In former times the nomads of the North used freely to wander with their reindeer herds over the tundra, but after the conquest they were loaded with taxes, and confined to certain districts. The consequence was that their reindeer gradually perished, and that a great number of wandering herdsmen were now compelled to adopt a fisherman’s life--a change fatal to many. It would, however, be unjust to accuse the Russian Government of having willfully sought the ruin of the aboriginal tribes; on the contrary, it has constantly endeavored to protect them against the exactions of the Cossacks, and in order to secure their existence, has even granted them the exclusive possession of the districts assigned to them. Thus the Ostiaks and Samoïedes, the Koriaks and the Jakuts, have their own land, their own rivers, forests, and tundri. But if it is a common saying in European Russia “that heaven is high, and the Czar distant,” it may easily be imagined that beyond the Ural the weak indigenous tribes found the law but a very inefficient barrier against the rapacity of their conquerors. Thus, in spite of the Government, the _jassak_ was not unfrequently raised, under various pretenses, to six or ten times its original amount; and the natives were, besides, obliged to bring the best of their produce, from considerable distances, to the ostrog. Nor could the Government prevent the accumulation of usurious debts, nor the leasing of the best pasturages or fishing-stations for a trifling sum quite out of proportion to their value; so that the natives no longer had the means of feeding their herds, and sank deeper and deeper into poverty. And if we consider, finally, of what elements Yermak’s band was originally composed, we can easily conceive that, under such masters, the lot of the Siberian natives was by no means to be envied. * * * * * The year 1734 opens a new epoch in the history of Siberian discoveries. Until then they had been merely undertaken for purposes of traffic; bold Cossacks and Promyschlenniki (or fur-hunters) had gradually extended their excursions to the Sea of Bering; but now, for the first time, scientific expeditions were sent out, for the more accurate investigation of the northern coasts of Siberia. Prontschischtschew, who sailed westward from the Lena to circumnavigate the icy capes of Taimurland, was accompanied by his youthful wife, who wintered with him at the Olenek, in 72° 54´ of latitude, and in the following summer took part in his fruitless endeavors to double those most northerly points of Asia. He died in consequence of the fatigues he had to undergo, and a few days after she followed him to the grave. A similar example of female devotion is not to be met with in the annals of Arctic discovery.