520	ADJACENT TERRITORIES.
people, and live on the products of their herds of cattle and horses, though some of the more northern bands are reduced to herding reindeer.
Those whom I have seen were remarkable for their small eyes and noses, exceedingly prominent cheek-bones, stiff black hair, and diminutive size of most of the members of the body. Their civilization is of a high character in the cities, but many of the lower classes are little above the other northeast Siberian nomads in intelligence. They are of a reserved and somewhat gloomy disposition, but hospitable and generous. Many of their villages are very small, and to the north the solitary huts are many miles apart, so that the nearest neighbors see each other perhaps only once in several years. In summer the herdsmen live in conical tents made of birch-bark spread over light poles. Their principal occupation during this season is haying. In winter they live in yourts, or low, pyramidal log huts covered with turf and with slabs of pure ice for windows. As the weather grows warmer, these are replaced by the translucent bladders of fish, or oiled paper. The floor is generally below the surface of the ground ; the fire is built on a stone hearth in the middle of the yourt, and the smoke escapes through a hole in the roof. They build stables for their horned cattle, but in very cold weather the more valuable cows may find refuge in the family yourt.
Their horses, though of small size, have great powers of endurance, and remain without shelter during the most severe weather, feeding on the dry herbage which they dig with their hoofs from under the snow. These animals travel thirty or forty miles with-out rest, and are admirably suited to the country. The Yakuts make excellent mechanics, and are hard to excel in driving a bargain. They are, as a rule, saving and industrious, and some-times amass large fortunes, at least large for that part of the world. Their nationality is exceedingly energetic, and not only do they retain their own language and customs almost unchanged, but the Russians long resident among them, many of whom have married Yakut women, have also adopted their national tongue. In ingenuity they surpass all other Siberian nations, and their leather-work and some of their manufactures of iron would do credit to the most skilful European artisan. Long before the Russian conquest they manufactured their own knives and axes