off,
but probably also because even here, far away on the north coast of
Siberia, the old simple and unpretentious habits have given way to new
wants which were difficult to satisfy at the time when no steamers
carried on traffic on the river Yenisej. Thus, for instance, the
difficulty of procuring meal some decades back, accordingly before the
commencement of steam communication on the Yenisej, led to the
abandonment of a _simovie_ situated on the eastern bank of the river in
latitude 72 deg. 25' north.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE MOUTH OF THE YENISEJ FROM ATLAS RUSSICUS CURA
ET OPERE ACADEMIAE IMPERIALIS SCIENTIARUM PETROPOLITANAE PETROPOLI 1745. ]

The _simovies_ at the mouth of the Yenisej formed in their time the
most northerly fixed dwelling-places of the European races.[94]
Situated as they were at the foot of the cold _tundra_, exposed to
continual snowstorms in winter and to close fogs during the greater
part of summer, which here is extremely short, it seems as if they
could not offer their inhabitants many opportunities for enjoyment,
and the reason why this tract was chosen for a residence, especially
in a country so rich in fertile soil as Siberia, appears to be
difficult to find. The remains of an old _simovie_ (Krestovskoj),
which I saw in 1875 while travelling up the river along with Dr.
Lundstroem and Dr. Stuxberg, however, produced the impression that a
true home life had once been led there. Three houses with
turf-covered roofs then still remained in such a state that one
could form an idea of their former arrangement and of the life which
had been earned on in them. Each cabin contained a whole labyrinth
of very small rooms; dwelling-rooms with sleeping places fixed to
the walls, bake-rooms with immense fireplaces, bathing houses with
furnaces for vapour-baths, storehouses for train-oil with large
train-drenched blubber troughs hollowed out of enormous tree-stems,
blubber tanks with remains of the white whale, &c., all witnessing
that the place had had a flourishing period, when prosperity was
found there, when the home was regarded with loyalty, and formed in
all its loneliness the central point of a life richer perhaps in
peace and well-being than one is inclined beforehand to suppose.

[Illustration: RUINS OF A SIMOVIE AT KRESTOVSKOJ. After a drawing by A.
Stuxberg. ]

In 1875 a "prikaschik" (foreman) and three Russian labourers lived
all the year round at Goltschicha. Sverevo was inhabited b