em back; they break them up for firewood. Firewood is
dear at Yeneseisk, and they get much more for the barges for fires than
it cost to build them in the forests higher up."

"Then how do they do for fires among the Ostjaks?"

"I have heard they do not have wood fires; they kill seals. There are
numbers of them farther down the river, and from their fat they make oil
for lamps and burn these. We shall be in no hurry as we go down. We will
float near the banks, and may kill some seals. What are you thinking
of?" for Godfrey was looking rather serious.

"I was thinking, Luka, that these things we are thinking of buying, the
things to trade with the Ostjaks, you know, and the flour, and tea, and
goat-skins, and so on, will take a good deal of money. We don't spend
much now, but when we get into Russia we shall want money. We can't beg
our way right across the country."

"No;" Luka said, "but we shall not be idle all the winter."

"How do you mean we shall not be idle, Luka?"

"We must hunt; that is what the Ostjaks and Tunguses do. We must get
skins of beaver, sable, ermine, and black foxes, and we must sell them
at Turukhansk. There are Russian traders there. They do not live there
in the winter, but come down in the spring to buy the skins that have
been taken in the winter."

"That sounds more cheerful," Godfrey said. "You had better get another
flask of powder, and some more bullets and shot for me, Luka, and some
better arrow-heads for yourself."

"Yes, we shall want them more than anything. We can do without flour,
but we cannot do without weapons."

"Well, you must do the buying, Luka. They will take you for an Ostjak,
from some village up the river, who has come in to lay in his stock of
provisions for the winter. It is of no use my trying to pass here as a
native, though in Russia I might be taken as a Russian."

CHAPTER XII.

WINTER.

A few hours after entering the Yenesei they saw on the right bank of the
river, which was now of great width, the domes of the town. They ran in
to the shore a mile above it.

"I shall not land, Luka," Godfrey said. "I don't want to be questioned.
I shall put off, and drop our anchor a quarter of a mile out and fish.
You must make two or three journeys if necessary."

"The things will not be heavy, Godfrey, the flour is the only thing that
will weigh much. I will get someone to help me down with that."

They had already gone over and over again the list of