m.

While they were partaking of it Godfrey heard a sound behind, and
looking round saw a boy driving in several reindeer. He was delighted at
the sight, not only because it promised hunting expeditions, but because
they might aid to carry them across the frozen steppes, to the Obi,
before the frost broke up. Talking with the Ostjaks Luka found that, as
the temperature had been below freezing-point all day, they intended to
commence fishing in earnest the next morning. The position of the huts
had been specially selected for that purpose. The river made a sharp
bend just above them, and the point threw the current across to the
opposite bank, forming almost a back-water at the spot where the huts
stood. It seemed strange to Godfrey, as he lay down that night, to be
without the gentle motion of the boat to which he had been so long
accustomed, and he lay awake for some time, not forgetting before he
went to sleep to thank God for the wonderful success that had so far
attended him, and to pray for a continuance of His protection.

As soon as it was light the boats all put off, and anchoring a short
distance out were soon engaged in fishing. Godfrey put down four lines,
each with six of the hooks Mikail had purchased for him before starting
from Kara. These were baited with strips of fish, and he and Luka were
soon busy at work hauling in the fish. They were mostly jack or tench,
and by the evening they had caught nearly a hundred. When they rowed to
shore they found that they had been far more successful than any of the
Ostjaks, this being due to the superiority of their hooks over the
fish-bone contrivances of the natives. Following the example of the
Ostjaks they laid the fish in lines in front of their tent to freeze
during the night.

After boiling their kettle, frying a couple of fish, and taking supper,
they lighted two torches and again went out, returning before midnight
with twenty-five salmon averaging fifteen pounds each. By the morning
the fish were all frozen as hard as pieces of wood, and were then laid
in a pile. For four days this work continued with equal success, and by
the end of that time they had a pile of fish six feet square and three
feet high, making, Godfrey calculated, nearly a ton of fish. They had
observed that some of the Ostjaks had each morning brought in several
wild geese and swans, and Luka learnt from them that there was a large
marsh a mile away in which large flights of geese settle