Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/385

Rh "I quite agree with you," said Mr. Hegeman. "After I went to America on my return from Siberia, many of my friends complained of the jaw-breaking names of the places I had visited, and declared they never could speak them. A lady of my acquaintance tried in vain to pronounce Irkutsk; its three consonants, t, s, and k, were too much for her but she had not the slightest difficulty in asking me about the fasts and feasts of the Church. The s, t, and s of 'fasts' and 'feasts' are consonants, and just as difficult of pronunciation as the others; but the one set is Russian and the other 'English, you know.'

"Let me suggest an easy way of wrestling with the Russian terminals tsk, nsk, msk, and the like:

"If you're struggling with Irkutsk take the word 'coot,' which is perfectly familiar to you. Put an s to it and make 'coots,' and then a k to that and make 'cootsk' or 'kutsk.' With the prefix er you have the capital of Eastern Siberia before you.

"In the same way dispose of Kansk by building up the word 'can' till you have reached the end. The other terminals which seem so difficult may be rendered perfectly innocuous to the organs of speech if kindly and intelligently treated.

"To return to Krasnoyarsk and its snowless district.

"A description of the place, its buildings, markets, and other features would be nearly a repetition of that of Irkutsk, but on a smaller scale. In the market I was particularly interested in the character and abundance of the fish offered for sale. Among them were pike, sturgeon, perch, and others with which I was familiar, and there was one fish which closely resembled the smelt. Another that I had never before seen had a bill resembling that of a duck and a long and thin body. All these fishes came from the Yenisei or its tributaries; some of them dwell permanently in the river, and others ascend in the summer from the Arctic Ocean.

"There is a fish called omulli by the Russians, and evidently a member of the trout family. It lives in the smaller streams of Siberia, and furnishes a caviar that is greatly prized. The omulli's caviar is of a golden color, and quite in contrast with the black caviar made from the roe of the sturgeon.

"The Yenisei at Krasnoyarsk has a swift current, and resembles the Mississippi at St. Louis, according to the descriptions they gave me. Of course I could not verify the statement, as the river was frozen over at the time of my visit. The width and volume of the Yenisei gave interest to a story which was told by one of the residents: