty nails, and
other rubbish, including a couple of sardine-tins which reassured me as