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33

I speak now of common laborers for chopping and clearing the line, digging holes and setting poles, and putting up common buildings.

Foremen for different kinds of work, clerks and storekeepers must be Americans, and as the Yckuts are very lazy, energetic driving men who understand their business are required.

I am left to believe that all the men required can be brought from Yakutsk, and at a comparatively cheap rate.  Horses and cattle, which is their principal maintenance, can be also procured there in sufficient quantities.

They are a strong stout race of men, although certainly very much indisposed to any active exertion, are clever mechanics, and expert with the axe.  Differing altogether from the Turguse, in that they are a settled people, living in villages, cultivating the soil and raising in Yakutsk numerous herds of cattle and horses.

They are also traders, travelling among the Turguse for that purpose, and some of then attend the annual fair which is held in Broomkar on the head of the Turguse river, chiefly to buy sables, a journey of several months' duration, with pack train of deer.  This fair is also attended by Chinese merchants who come there from below the Amorr.

Transportation.

Transportation can be done with whale boats, flat-bottomed canoes; in some places where grafs is