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 Through Siberia, 
 
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THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
3 
 
 o 
 n 
 
 Z 
 o 
 
THROUGH SIBERIA 
 
 BY 
 
 J. STADLING. 
 
 Edited by F. H. H. Guillemard, 
 
 M.A., M.D. (Cantab.) 
 
 WITH 47 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 And 2 jiAPS. 
 
 WESTMINSTER 
 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLR & Co.. Ltd., 
 2, Whitehall Gardens. 
 1901. . 
 
 ,.0-^ lv!.II,UL 
 
 U KM VI "'';:M TY 
 U A K Y 
 
A 
 
 "^^1212, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that the world is now passing 
 through a phase of eager geographical exploration and dis- 
 covery to which no period — not even the Elizabethan — 
 affords a parallel, there are still countries whither the 
 traveller, be he naturalist, geographer, or sportsman, but 
 rarely directs his steps. Siberia is one of them. The map 
 of Africa is becoming almost as crowded with place-names 
 as that of France, and we are steadily filling in the Arctic 
 and even the Antarctic coast-lines, but the Land of the Tundra 
 remains almost as unknown to Englishmen as it was in 
 the days of Cochrane, when, eighty years ago, he set him- 
 self the astounding task of walking, baggageless and alone, 
 from Dieppe to Kamschatka. The Treaty of Nertchinsk 
 is a couple of centuries old, and the Russian conquerors 
 had reached the furthest limits of the vast land even earlier, 
 but no one now thinks of following in their footsteps. 
 
 Travellers, it is true, there are, and in fair number, who 
 homeward or outward bound between China and Europe 
 have passed over the Great Siberian Road, or its latter- 
 day substitute, the Trans-Siberian Railway, but they have 
 for the most part been mere birds of passage, seeing but 
 
viu PREFACE. 
 
 little of the land or the native races. The exile and the 
 "Gold-Baron" are neither sons of the soil, nor even the 
 most interesting features of it. It is from those who leave 
 the highways for the byways that we learn most, and as 
 Mr. Stadling's journeys led him not only into little-known 
 districts, but over the far northern tundras of the Taimyr 
 which have never before been traversed by civilised man, 
 he stands in no need of editorial apologies. A word or 
 two, however, is perhaps permissible upon the author him- 
 self and the motives of his journey. 
 
 Well known in his own country, Sweden, as a traveller 
 and sociologist, Mr. Stadling in the course of his wander- 
 ings has made himself acquainted with many lands, but it 
 is Russia which appears always to have had the greatest 
 fascination for him. As the representative of various phil- 
 anthropists in America and Sweden he cooperated with the 
 Tolstoy family in fighting the famine of 1892, and has 
 visited the country on several other occasions, making 
 himself acquainted with the language and the people, and 
 thus equipping himself in the best possible manner for the 
 journey of which this volume is the record. 
 
 When Andree first contemplated his hazardous attempt 
 to reach the Pole by balloon, Mr. Stadling accompanied 
 him to the north, and again in the following year, when 
 he witnessed his departure. As the months passed away, 
 and no tidings of the explorer came to relieve the anxiety 
 of his friends, it was resolved that search should be made 
 along the Siberian coast-line, and with this object in view 
 the author undertook, at the request of the Swedish Geo- 
 graphical Society, to proceed thither, and see if any news 
 of the expedition could be obtained from the nomadic 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tribes of the tundras. It was decided to descend the 
 Lena River to its naouth, and thence to go westward by- 
 sledge to the Lower Yenisei, and this plan was eventually 
 carried out, though not without considerable risk, for the 
 explorers having been frozen-in on a small island in the 
 Lena delta, came within measurable distance of sharing the 
 fate of the crew of the yeannette, who, it may be remem- 
 bered, perished of cold and starvation within a few miles 
 of this very spot in 1881. But though the author and his 
 companions escaped such mischance, and were successful 
 in establishing relations with the natives over a wide area, 
 the mystery of Andree's fate, as all the world knows, still 
 remains to be solved. 
 
 The reader will perhaps regret that Mr. Stadling has 
 dwelt so sparingly upon his own personal adventures in 
 the following narrative, and, if he be a naturalist, that 
 there are so few references to the plants and animals of this 
 little-known region. But with regard to the latter it must 
 be remembered that the journey was made in winter, when 
 even a Middendorff could have done little, while, if the 
 day-to-day incidents are kept in the background, we are 
 given in place of them much that is of interest on the 
 more serious questions affecting the country. Here, too, 
 the author's information is of especial value, backed as it is 
 by his knowledge of the Russian people and their language. 
 No one will deny that we should be able to recognise a 
 disorder before we can hope to find a remedy, and it is 
 therefore satisfactory to learn that the views of Mr. Stadling 
 are in accord with those of most English travellers as to 
 the moral and social malady which has so long affected 
 Siberia. What Mr. Seebohm describes on the Petchora 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 and the Yenisei, and Mr. Stadling on the Lena, holds good, 
 as I can myself testify, for Kamschatka. The hopeless 
 official corruption everywhere prevalent is the " worm i ' 
 the bud" of progress, and what mischief is left undone 
 by this is completed by the trader and vodka. Before 
 them combined the native is fast approaching his inevit- 
 able fate. 
 
 F. H. H. GUILLEMARD. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. — TO THE GATE OF SIBERIA. I 
 
 The Object of our Journey — Polar Expeditions of 1898 — Tlie Vega- 
 Stipendium and our Party — In St. Petersburg — The Crowding at 
 the Gate — Emigration Statistics — Talks with the Mujilis. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIDERIA II 
 
 The Siberian Train — The West Siberian Lowlands — A Drtejry Plain — 
 Life on the Train — Lying as a Pastime — Dinner by the Way — The 
 Ku-gises — Colonisation of the Akmoliask Steppe — Miseries of the 
 Emigrants. 
 
