All natives of Northern Siberia subject themselves without inconvenience to extremes of heat and cold.  Major Abasa told me that when the cold was 40 deg. below zero he had found the Koriaks in their yourts with a temperature 75 deg. above.  They passed from one to the other without a change of clothing and without perspiring.  At night they ordinarily slept in their warm dwellings, but when traveling they rested in the snow under the open sky.  In his exploration around Penjinsk Gulf the major saw a woman sleep night after night on the snow in the coldest weather with no covering but the clothing she wore in the day.  She would have slept equally well if transferred to a hot room.

The Yakuts and Tunguze are equally hardy.  Captain Wrangell gives examples of their endurance, especially of living in warm rooms or sleeping on the ice at a low temperature.  Captain Cochrane, the English Pedestrian, had a wonderful experience with some natives that guided him from the Lena to the Kolyma.  Though the Captain was an old traveler and could support much cold and fatigue, he was greatly outdone by his guides.  He could never easily accommodate himself to wide extremes of heat and cold, and I believe this is the experience of nearly all persons not born and reared under a northern sky.  The road from Nerchinsk to Chetah is through an undulating country, the hills in many places being high enough to merit the name of mountains.  Sometimes we followed the valley of the Ingodah, and again we left it to wind over the hills and far away where the bluffs prevented our keeping near the stream.  When we looked upon the river from these mountains the scene was beautiful, and I shall long retain my impression of the loveliness of the Ingodah.  Mr. Collins described this valley nine years before me, and with one exception I can confirm all he said of its charms.  He had the good fortune to travel in spring when the flowers were in bloom, whereas my journey was late in autumn.  My English friend at Stratensk spoke of this particular feature of the country, and described the thick carpet of blossoms that in some places almost hid the grass from view.  To compensate for the long and dreary winter Nature spreads her floral beauties with lavish hand, and converts the once ice-bound region into a landscape of beautiful and fragrant flowers.

The valley is fertile and well cultivated, villages and farm houses being frequent.  The road was excellent, wide, and well made; much labor had been expended upon it during the last two years.  Its up and down-ishness was not to my liking, as the horses utterly refused to gallop in ascending hills a mile or two long.  The descent was less difficult, but unfortunately we could not have it all descent.  We had equal quantities of rising and falling, with the difference against us that we were ascending the valley.  Fortunately the road was dry and in some places we found it dusty.

Late in the afternoon we halted for dinner, ordering the samovar almost before we stopped the tarantass.  We ordered eggs and bread, and in hopes of something substantial Borasdine consulted the mistress of the house.  He returned with disgust pictured on his countenance.