Reindeer have the advantage of finding their food under the snow,
while provision for dogs must be carried on the sledge. When turned
out in winter, the deer digs beneath the snow and seeks his food
without troubling his master. The American sailors when they have
liberty on shore in these northern regions, invariably indulge in
reindeer rides, to the disgust of the animals and their owners. The
deer generally comes to a halt in the first twenty yards, and nothing
less than building a fire beneath him can move him from his tracks.

There is a peculiar mushroom in Northeastern Siberia spotted like a
leopard and surmounted with a small hood. It grows in other parts of
Russia, where it is poisonous, but among the Koriaks it is simply
intoxicating. When one finds a mushroom of this kind he can sell it
for three or four reindeer. So powerful is this fungus that the
fortunate native who eats it remains drunk for several days. By a
process of transmission which I will not describe, as it might offend
fastidious persons, half a dozen individuals may successively enjoy
the effects of a single mushroom, each of them in a less degree than
his predecessor.

Like savages every where, these northern natives are greatly pleased
with pictures and study them attentively. I heard that several copies
of American illustrated papers were circulating among the Chukchees,
who handled them with great care. There is a superstitious reverence
for pictures mingled with childlike curiosity. People possessing no
written language find the pictorial representations of the civilized
world the nearest approach to savage hieroglyphics.

The telegraph was an object of great wonder to all the natives. In
Ghijiga a few hundred yards of wire were put up in the spring of 1866.