 CHAPTER ll\. — IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA 25 
 
 The Press in Siberia — Robberies and Murders — T\\t" Podsnieshniks^^ — 
 The Ob Bridge — Poshotina and Zaimki — Development of the Com-' 
 munal System — The New-comer and the old Settler — We Reach 
 Tomsk. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — THROUGH the forest-region 34 
 
 Krasnoyarsk and the Yenisei — Delayed at Tulun — By Tarantass on the 
 Old Siberian Road — The Taiga — lis Influence on the Settler — Bad 
 Characters — Tlie typical Siberian Village — Its Inhabitants — A Night 
 Adventure. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— OVER the euriatic steppe 48 
 
 In Irkutsk — Buriat Villages — History of the Buriats — Communism— 
 Shamanisin— Diiddhist Missionaries — Tlie ' " Buriatisation " of the 
 Russians — Dorschi Bantsaroff — A Gifted Race. 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— THE upper lena 57 
 
 Katschuga and Schigalova — Steamers on tlie River — Pauski — We 
 commence our Voyage^ — Configuration of the Lena Valley — Its Size 
 
 , and its Tributaries — Scenery — Ust Kutsk and its History — "Gold "■ 
 Barons" on the Steamer — Kirensk. ,. . 
 
CO>!TENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— ox the middle lena 67 
 
 Vitim — The Gold Districts — Labour on the Goldfields — "Varnalv- 
 Wages" — Statistics of the Gold Output — 'System of Mining — Pay- 
 day — "The Nobility of Vitim" — TraDS-Shipment to the Permiak — 
 Scenery of the Middle Lena — Exiles northward bound — YaUutiseJ 
 Russians — "Pillars of the Lena' — Olekminsk. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— THE PROVINCE OF YAKUTSK TS 
 
 Physical Characters of the Province — Intense Cold — Noises of the- 
 Arctic Night — The Storms of Spring — Break-up of the Ice — Summer 
 in the Far North — An evei-frozen Soil — Products of the Province — 
 Mammoth Ivory. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.-THE YAKUTS 83 
 
 Population — Social Organisation — Yakut Horses and Cattle — Culture of 
 Cereals — The Yurta — Dress and Ceremonies — Shamanism — Russiaa- 
 Shamanists. 
 
 CHAPTER X.— THE SKOPTSi in exile 97 
 
 Olekminsk — Spaskoie-^What Skoptsi Labour has done — An uneasy 
 Corpse — Marscha, the Skoptsi Colony — A Finnish Member of Ihe 
 Sect — A Philosopher's Library — History of the Skoptsi. 
 
 CHAPTER XL— in the city of Yakutsk 107 
 
 Andree Stories — "S'akutsk and its Mud — The Freebooters — Atrocities 
 of the Voyevodes — Revolt of the Natives — Yakutsk of To-day^— 
 The Kossack "fnyek". 
 
 chapter xii.— the political exiles and their services to 
 
 science 119 
 
 The Early E.-cplorers — Martyrs of Science — The Meteorology of 
 Verkhoyansk — A Via Dolorosa — The Life- Work of Tschekanovsky 
 — His Suicide. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA . . . 
 
 T'^e Lena and its Scenery — Osfn — ^The Tunguses — The Shaman Spirit- 
 > y^'orld — Schigansk — Bulun — The "King" of Bulun — Slavery and 
 Famine — Fish and Fisheries of the Lower Lena. 
 
CONTENTS. XIU 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— AMONG the natives on the lower LENA. 147 
 
 Our Plans for the Arctic Journey — Lodkas and Velkas — The "Christian" 
 Russians — Native Graves — A Tungus Dance — Story of the Jeannette 
 — Bulkur — Ancient River-terraces — " Rock-Ice." 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— THROUGH the LENA DELTA 162 
 
 More Delays — Nilson bids us Adieu — Tit-Ary — The Stolb— Monument 
 Cape — Cross erected to De Long's Party — "Prince" Vinokuroff— 
 Migrations of Reindeer — Winter overtakes us — Storms and Gales — 
 Tora — Life with the Tunguses — A Tungus Orator — Ytang — Tungus 
 Marriage Customs — Fighting the Polar Storms — Frozen-in at last. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— ICE-BOUND in the arctic sea 18 
 
 Frozen-in on Kangelak — Native Habits — We send for Relief — The 
 Dolgan NaUhanoff— -Arrival of the Relief Party — Sledge Dogs — We 
 start for the Olenek — Sledging Mishaps — An Arctic Post-Office — 
 We reach the Olenek. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— across the tundra to the anabar . . 
 
 Natives of the Olenek — Prontchischtschev's Grave — A Tungus Chief and 
 his Reindeer — The Reindeer-Nomads — Reindeer and Sledges — We 
 start for Anabar — The Routine of Tundra Sledging — "Rock-Ice" — 
 Tameness of Birds — Wild Reindeer — Poverty and Epidemics. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— FROM the anabar to the katanga . . 214 
 
 Day and Night behind Reindeer— Glories of the Aurora— Summer 
 Wanderings of the Dolgans — The Wild Reindeer — Subjects of the 
 "Great White Run" — A Wandering Polish Noble — The most 
 Northern Forest in the World — Arrival at Katangskoie. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— among the shamans 226 
 
 The Sign of the Cross— Confession and Fox-skins — Entry into the 
 Shaman Brotherhood — A Shaman Stance — Spirits of Ancestors — 
 Shaman Deities — Erlik Khan — A Shaman Triennial Gathering — 
 Samoyedes as Converts — The Good Samaritan of the Tundra. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— ACROSS the taimyr peninsula 236 
 
