The chesnut neplouyé and the pieshki are held in great estimation, and form the principal article of the export trade; the darker or the browner they are, the more they are esteemed, and the higher prices they fetch in the market. The white and the striated are devoted solely to home consumption.

Reindeer flesh, if not lean, is savoury enough, tasting like venison, with the flavour of an elk. The Russians, however, are averse to eating it; and even when they use it as food, do not like it to be known, there being a prejudice against it among the people, merely because it is the favourite food of the Ostiaks. Contempt of that subjugated race, and of anything belonging to them, is general among the Russians; insomuch, that any admixture of Ostiak blood in children is considered a degradation. Reindeer tongues are of exquisite flavour and much esteemed; when smoked, they are exported to Tobolsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburgh.

The reindeer is an indispensable animal with the Ostiaks and Samoieds; and its absence is felt as grievously as that of a member of the family. With the reindeer at his disposal, the inhabitant of the North may be said to be swift,

quick, free, and valiant-fit to traverse a distance of hundreds and even thousands of miles, without fatigue or fear, but without him he is as unable to move from the spot as if deprived of his limbs and his feet. Nor is this the only benefit he derives from the reindeer. When he is unsuccessful in hunting and fishing, it becomes his only means of subsistence. Industrial pursuits and commerce may, at such dismal periods, enable the Russian part of the population to ward off the evil by the importation of corn and other necessary provisions; but the poor Ostiaks and Samoieds, who have become but little acquainted with traffic, and never yet depended on foreign produce, have no security whatever from famine, but the ever-available reindeer.

But to return to our excursion. Our reindeer were brave, and the skill of our conductor in managing them unquestionable. Yet despite all this, I could not help wishing ourselves at home, as it was exceedingly cold. Though I had taken care, before we set out, to wrap myself up in a bundle of warm clothes, furs and shawls, and had on my feet thick worsted woollen boots, knit in the fashion of stockings, in which I had made my journey through Siberia; yet nothing

could keep out the piercing cold; and though my boots with their thick leathern covering seemed proof against frost, my feet were as benumbed as if they were naked-—perhaps the more so from hanging down from the sledge, and being thus exposed to the external action of the air.

But observing the gratification our driver derived from the fleetness of his reindeer, and the exhibition of his own skill as Jehu, I did not request him to abridge his career; and it was not till after a protracted drive that we reached home. Fearing that my feet would be frost-bitten, I immediately, on my return, put them into a pan of cold water; but it appeared that I had nothing to apprehend, and their numbness fortunately proved to be but momentary.

When women and invalids, or persons peculiarly sensitive to cold, are starting on a long journey, it is usual to surround the narta on all sides with boards, giving it the appearance of a chest. Over this, a piece of course thick cloth is extended in the shape of a tent, with openings on each side, by which to enter and emerge from the vehicle; and these openings

again are secured by curtains. The inside of the sledge is then stuffed with feather-beds and pillows, and on these the traveller lies covered with a warm blanket of fur. Throughout Siberia

-at least in those parts which I have visited—no other mode of travelling in sledges is known, except in the reclining position I have described; such being the taste of the natives. The Siberians cannot even conceive, how any one can travel otherwise with comfort.

It is the custom at Berezov, when the winter has set in, for every householder to take out all the glass windows, except in the more stately apartments, and to replace them with windows of fish skin. It is believed that the latter material admits less cold; and that, besides, they have this advantage, that the thick incrustation of ice covering them, can be scraped off with a knife. This, however, failed to reconcile me to its use; and, moreover, though windows of fishskin may be made to transmit light, I felt sure that nothing could be seen of what was passing outside; and, therefore, I insisted that our glass windows should not be removed. I must, however, confess that I did not gain much by my obstinacy; for a strong frost coming on, it

produced such a thick incrustation of ice on the glass, as to make the windows appear overlaid with mortar, depriving them of all transparency. Yet, even in this condition we were not without some compensation for being thus immured, as the least heat in the apartments melted the thick ice, and we at least obtained a peep of the wide world without.

Some time previously to my arrival, micaslate had been used at Berezov for windows. Numerous relics of these windows could be seen on heaps of rubbish before the houses and in the streets. Glass being introduced, it gradually superseded mica, which is now altogether abandoned. I cannot satisfactorily account for the houses at Berezov, in spite of such intense frosts, being so warm, particularly as they are so defective in construction, and have such an excessive number of windows, some houses being completely riddled by them. But though these windows are badly finished, and the stoves are not heated more than once in twenty-four hours, the dwellings are warm. This, I presume, is chiefly attributable to the extraordinary thickness of the trunks of wood used in building, and to the depth of their foundations, as well as to