blizzard on Tchaun Bay, and the rest
were so weary and footsore that it seemed little short of brutal to
drive them on. But to stop here meant starvation, so we struggled
painfully onwards to the eastward, growing weaker and weaker every hour.
At times I felt as if I must lie down in the snow and give way to an
overpowering feeling of drowsiness, and Harding and De Clinchamp
afterwards confessed that they frequently experienced the same feeling.
But Stepan, perhaps more inured to hardships than ourselves, was the
life and soul of our party during that long, miserable day, and it was
chiefly due to his dogged determination (combined with a small slice of
luck) that on that very night, when things seemed to be on the very
verge of a fatal termination, we came upon signs of human life in the
shape of a kayak with a paddle propped against it on the snowy beach. An
hour later we sighted our goal--the first Tchuktchi settlement! And the
relief with which I beheld those grimy, walrus-hide huts can never be
described, for even this foul haven meant salvation from the horrors of
a lingering death.

CHAPTER XI

IN THE ARCTIC

Our reception by the Tchuktchis at Cape Shelagskoi[53] was so surly that
I began to think there might be some reason for the repeated warnings of
our friends on the Kolyma. Two or three woebegone creatures in ragged
deerskins, crawled out of the huts and surveyed us with such suspicion
and distrust that I verily believe they took us for visitors from the
spirit world. As a rule the Tchuktchi costume is becoming, but these
people wore shapeless rags, matted with dirt, and their appearance
suggested years of inactivity and bodily neglect. I noticed, however
with satisfaction that their churlish greeting was not unmingled with
fear, although they obstinately refused the food and shelter begged for
by means of signs, pointing, at the same time, to a black banner
flapping mournfully over the nearest hut. This I knew (from my
experiences at Oumwaidjik in 1896) to be the Tchuktchi emblem of death.
Our sulky hosts then indicated a dark object some distance away upon the
snow, which I sent Stepan to investigate, and the Cossack quickly
returned, having found the corpses of several men and women in an
advanced stage of decomposition. An infectious disease was apparently
raging, for several sufferers lay helpless on the ground of the first
hut we entered. I imagine the malady was smallpox, for a lengthened