 We leave the Katanga — Our Winter Dress — Fatigues of Sledge 
 Travelling — A Tungus Family — Across an Unknown Land — The 
 Nosovaya Tundra — An Unexpected Forest — A Dolgan Deputation — 
 Geographical Distribution of the Nomad Races — We Reach the 
 Yenisei. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL— UP the Yenisei 247 
 
 No News from Civilisation — We bid Adieu to Torgersen — Sledging 
 up the Yenisei -Torosses— The Taiga once more — Turukansk — The 
 Ostiok — "A Big Minister" — 'society in Turukansk — Yeniseisk — 
 Home. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— the exile system 262 
 
 The Ukase of Abolition — Early History of the Exile System — An 
 optimistic View — The " Cooking " of Official Documents — The 
 Early Reformers — Statistics — An Unacknowledged Corvee — The 
 Brodyagi — Cannibalism — Increase of Crime— Demoralisation of the 
 Authorities. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. -THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD AND MARI- 
 TIME COMMUNICATION WITH NORTHERN SIBERIA 273 
 
 Raison d'etre of the Railway — Its Uselessness for the Transport of 
 Cereals — The Perm-Archangel Line — Price of Wheat on the Yenisei — 
 The great Waterways of Siberia — Maritime Communication — Capt. 
 Wiggins and the Yenisei Trade — The Difficulties in the Way — 
 The Policy of the Closed Door — The best Ice-breaker. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN 
 
 SIBERIA 283 
 
 The America of the Old World — The Tercentenary of Siberia — Her 
 Needs formulated — A System of reckless Plunder — ^Illiteracy of the 
 Russian Conquerors — Persecutions of the Colonists — The "Gold- 
 Barons" and "Vodka-Kings "^Stagnation of Industry — Education — 
 Influence of the Swedish Prisoners of War — Pioneers of Culture in 
 Siberia— Yadrintseff on the Future of the Country. 
 
 APPENDIX : yakut travel phrases 299 
 
 INDEX , . . 307 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 NiLSON BIDS US Adieu Frontispiece iv 
 
 Russian Emigrants on the Road to Siberia 7 
 
 Bridge over the Tobol on the Trans-Siberian Railway . 13 
 
 A Train on the Trans-Siberian Railway ig 
 
 A Glimpse from the Train 30 
 
 Krasnoyarsk 35 
 
 On the Road to Irkutsk 4g 
 
 Chalk Cliffs on the Lena 60 
 
 The Old Cathedral, Kirensk 69 
 
 Scene in Olekminsk 75 
 
 The old Kossack Fort, Yakutsk 83 
 
 Yakuts on the Lena gi 
 
 Yakuts and Yurta 94 
 
 House of Skoptsi, Marscha loi 
 
 June Ice on the Lena 109 
 
 Half-breed Yakuts and Yurta near Yakutsk 115 
 
 Exile-laden Pauski on the Lena . , 123 
 
 Cliffs on the Lena showing Outcrop of Coal i2g 
 
 TuNGus Yurta on the Lena 133 
 
 Tungus Woman 135 
 
 At the Church Porch, Schigansk 139 
 
 Kara Ulak Range, Lower Lena i4g 
 
 Tungus Grave on the Tundra 153 
 
 Androssoff's Hut at Bulkur 155 
 
 "Rockice" west of the Olenek iSg 
 
 Natives and Dogs at Tit-Ary 165 
 
 Monument TO De Long AND his Comrades OF the "Jeannette" 168 
 
XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 In THE Lena Delta 171 
 
 KusMA 176 
 
 Tunguses of the Lena Delta i79 
 
 We despatch our Natives for Assistance 187 
 
 The Dolgan Nalthanoff and his Sledge 191 
 
 Crossing the Frozen Ocean to Olenek 19S 
 
 On the Olenek Tundra 207 
 
 My Sledge on the Anabar 211 
 
 The most Northern Forest in the World .221 
 
 Katangskoie 224 
 
 A Shaman Grave 231 
 
 A Forest in the Taimyr District 241 
 
 Samoyedes near the Piasina 245 
 
 turukansk 251 
 
 Yeniseisk 257 
 
 Exiles on the Lena 267 
 
 Map of the Trans-Siberian Railway 275 
 
 Native Fox-trap 286 
 
 Yukagir and Child 295 
 
 Yakut and Tent, Bulun 301 
 
 Map of the Author's Route At End of Volume 
 
THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TO THE GATE OF SIBERIA. 
 
 The Object of our Journey — Polar Expeditions of 1898 — The Vega- 
 Stipendium and our Party — ^In St. Petersburg — The Crowding at 
 the Gate — Emigration Statistics — Talks with the Mujiks. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1898 I expressed to the 
 chairman of the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical 
 Society, Baron Nordenskjold, my opinion that something 
 ought to be done by my countrymen towards the search for 
 Andree in northern Siberia, pointing out the following reasons 
 for the despatch of an expedition. During the summer of 
 1898 the polar basin would be surrounded by a chain of 
 various expeditions with the most northern limits of the 
 accessible parts of the Arctic Ocean and islands as their goal. 
 Large and well-equipped scientific expeditions were bound for 
 the north-west and the north-east of Greenland (a Danish 
 expedition to the former and Sverdrup and Peary to the 
 latter), for Spitsbergen (one Russian and two Swedish ex- 
 peditions), and for Franz Joseph's Land (Wellman's and Prof. 
 Nathorst's expeditions); a large number of whalers were 
 about to cruise in the seas between Jan Mayen and Novaya 
 
