INTERIOR OF A KORAK YURT.

A WOMAN ENTERING A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS SETTLED KORAKS IN A TRIAL OF STRENGTH AN OLD MAN OF THE SETTLED KORAKS From a photograph in The American Museum of Natural History.

YURT AND DOG-TEAM OF THE SETTLED KORAKS From a painting by George A. Frost.

INTERIOR OF A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS DOG-TEAMS DESCENDING A STEEP MOUNTAIN SLOPE CHUKCHIS ASSEMBLING AT ANADYRSK FOR THE WINTER FAIR ANADYRSK IN WINTER A MAN OF THE YUKAGIRS A MAN OF THE WANDERING CHUKCHIS TUNGUSE MAN AND WOMAN IN BEST

A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS IN MIDWINTER AN ARCTIC FUNERAL THE YURT IN THE "STORMY GORGE OF THE VILIGA" From a painting by George A. Frost.

A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS IN MIDWINTER AN ARCTIC FUNERAL THE YURT IN THE "STORMY GORGE OF THE VILIGA" From a painting by George A. Frost.

Fearing that darkness would overtake us before we could reach shelter, we started on toward a deserted, half-ruined "yurt" (yoort)

After four more dreary hours, spent in wandering about through grey drifting clouds, exposed to a bitter north-west wind, and a temperature of just 32°, we finally arrived in a half-frozen condition at the yurt.

With that sunny face irradiating the smoky atmosphere of the ruined yurt, and that laugh ringing joyously in our ears, we made fun of our misery and persuaded ourselves that we were having a good time.

The fire on the wet muddy ground had died away to a few smouldering embers, which threw a red glow over the black, smoky logs, and sent occasional gleams of flickering light into the dark recesses of the yurt.

I found that the Major and Dodd, with all the Kamchadals, had pitched tents upon the spongy moss outside, and were spending the night there, instead of remaining in the yurt and having their clothes and blankets spoiled by the muddy droppings of its leaky roof.

The wind blew the tent down once during the night, and left us exposed for a few moments to the storm; but it was repitched in defiance of the wind, ballasted with logs torn from the sides of the yurt, and we managed to sleep after a fashion until morning.

Before dark, however, we had reached the site of our second day's camp, and about midnight we arrived at the ruined yurt where we had eaten lunch five days before.

Our journey was monotonous and uneventful, and on the second of April, late at night, we left behind us the white desolate steppe of the Paren, and drew near the little flat-topped yurt on the Malmofka, which was only twenty-five versts from Gizhiga.

[Illustration: A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS IN MIDWINTER] At Kuil, on the coast of Penzhinsk Gulf, I was compelled to leave my good-humoured Cossacks and take for drivers half a dozen stupid, sullen, shaven-headed Koraks, and from that time I was more lonesome than ever.

Owing to deep snow our progress had not been so rapid as we had anticipated, and we were only able to reach on the fifth night a small yurt built to shelter travellers, near the mouth of a river called the Topólofka, thirty versts from the Viliga.

[Illustration: Head covering used in stalking seals] CHAPTER XXXV YURT

It was a beautifully clear, still morning when we crossed the mountain above the yurt, and wound around through bare open valleys, among high hills, toward the seacoast.

I could not see either the impossibility or the danger, and as there was another yurt or shelter-house on the other side of the ravine, I determined to go on and make the attempt at least to cross.

Along this there extended a narrow strip of dense timber, and in this timber, somewhere, stood the yurt of which we were in search.

About an hour before dark, tired and chilled to the bone, we drew up before a little log hut in the woods, which our guide said was the Viliga yurt.

We had seen nothing of the postilion since noon, and hardly thought it possible that he could reach the yurt; but just as it began to grow dark we heard the howling of his dogs in the woods, and in a few moments he made his appearance.

As there was not room enough for all to sleep inside the yurt, the Koraks camped out-doors on the snow, and before morning were half buried in a drift.

[Illustration: THE YURT IN THE "STORMY GORGE OF THE VILIGA" From a painting by George A. Frost] All night the wind roared a deep, hoarse bass through the forest which sheltered the yurt, and at daylight on the following morning there was no abatement of the storm.

[Illustration: THE YURT IN THE "STORMY GORGE OF THE VILIGA" From a painting by George A. Frost] All night the wind roared a deep, hoarse bass through the forest which sheltered the yurt, and at daylight on the following morning there was no abatement of the storm.