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On my first trip down the Lena from Bulun to the
neighbourhood of the delta, I and my two comrades
accompanied the civil officer stationed at the settlement. The
boat was of the usual miserable kind. Travelling in such
craft on this huge river is not without its dangers. Below
the city of Yakutsk the Lena often increases to a width
of twenty miles or more, and where it forms numerous
islands to as much as thirty. In the northern part,
especially between Bulun and the beginning of the delta, the
shore is very steep, in many places indeed quite
perpendicular. In the sudden storms which so frequently arise
here, many a boat has been wrecked against the rocky
cliffs—an occurrence which actually happened with this
very boat on its return voyage. The occupants, among
whom was the civil officer, barely escaped with their lives.
When any official or priest travels in these regions, the
natives are in duty bound to transport them gratuitously,
but they are not necessarily masters of the sailor’s craft.
The native boys who served as our rowers did not know
how to handle the oars. In general, though they are very
clever with their canoes, they do not know how to manage a
rowing or sailing-boat. To the great astonishment of these
natives, who evidently had not seen any “oloshon toion”
—Yakut words meaning “great lord”—handle the oars,
my companion set to work and showed them how to row.
After this they soon learned to row a little better.
On our way down the river we stopped at several
fishing-stations with native huts very much resembling the
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