2 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Zemlia; an English fleet of merchantmen were reported 
 to be going to the mouth of the Yenisei, and a Russian 
 expedition to western Taimyr. In addition to these, whalers 
 and trading expeditions were about to proceed to the 
 regions between the Atlantic and Hudson Bay, and north- 
 east of Bering Strait as far as to the mouth of the Mackenzie 
 River. In this chain of expeditions surrounding the polar 
 basin there were, however, large breaks, and among them 
 a great gap on the coasts of northern Siberia, east and 
 west of the mouth of the Lena and the New Siberian 
 Islands. I therefore considered it of importance to ascertain 
 whether trappers and collectors of mammoth-tusks had 
 visited those islands during- the year 1 897 ; for, if not, an 
 expedition ought, I thought, to go there and find out 
 whether the supplies left upon them by Baron von Toll for 
 Andree had been touched or not, in other words, whether any 
 traces of Andree could be discovered. Not less important 
 would it be to communicate with the natives roaming far 
 and wide on the endless tundras near the Arctic coast, in 
 order to ascertain whether they had observed any traces of 
 the missing explorer, and, by promises of liberal rewards, 
 to incite them to be on the look-out for such traces in the 
 future on the coasts of the Arctic Ocean. This opinion 
 of mine met with cordial assent not only on the part of 
 Baron Nordenskjold, but also from other prominent mem- 
 bers of our Geographical Society. 
 
 When I broached the plan, it was not my intention 
 eventually to embark on such a journey myself, as I con- 
 
TO THE GATE OF SIBERIA. 3 
 
 sidered that it would be better with a younger man than 
 myself as leader. However, as it proved impossible to 
 find some more suitable person acquainted with the Russian 
 language, and as I was not unwilling to accept such a 
 mission, I finally gave in to my friends' suggestion and con- 
 sented to undertake the expedition, and for this purpose 
 the " Vega-stipendium" of our Geographical Society was 
 granted to me. I felt it to be a national duty to do all 
 in my power to search for my friends, Andree and his 
 companions, whose never-to-be-forgotten departure from 
 Spitsbergen I had witnessed. 
 
 For the purpose of making botanical researches on the 
 lower Lena, Mr. N. H. Nilson, M.A., of Lund was selected 
 to accompany me, and at the last moment Mr. H. Fraenkel, 
 a younger brother of Knut Fraenkel who went with Andree, 
 joined my little expedition. Necessary funds for making 
 collections having been provided by private persons and 
 the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, we left the 
 Swedish capital on the 20th of April, 1 898, for St. Peters- 
 burg, where we had to stop a week in order to procure 
 the necessary passports and introductions and complete 
 our equipment. The authorities showed us much kindness, 
 and granted us free passes on the Russian railroads. 
 
 On the 1st of May we left St. Petersburg. Arriving too 
 late at Moscow for the express-train for Siberia, we had 
 to take an ordinary train, which was very crowded. After 
 a tedious journey of four days and nights, during which 
 we had carefully to guard our baggage against thieves. 
 
4 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 we finally arrived at Tschelabinsk, the " Western Gate of 
 Siberia," and the terminus of the great Trans-Siberian 
 railroad. 
 
 This first station on the Siberian railway is beautifully 
 situated among birch-groves in a valley on the eastern 
 slopes of the Ural mountains, near the border between Asia 
 and Europe. Formerly a small posting-station, Tschelabinsk, 
 since the opening of the western part of the Siberian 
 railroad, has grown rapidly in importance. Like most cen- 
 tres of population in Siberia, the town is situated a few 
 kilometres from the railroad. The railway-station is alto- 
 gether too small to answer the growing requirements of 
 traffic, and we found it the scene of incredible crowding 
 and confusion. For a great distance along the line there 
 were piles upon piles of various kinds of goods lying in the 
 open, or sheltered only by primitive sheds or by tarpaulin. 
 It was said by persons competent to judge that there were 
 about 4000 waggon-loads of goods — cereals, hides, tallow, 
 furs, etc., awaiting transport. This hopeless blocking of 
 goods here and at other places on the Siberian railway is a 
 problem not easily solved. The construction of the line 
 throughout is as yet only of a temporary character, and it 
 therefore cannot stand a forced traffic before thorough 
 reconstruction and the laying of new rails has taken place. 
 Yet specialists consider that even now the traffic might be 
 increased considerably on the Siberian line. The greatest 
 hindrances, however, are not in Siberia itself, but west of 
 the Siberian border, on the Slatoust-Samara line which passes 
 
TO THE GATE OF SIBERIA. 5 
 
 through the Ural mountains and the province of Ufa, the 
 construction of which does not permit such an increased 
 traffic as would satisfy the requirements of the export of 
 goods from Siberia. 
 
 From Europe to Siberia the goods traffic is not so 
 great, but that of ordinary passengers and emigrants is 
 enormous. A great number of adventurers and fortune- 
 seekers from all parts of Russia and from foreign countries 
 are coming with the new railroad to the new country, 
 but their number, large though it be, is insignificant in 
 comparison with the immense flood of emigrants which the 
 chronic famine in Russia is sending to Siberia. And these 
 emigrants — the only persons who go to Siberia to stay 
 there and cultivate the immense country — must, every one 
 of them, stop at Tschelabinsk to show their passports and 
 other documents proving that they have received legal 
 permission to emigrate. The other travellers to Siberia, 
 who go there only to exploit the country and return 
 again with their booty, are allowed to pass on without 
 any requirements of this kind. Large barracks in the form 
 of blockhouses, and also a temporary hospital and " people's 
 kitchen," have been erected in the neighbourhood of the 
 station, to provide for the emigrants at this their point, 
 de depart for the promised land. 
 
