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OUTHIER’S JOURNAL OF A’ VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. 279
Tuefday, the tenth, in the afternoon it thundered; we had however no rain. At
feven in the evening we perceived a fignal, in fhape of a pyramid, which Meffrs. de
Maupertuis and Camus had ereéted on Mount Horrilakero; we had already, on Sunday
evening, perceived one on that called Avafaxa. Wednefday morning, the eleventh, we
perceived a third on Cuitaperi; and on the evening of that day Meifrs. de Maupertuis
and Camus came back with their detachment.
Nieva, Kukama, and Cuitaperi, are the only mountains whofe fummits were unco-
vered by trees ; on the two others, Meflrs. de Maupertuis and Camus were obliged to
caufe a number of trees to he felled to make the fignals vifible, which were ereéted on
the moft elevated fpot. ‘They had very bad roads through the marfhes which they had
to pafs in going to Horrilakero: there they fuffered more than on any of tlfe other
mountains from gnats; neither fire nor fmoke could entirely drive them away ; they
were obliged to cover themfelves with their {kin drefles, and inclofe themfelves with
branches of trees, in order to take a little reft, if it were poffible to reft, half-{mothered
as they were during a heat as powerful as in France. They croffed again the fame
marfhes to reach their boats, on the bank of the river Tengelio, by which, and through
lake Patimo, they paffled into the great river Torneo; turning round the foot of Ava-
faxa, where they erected their firft fignal, on Sunday evening.
Thefe gentlemen faw at fome diftance from the river a mountain, four leagues below
Avafaxa, which appeared to them fit for their operations: they left their boats, and by
hilly and difficult roads they got to the fummit of this mountain, which is called Cuita-
peri; from it they perceived all the mountains upon which there were fignals, and the
belfry of Torneo; they erected a fignal there, and returned to their boats. After thefe
gentlemen had advanced a league on the great river, they found themfelves at the cata-
ract of Waojenna, which is the largeft and moft violent of all we met with between
Torneo and Pello.
It is not ufual to pafs thefe cataracts in boats, particularly Wuojenna. The Fins who
conduct them take care to caufe the paflengers to land: their intereft, as much as
the fafety of the paflengers, influences them in this. They with to make them fo light
as fcarcely to touch the water, to avoid the ftones again{t which the boat is every mo-
ment expofed to be broke; to keep it above the billows, and to fecure it from the waves
which threaten it aftern, while two men pull luftily at the oars ; with another the third
continually {teers it one way or another, to avoid the rocks. Sometimes, when we
landed, we faw from the bank thefe boats half in the air, {kimming over the tops of the
waves, as if over rollers, fo quick was their motion; at other times they feemed fwal-
Jowed by the billows.
All the boats of this country, even large ones, fuch as that which brought us to Ullea
are extremely light ; they are made of planks of deal, extremely thin, faftened to a
fkeleton, compofed of a keel and ribs; the planks are only nailed on the fides, they
are fewed to the keel, and to one another, for their whole length, by thread made from
the nerves of the rein-deer, which is like catgut; after this the whole is well covered
with pitch. Thefe fkiffs, fo flender, poffefs two advantages in their flexibility, which
prevents their breaking when they {trike ; and their lightnefs, which not only caufes.
them to draw very little water, but renders cordaze unneceflary for faftening them on
landing ; they are eafily drawn out of the water, and are left on the beach: moft of
them are furnifhed with a maft, which is raifed and lowered by three lines, to carry a
fail when the wind favours. We faw many in which, for want of a fail, the feamen had
raifed a fmall fir with its branches on. The inhabitants need fails in moft parts of the
river, which forms lakes, where the water is, as it were, {ftagnant, till you arrive at the
fpot where it difcharges itfelf with impetuofity through fome cataraQ. It is in this a
the
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