Viewing page 17 of 95

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

2

send narts to them to try and precure the amount necessary for our purpose.

He, Kaschevin, had been talking with the priest, who also wanted deer, and they thought the surest way to obtain them, would be, to go to the Kosaks on the Upper Myan, where upon I sent him off the same night with tobacco sufficient to purchase 80 deer with which to feed ourselves and workmen, and with orders for the Kosaks to move their herds near the mouth of the Olgan river so that we could obtain more if needed.

He carried 15 narts with him, and as all the other able bodied men had gone off in search of food for their families, the place was almost deserted, so that I was compelled to await the return of some of them, before proceeding to the Myan.

Up to this time the inhabitants have been feeding themselves and dogs upon grouse, which they caught in traps, but owing to the snows' thawing their traps can no longer