 Emigration to Siberia has increased immensely since the 
 opening of the western section of the railway. As is well 
 known, Siberia was peopled mainly by enforced coloni- 
 sation until the close of 1850, when voluntary emigrants 
 
6 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 commenced in small numbers to cross the Asiatic border. 
 During the period between 1870 and 1886, according to offi- 
 cial reports, 286,504 emigrants went to Siberia. The great 
 famine in Russia in the beginning of the nineties increased 
 the emigration enormously. Thus in 1892 about 200,000 
 peasants left their homes for Siberia. The annual number 
 of emigrants during subsequent years has varied between 
 100,000 and 200,000. In 1897 205,000 passed Tschela- 
 binsk only; during 1898 and 1899 these numbers have 
 been still further increased. Naturally, such a great out- 
 flow of working men from Russia frightened the large 
 landowners, who urged the government to stop the exodus. 
 Measures for this purpose having failed, the authorities 
 have for the future limited themselves to endeavouring to 
 restrain and control this great eastern migration of the 
 mujik. Thus no peasant is permitted to pass Tschelabinsk 
 without proving his permission to emigrate, but, as a matter 
 of fact, the law is evaded by many who cross the border 
 in other places. 
 
 At the time of our passing through Tschelabinsk there 
 were over 3000 emigrants waiting for their turn to move 
 eastward to the promised land. The long platform and 
 the grounds about the station were teeming with living 
 bundles of rags — men, women and children, emaciated by 
 hunger, matted with dirt, and one and all with that apathe- 
 tic and hopeless expression which I so well knew from 
 my stay in the famine-stricken provinces of Russia in 1 892, 
 While waiting for the departure of the train, I went up 
 
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 PS 
 
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TO THE GATE OF SIBERIA. 9 
 
 and talked to a group of these unhappy people. I asked 
 them where they had come from, and whither they intended 
 to go. Before I had received any intelligible answer, I 
 was surrounded by men, women, and children, who all 
 began to talk at the same time, so that I could only catch 
 a few broken words: "Your high nobility"... "merciful 
 barin"... "benefactor"... "for Christ's sake". The 
 women cried, the children stared at me. I quieted them, 
 and asked what they were all doing at this place. 
 
 "What are we doing?" repeated a piping voice with 
 mocking accent from the crowd. "We are burying our 
 dead, that's what we are doing. Only to-day two babies 
 have died at the station." 
 
 Two mujiks now came forward cap in hand and began 
 to talk both at the same time. " Shut up, Stepan ; Vanushka 
 came first!" interrupted the same piping voice from the 
 crowd. 
 
 Vanushka began again: "Your high nobility, I and my 
 wife and children have come from Nikolaievsk, that is to 
 say, my wife was born in Busuluk, her father was servant 
 there, and we did not get more for our izba (farmer's hut) 
 and the cow than what was needed for the ticket to 
 Petropavlovsk ; and our debt to Andreitch we have to pay 
 afterwards" . . . 
 
 "The passport, the passport! Ach, Gospodee! (oh. Lord!) 
 That was what you had to tell the barin about," again 
 interrupted the voice, which seemed to belong to some 
 leading man among the emigrants. 
 
lo THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 "The passport, oh, Lord!" repeated Vanushka. "The 
 village-community had nothing against me, I had paid my 
 taxes, and finally I got my passport. I carried it on me, 
 and then I put it in my trunk, but now it is lost . . . Oh, 
 Lord I Help me, merciful barin ! For if not, I shall have 
 to return, and we have nothing, all are starving at home" . . . 
 He was interrupted by the wailing of the woman. 
 
 Then Stepan began his story in the same roundabout 
 way. He, too, had lost his trunk, and so had several others, 
 and they begged me to help them to get them back. 
 They had been detained two weeks because of those lost 
 trunks! Other emigrants begged money for their starving 
 or sick relatives. It was a pitiful story; alas! only too 
 common, I fear, in the history of this colossal expatriation. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIBERIA. 
 
 The Siberian Train — The West Siberian Lowlands — A Dreary Plain — Life 
 on the Train — Lying as a Pastime — Dinner by the Way — The 
 Kirgises — Colonisation of the Akmolinsk Steppe — Miseries of the 
 Emigrants. 
 
 On the Siberian train, which had modern bogey-carriages, 
 we succeeded in getting a comfortable compartment. To 
 the train were attached a large number of vans for "horses 
 and men," which were overcrowded with emigrants. Besides 
 the emigrants, there was nothing that characterised the train 
 as differing in any way from that on any ordinary Russian 
 line. The carriages were comfortable, the passengers of 
 the first and second class were merchants and officials; 
 those of the third class a mixtum compositum of all peoples 
 and languages. Life on board, too, was the same as on a 
 Russian train: the passengers bringing with them a pile of 
 bedclothes, a large basket of provisions, tea-set, etc. This 
 causes much crowding, but friction is prevented by common 
 good humour and amiability. As we advanced farther 
 into Siberia, however, things changed somewhat, as we 
 shall see. 
 
 The train now carried us very slowly eastward over the 
 
12 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 immense lowland steppes of Western Siberia. These low- 
 lands are in reality a continuation of the Ural-Caspian basin, 
 together with which, at a comparatively recent period in 
 the history of the earth, they formed the bottom of a gigantic 
 northern sea, of which remnants still exist in the shape of 
 salt lakes and marshes. The western part of this great level 
 belongs to the river-system of the gigantic Ob. Its declivity 
 towards the Arctic Ocean is very slight. According to the 
 few measurements which have been made in connection with 
 the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, there are only 
 a few points higher than 450 feet above the level of the 
 Arctic Sea at a distance of many hundreds of miles from 
 the latter; while at most places the height is only about 
 360 feet. South of the railroad the declivity is likewise 
 very slight. At the almost imperceptible water-parting 
 between the Aral- Caspian basin and the Arctic Ocean the 
 greatest height is hardly more than 900 feet above the 
 level of the sea. East and west through this immense 
 plain the huge forest belt, .varying in width from 1000 to 
 1300 miles, extends from the Ural mountains to the Pacific 
 Ocean, bounded to the north by the ever-frozen tundras 
 and to the south by the steppes. 
 
