It is the character of young people to engage in new enterprises with ardor: it was so with Alexis, in his fur-hunting expedition. For a time, indeed, after parting with his father and sister, his heart was heavy, and tears more than once dimmed his eyes. He expected to be absent for a year at least, and who could tell what might befall him or them, during that space of time? Such thoughts came again and again into his mind, and as fancy is apt to conjure up fears for those we love, he pictured to himself many possible evils that might beset his friends at Tobolsk. But these images gradually faded away, and the young hunter began to be occupied with the scenes around him, and with the conversation of his companions. These consisted of two young men of nearly his own age, and their father, an experienced and skilful hunter. They were all equipped with rifles, and each had a long knife like a dagger in his belt. Their design was to travel on foot to the eastward, a distance of more than two thousand miles, and then proceed northward into the cold and woody regions which border the banks of the great river Lena, as it approaches the Arctic Ocean. Hitherto Alexis had seen little of Siberia; his curiosity was therefore alive, and he noticed attentively everything he met. Soon after leaving Tobolsk, the party entered upon the vast plain of Baraba, which spreads out to an extent of several hundred miles. It is almost as level as the sea, with slight swells, resembling waves. Such plains are called _steppes_ in Siberia, and they are like the prairies of our western country, being generally destitute of trees, except low willows, and large portions having a marshy soil. Upon this plain the travellers met with no towns, but miserable villages of people, their huts half sunk in the mud. They also sometimes encountered small bands of people called Ostiacks. These seemed to be roving people, and in a state of barbarism. The old hunter of the party, whose name was Linsk, seemed to be well acquainted with the habits of these people, and as the four hunters were trudging along, he gave the following account of them, taking care to say something of himself in the course of his story. “The Ostiacks are one of the most numerous of the tribes of Tartars that inhabit Siberia. They spread over the country to the north of Tobolsk, along the banks of the Obi, and the various streams that flow into it. They do not like to dig the soil, so they live on fish, and by hunting wild animals. Some of them eat so much fish, that they smell like whale oil. I have been in their tents often, and one of these fisheating families have a flavor as strong as a cask of herrings. Bah! how well I remember them! It seems as if I could smell them now! I shall never get them out of my head.