The settlers on the Angara are freed from liability to conscription, on condition that they furnish rowers and pilots to boats navigating that stream.  The settlers on the Lena enjoy the same privilege under similar terms.  On account of the character of the country and the drawbacks to prosperity, the taxes are much lighter than in more favored regions.  In the more northern districts there is a considerable trade in furs and ivory.  The latter comes in the shape of walrus tusks, and the tusks and teeth of the mammoth, which are gathered on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the islands scattered through it.  This trade is less extensive than it was forty or fifty years ago.

[Illustration:  TAIL PIECE]

CHAPTER XLI.

I spent three days in Krasnoyarsk, chiefly employed upon my letters and journal.  My recent companions were going no farther in my direction, and knowing this beforehand, I arranged with a gentleman at Irkutsk to travel with him from Krasnoyarsk.  He arrived two days behind me, and after sending away a portion of his heavy baggage, was ready to depart.  There was no snow to the first station, and so we sent our sleighs on wheels and used the post carriages over the bare ground.  A peasant who lived near the station sought me out and offered to transport my sleigh for three roubles and a little drink-money.  As I demurred, he proposed to repair, without extra charge, one of my fenders which had come to grief, and we made a bargain on this proposition.

My companion, Dr. Schmidt, had recently returned from a mammoth-hunting expedition within the Arctic circle.  He had not secured a perfect specimen of this extinct beast, but contented himself with some parts of the stupendous whole, and a miscellaneous collection of birds, bugs, and reptiles.  He despatched a portion of his treasures by post; the balance, with his assistant, formed a sufficient load for one sleigh.  The doctor was to ride in my sleigh, while his assistant in another vehicle kept company with the relicts.  The kegs, boxes, and bundles of Arctic zoology did not form a comfortable couch, and I never envied their conductor.

On the day fixed for our departure we sent our papers to the station in the forenoon, and were told we could be supplied at sunset or a little later.  This was not to our liking, as we desired to reach the first station before nightfall.  A friend suggested an appeal to the Master of the post, and together we proceeded to that functionary’s office.  An amiable, quiet man he was, and listened to our complaint with perfect composure.  After hearing it he summoned the smotretal with his book of records, and an animated discussion followed.  I expected to see somebody grow indignant, but the whole affair abounded in good nature.

The conversation was conducted with the decorum of a school dialogue on exhibition day.  In half an hour by the clock I was told I could have a troika at once, in consideration of my special passport.  “Wait a little,” whispered my friend in French, “and we will have the other troika for Schmidt.”