 The western portion of the Trans-Siberian railroad, travers- 
 ing the steppes from the Ural mountains to the Ob, has a 
 length of 880 miles. This endless plain through which the 
 train carries us, diversified only by salt lakes and marshes, 
 conveys a most cheerless impression. Here and there, how- 
 ever, one sees a grove of birches, all the more welcome 
 
THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIBERIA. 15 
 
 and agreeable from their rarity. Never in my life have I 
 seen such snow-white birch-stems as here, so dazzling against 
 the clear green carpet of the steppes. This region is very 
 sparsely populated (only about five persons to the square 
 mile) by Kirgises and Russian emigrants. ' From Tsche- 
 labinsk the railroad runs for 161 miles through the Orenburg 
 district, and then follows the border between Tobolsk and 
 the "Steppe-provinces." Between the Irtish and the Ob 
 it crosses the so-called Baratinsky Steppe. The greater 
 part of these immense regions belongs either to the Crown 
 or to the Imperial family, and a considerable area of it 
 has been opened up for colonisation, but some land belongs 
 to the Kossacks. 
 
 Life on board the train, as I have said, was characterised 
 by general amiability, though it was sometimes of a little 
 too intimate a nature for the taste of a westerner. I had 
 hardly taken my seat before some one began inquiring: 
 "Where do you come from?" "Where are you going, 
 and what is your business?" "What is your tschin (title 
 or caste)?" When it became known that I was going to 
 search for Andree, such questions as the following were 
 put to me : " How much money have you ? . . . Have you 
 the money by you or in the trunk? What have you in 
 that box, in that leather trunk?" etc. I conversed with 
 
 ' In the two great steppe-provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk, be- 
 longing to the "General Gubemie (province) of the Steppes" with Omsk as 
 its capital, the population, according to the latest official reports, amounts to 
 1,473,154, of whom 921,458 are Kirgises. 
 
i6 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 different kinds of persons — merchants, officials, teachers, 
 and peasants — and on different subjects. I soon, however, 
 discovered that the statements of my interlocutors were 
 often as contradictory as they well could be, and that I 
 seldom could rely on my authority. From my experiences 
 in this respect during my travels in Siberia, I feel inclined 
 to think that the somewhat strong opinion of the French 
 traveller. Professor Legras, concerning the way in which 
 truth is treated in Siberia comes very near the mark. 
 
 "Among certain classes of society in Siberia," he says, 
 "people lie with enthusiasm for the pleasure of the thing, 
 most often without any personal interest as motive, simply 
 from habit, as a pastime, or from love of the art. If I 
 except a few personal friends who have given me reliable 
 information, I could count on my fingers those persons 
 whom I have not surprised in the very act of trying to 
 cheat and deceive me by wrong statements ... They lie 
 naively, refinedly, or cynically, as it suits them best; they 
 lie with caressing looks and cordial shakings of the hand "... 
 This serious moral defect must not, however, be judged 
 too hardly by our western standard; it is, I believe, to be 
 explained by Asiatic conditions which create suspicion 
 between man and man, and make the art of dissimulation 
 a necessary weapon of self-protection of everybody against 
 everybody. In Siberia, where these Asiatic conditions are 
 still more pronounced than in European Russia, this art of 
 lying has assumed repulsive forms — has become, indeed, a 
 kind of popular amusement. The fault is not so much 
 
THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIBERIA. 17 
 
 with the individual as with the rigime which creates it. 
 I met with several Siberians who warned me of the 
 necessity of being on my guard against the stories about 
 Andree which would be sure to shower upon me in Siberia, 
 a warning well borne out by subsequent experience. 
 
 A purer and nobler pleasure than that of listening to 
 "sailor-yarns" and chroniques scabreuses was afforded me 
 by looking out from the platform of the train over the 
 endless steppe with its fresh green of early spring, its 
 brilliant flowers, its groves of birches with their snowy 
 stems. Now and then were seen large herds of cattle, 
 horses, and sheep, watched by Kirgises on horseback, whose 
 silhouettes showed clear against the horizon on the ridge 
 of some hill, calling to mind the times when these free 
 sons of the steppe roamed undisturbed over the endless 
 plains of Siberia. Others would be seen on their speedy 
 horses, surrounded by whirUng clouds of dust, coming 
 towards the train, with which they kept up a race for several 
 kilometres, until they finally had to give up the unequal 
 struggle with the iron horse, this invincible intruder which 
 ever more and more is driving away the natives and their 
 herds from their old haunts. 
 
