re, where everything was
fairly clean and even the ice windows were adjusted with more than usual
nicety. Glazing is cheap in these parts. When the ponds are frozen to a
depth of six or eight inches blocks of ice are cut out and laid on the
roof of the hut out of reach of the dogs. If a new window is required
the old melted pane is removed, and a fresh block of ice is fitted on
the outside with wet snow, which serves as putty and shortly freezes. At
night-time boards are placed indoors against the windows to protect them
from the heat of the fire, but the cold in these regions is so intense
that one ice window will generally last throughout the winter. The light
filters only very dimly through this poor substitute for glass, which is
almost opaque. By the way, here as in every other _stancia_ a wooden
calendar of native construction was suspended over the doorway. Some
superstition is probably attached to the possession of these, for
although I frequently tried to purchase one at a fancy price the owners
would never sell this primitive timekeeper which was generally warped
and worm-eaten with age. I never saw a new one.

After a square sleep of twelve hours we awoke to find the inmates of the
_stancia_ discussing a dish of fine perch caught from the adjacent lake.
They had simply thawed the fish out and were devouring it in a raw
state, but we managed to secure a portion of the welcome food, which,
when properly cooked, was delicious, and a welcome change from _Carnyl_
and the beef (or horse) from Yakutsk, which had lasted us until now.
Every lake in this region teems with fish, which are never salted here
for export, but only used for local consumption.

The postmaster's family was a large and thriving one. I noticed that the
politeness of these natives increased as we proceeded northward, and
that at the same time their mental capacity diminished. For instance,
two of the people at Ebelach were hopeless idiots and I was prepared for
the terrible percentage of insane persons which I afterwards found
amongst the exiles of Sredni-Kolymsk by the large number of Yakutes of
feeble intellect whom we encountered at the rest-houses beyond
Verkhoyansk. Nearly every one contained one or more unmistakable
lunatics, and it afterwards struck me that in a land where even the
natives go mad from sheer despondency of life, it is no wonder that men
and women of culture and refinement are driven to suicide from the
constant dread of in