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VII.—­THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN.

Occupied with the chase, with bartering, and with conversing with their new friends, the summer gradually came around.  The snow melted, the hills became a series of cascades, in every direction water poured toward the sea.  But the hut remained solid and firm, a little earth only being cast over the snow.  Flocks of ducks and geese soon appeared, a slight vegetation was visible, and the sea was in motion.  But what principally drew all eyes were the vast heaps of fossil ivory exposed to view on the banks of the stream, laid bare more and more every year by the torrents of spring.  A few days sufficed to collect a heap greater than they could take away on the sledges in a dozen journeys.  Ivan gazed at his treasure in mute despair.  Were all that at Yakoutsk, he was the richest merchant in Siberia; but to take it thither seemed impossible.  But in stepped the adventurous Tchouktchas.  They offered, for a stipulated sum in tobacco and other valuables, to land a large portion of the ivory at a certain spot on the shores of Siberia, by means of their boats.  Ivan, though again surprised at the daring of these wild men, accepted the proposal, and engaged to give them his whole stock.  The matter was then settled, and our adventurers and their new friends dispersed to their summer avocations.

These consisted in fishing and hunting, and repairing boats and sledges.  Their canoes were made of skins and whalebone, and bits of wood; but they were large, and capable of sustaining great weight.  They proposed to start as soon as the ice was broken up, and to brave all the dangers of so fearful a navigation.  They were used to impel themselves along in every open space, and to take shelter on icebergs from danger.  When one of these icy mountains went in the right direction, they stuck to it; but at others they paddled away, amid dangers of which they seemed wholly unconscious.

A month was taken up in fishing, in drying the fish, or in putting it in holes where there was eternal frost.  An immense stock was laid in:  and then one morning the Tchouktchas took their departure, and the adventurers remained alone.  Their hut was broken up, and all made ready for their second journey.  The sledges were enlarged, to bear the heaviest possible load at starting.  A few days’ overloading were not minded, as the provisions would soon decrease.  Still not half so much could be taken as they wished, and yet Ivan had nearly a ton of ivory, and thirty tons was the greatest produce of any one year in all Siberia.

But the sledges were ready long before the sea was so.  The interval was spent in continued hunting, to prevent any consumption of the traveling store.  All were heartily tired, long before it was over, of a day nearly as long as two English months.  Soon the winter set in with intense rigor; the sea ceased to toss and heave; the icebergs and fields moved more and more slowly; at last ocean and land were blended into one—­the night of a month came, and the sun was seen no more.