 Slowly the train rolls on, jostling and shaking for one, 
 two, or even three hours on end, until a sharp whistling is 
 heard, and yonder, far away on the steppe, is seen a group 
 of low red-painted houses. These are the stations, which 
 are situated about twenty or thirty miles from one another, 
 and two or three perhaps from some village, which is 
 
i8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 seldom seen from the line. At each station the train stops 
 from 20 to 45 minutes, as the case may be, at the end of 
 which three signals are given with a bell, and then three 
 whistles with long intervals. Still a few minutes pass 
 after the last signal, and finally the train once more starts 
 quietly on its journey. At every station tea and vodka 
 can be had, but regular meals are served only at certain 
 places. When leaving the train at the stations, it is ab- 
 solutely necessary to hire some one to watch over your 
 baggage, for stealing on the trains is very common. The 
 stations are invariably too small, and there is a great deal 
 of crowding and scrambling to get to the buffet for a glass 
 of tea or vodka, or to get a place at the table, where, as 
 a rule, a long wait is necessary before a more or less 
 cleanly and courteous waiter appears and brings you stchee 
 (cabbage soup) and cutlets, which you swallow as quickly 
 as you can, and hurry back to the train to see if your 
 things are all right. The soup with a small piece of meat 
 swimming in it costs about eighteen pence, the cutlets half 
 a crown or three shillings, and a bottle of beer about seven- 
 pence or eight-pence. Considering the low price of meat 
 (three-halfpence a pound), the food at the Siberian railway 
 restaurants is rather dear ; moreover its quality does not, as a 
 rule, come up to that of the generally excellent railway 
 restaurants in European Russia. For third-class passengers 
 there is a special buffet, and for the emigrants a " kipitka " 
 or cooking-house, where they receive boiling water gra- 
 tuitously for their tea. As a rule, these passengers never 
 
THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIBERIA. 21 
 
 consume anything at the stations except vodka, but only 
 fill their tea-kettles with boiling water and make their tea 
 on board the train. 
 
 On the second day of our journey the Kirgises began 
 to make their appearance at the stations and in the third- 
 class carriages, their number increasing more and more the 
 farther east we got. Both men and women wore the 
 common schapan of central Asia, a wide kaftan bordered 
 with sheepskin and reaching to the knees, with a belt about 
 the waist. The men had high and wide boots of red 
 leather on their feet, and Tatar caps edged with fur on 
 their heads. 
 
 Their costume, their large bronzed faces with small and 
 somewhat oblique eyes, and their strong and healthy ap- 
 pearance made them easily recognisable among the crowds 
 of emigrants, where, quiet and taciturn, they walked about 
 with that peculiar wagging motion of the body which is 
 characteristic of horsemen, or sat with their bulgy legs 
 a-straddle, curiously regarding the ragged and hunger-stricken 
 crowds of Russians flocking in to occupy their pasture- 
 grounds and push them and their herds more and more out 
 of the plains which their forefathers have occupied from time 
 immemorial. Do these sons of the steppe think of the 
 significance of this invasion, I wonder? Their resigned 
 expression seems only to say, "The will of Allah 
 be done!" 
 
 The Russian colonisation of the Kirgis steppe of Akmo- 
 linsk began about the middle of the eighteenth century with 
 
22 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the erection (in 1752) of the fort of Petropavlovsk, which 
 through a chain of smaller Kossack forts was connected 
 with the fort of Omsk to the east and with the military- 
 lines of Orenburg to the west. Protected by these forts, 
 Russian colonists penetrated farther and farther into the 
 steppe both to the north and south, and occupied the richest 
 and best land. The first colonists were Kossacks who moved 
 in from South Russia. It was not before 1870 that the 
 Russian peasants began to colonise these steppes. This 
 colonisation was partly forced and partly voluntary. 
 In order to people the steppe and Russify the Kirgises 
 the Government selected peasants from European Russia 
 and sent them to places specially assigned for their settle- 
 ment. I Here, however, as well as in other parts of Siberia, 
 official experiments of this kind did not turn out well, 
 owing to the unsuitableness of the places selected for settle- 
 ment and other causes. The voluntary colonisation, on the 
 other hand, has always succeeded better. During the 
 27 years between 1869 and 1896 the number of Russian 
 colonists in Akmolinsk has increased from 101,910 to 
 258,747. 
 
 This great influx of immigrants has caused much misery 
 and dissatisfaction both among the Kirgises and the 
 colonists, and officials have been from time to time appointed 
 to settle the troubles by assigning suitable land for coloni- 
 sation to the colonists and suitable pasture-grounds to the 
 
 " This administrative colonisation must not be confounded with the exile- 
 system proper, which is quite another thing. 
 
THE STEPPES OF WESTERN SIBERIA. 23 
 
 natives. These commissions, however, have not had much 
 success, owing mainly to the fact that the parties con- 
 cerned — the colonists and the Kirgises — have not had any 
 say in the matter. These steppes, as I have stated, are covered 
 with salt lakes and marshes, and the places where fresh 
 water and arable land exist are needed alike as pasture- 
 grounds for the Kirgises and as homesteads for the colo- 
 nists. Among the Kirgises has existed from time imme- 
 morial a well-defined system of tribal land-ownership or 
 rather right of occupation, which has worked very well, 
 and the breaking up of this system, of course, is accom- 
 panied by much misery and suffering. At present com- 
 missions are at work with the aim of finding out how far 
 the steppes of western Siberia may be made suitable for 
 colonisation by the aid of artesian wells, and experiments 
 of this kind are being made, though with what success is 
 not yet known. Owing to the fact that the black soil of 
 the steppes of this region — as far as is known — is in many 
 places thin and consists mainly of turf, it is either not 
 suitable for cultivation at all or is very soon exhausted. 
 This soil, which cannot bear comparison with the rich 
 black soil of Russia, necessarily requires an intensive culture, 
 which, under present circumstances and at great distances 
 from centres of population, is not possible in Siberia, 
 excepting in a few districts near the western border. 
 
 The overwhelming tide of famine-stricken immigrants 
 is, of course, creating untold misery among hundreds of 
 thousands of these poor people in a land with such a severe 
 
24 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 climate as Siberia. To alleviate this misery a noble band 
 of self-sacrificing volunteers are at work at the several 
 "emigration-points," and large sums of money are also 
 assigned by the authorities for relief; but all this work is like 
 emptying the sea with a bucket, for tens of thousands are 
 every year carried off by want, exposure, and epidemics. 
 A strip of land lOO versts wide alongside the railroad is 
 entirely set apart for colonisation, and the emigrants settling 
 there seem to be best cared for. 
 
