sanity. Idiocy, however, is more frequent amongst
the natives, and in one _povarnia_ we found a poor half-witted wretch
who had taken up his quarters there driven away from the nearest
_stancia_ by the cruelty of its inmates. This poor imbecile had laid in
a store of putrid fish and seemed quite resigned to his surroundings,
but we persuaded him to return to his home with us. This was an
exceptional case, for the Yakutes are generally kind and indulgent
towards mental sufferers, their kindness perhaps arising to a certain
extent from fear, for in these parts mad people are credited with occult
powers which enable them to take summary vengeance on their enemies.

Leaving Ebelach the lakes became so numerous that the country may also
be described as one vast sheet of water with intervals of land. We must
have crossed over a hundred lakes of various sizes between the _stancia_
of Khatignak and Sredni-Kolymsk, a distance of about five hundred
versts. The majority were carpeted with snow, and afforded good going;
but smooth black ice formed the surface of others, swept by the wind,
and these worked sad havoc amongst our deer, of which four, with broken
legs, had to be destroyed. Nearing Khatignak we crossed the
Indigirka[39] river, which rises in the Stanovoi range and flows through
many hundred miles of desolation to the Arctic Ocean. The country here
is more hilly, but sparse forests of stunted bushes and withered looking
pine-trees were now the sole vegetation, and these were often replaced
by long stretches of snowy plain. A long stage of seventy-five versts
without a break brought us to Khatignak, where another reindeer dropped
dead from exhaustion before the door of the _stancia_.

[Footnote 39: The now obsolete town of Zashiversk was situated on the
right bank of this river.]

Some miles beyond Khatignak another chain of mountains was crossed,
although downs would more aptly describe the Alazenski range. But the
snow lay deep and we were compelled to make the ascent on foot, a hard
walk of five hours in heavy furs under a blazing sun. On the summit is a
wooden cross marking the boundary between the Kolyma and Verkhoyansk
districts. The cross was hung with all kinds of rubbish, copper coins,
scraps of iron, and shreds of coloured cloth suspended by horse-hair,
which had been placed there by Yakute travellers to propitiate the gods
and ensure a prosperous journey. The cross, as a Christian symbol, did
not seem to occu