a race of people in the Russian empire, occupying the shores of the Arctic Ocean, from the peninsula of Kamin, in the government of Archangel, to the Gulf of Katanska, in the N.E. of that of Yenisieisk. Properly speaking, they are a branch of the Finnic race, but are so widely distinguished from that race that they may be considered a separate one. They are divided into three parts,—Samoyedes of the Great Land, inhabiting the country E. of the Petchora; those of the Little Land, farther west; and those of the Kamin peninsula, the most westerly of all. Their numbers are not great, and they lead a wandering life, subsisting chiefly by fishing and the chase.