 Of the towns of Kurgan, Petropavlovsk, and Omsk, 
 situated respectively on the rivers Tobol, Ischim, and Irtish, 
 we could see only the spires of the churches and the 
 roofs of the highest buildings, for the line always runs at a 
 distance of some versts from the towns. The last named 
 town, Omsk, is the most important, not only as " the capital 
 of the steppes," but also for its situation on the river 
 Irtish, which puts it in communication with China, and 
 thus promises it a great future as a commercial centre. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA. 
 
 The Press iu Siberia — Robberies and Murders — The " Podsnieshniks" — 
 The Ob Bridge — Poslotina and Zaimki — Development of the Com- 
 munal System — The New-comer and the old Settler — We reach 
 Tomsk. 
 
 At Omsk I got the first fresh newspaper, " Stepnoi 
 Krai" (The Steppe-Region), pubHshed the previous day in 
 Omsk, and also a number of older Siberian journals. At 
 once I laid aside my old papers from Moscow and St. Pe- 
 tersburg, eager to see what my new acquaintances were like. 
 The position of the press in Russia is not enviable, and it 
 is still less so in Siberia. The starting of a newspaper in 
 this latter country is connected with so many formalities 
 and difficulties that a western editor would hang himself 
 in despair before he had gone through half of them and 
 had time to begin to think of editing the first number. 
 And having got so far, he would be only at the beginning 
 of his tribulations. For the Siberian newspapers are sub- 
 jected not only to the "general censure," but also to the 
 "local censure," which is under the control of the respective 
 governors. And this purgatory is a hot one. Not one 
 article, not one notice, nay, not even the advertisements 
 
26 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 are exempt from the crucial fire. And there is no appeal.- 
 If the censor chance to be an educated person and consistent 
 in his severity, the editor may somehow steer his craft 
 between rocks and shallows with possible safety, but if, as 
 often is the case, he is an ignoramus without education, 
 mutilating every article with his clumsy red pencil, then 
 the patience of the editor is indeed put to a severe test. If 
 he refuses to print such a mutilated article, then he risks 
 serious consequences for such obstinacy. If, by dint of 
 exceptional skill in writing between the lines, he succeeds 
 in getting an article passed which is afterwards considered 
 to have "a dangerous influence" or a "tendency to be 
 hurtful," his paper may run the risk of being entirely sup- 
 pressed, —a common enough episode in Siberian journalism. 
 
 It is no wonder then, under such circumstances, that in 
 all Siberia there are only about half-a-dozen newspapers, 
 and that all have a hard struggle for existence in more 
 senses than one. It is consequently with no little sympathy 
 and admiration that one reads such very well-written produc- 
 tions (even from a western standpoint) as the " Stepnoi 
 Krai" " Sibirskaya Zkisn" (Siberian Life) and " Vostot- 
 schnoye Obozrenye" (Eastern Review), in which sometimes, 
 if you know how to read between the lines, you will per- 
 chance discover criticisms of matters which the press of 
 European Russia dares not even touch upon. 
 
 With great curiosity I now studied the contents of my 
 new purchases, for in a way they gave me a better and 
 more correct idea of Siberian life than I could otherwise 
 
IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA. 27 
 
 have got in my hurried journey through the country. What 
 struck me at the first glance were the long columns filled 
 with notices of robberies and murders. Here, for example, 
 is a notice of a herd of cattle and horses having been 
 lifted on the steppe, there another of a daring burglary, 
 followed by a list of several robberies and murders which 
 had taken place in open daylight, and of travellers who had 
 been attacked and killed by brigands, etc. And these events 
 did not strike the Siberians as anything abnormal. To 
 them they were common occurrences. In a town of some 
 30,000 inhabitants— Krasnoyarsk to wit — about 50 robberies 
 with murder were said to occur annually. Another sub- 
 ject occupying much space in these newspapers was the 
 distress among the immigrants and the lack of well-organ- 
 ised relief. The occurrence of 3000 cases of disease 
 among a single week's importation of these wretched people 
 was noted, and it was reported that there were 15,000 
 persons crowded together at one "emigration point" on the 
 Ob, waiting for transport, etc. There were also notices 
 and articles about the way in which the poor colonists fell 
 into the hands of usurers and low-class lawyers, reducing 
 them to abject poverty ; and others about the constant 
 collisions occurring between the old and the new settlers. 
 Another subject which was discussed in these papers was 
 the lack of popular education and how to provide for this. 
 One paper complained that in Irkutsk, where living is 
 exorbitantly dear, a school-teacher received a salary of only 
 16 to 21 roubles a month, and that only about one quarter 
 
28 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 of the children of school-age received any instruction 
 whatever. Another commented upon the report that 700 
 new churches were to be erected for the immigrants, by- 
 quoting the fact that in some provinces only one child out 
 of 18 received any instruction, and even that was often of 
 a very inferior nature. 
 
 Between Omsk and Ob I met a Siberian newspaper-editor 
 from Tomsk, who showed much interest in our expedition. 
 To my enquiry as to the report spread in Europe via 
 Rome during the previous winter, that three dead foreigners 
 had been found somewhere in Siberia, he replied that it 
 was a very common affair for corpses to be found in the 
 forests of Siberia, but he had never heard of any discovery 
 of this nature which could be connected in any way with 
 the Andree Expedition. If Andree and his comrades had 
 been found dead or alive, the fact would certainly have 
 become known, as they would easily have been identified. 
 During the spring, he said, when the snow commences to 
 melt, a large number of corpses of "unknown persons" 
 are found in the forests near the roads in the vicinity of 
 villages and cities. These "unknown persons" are either 
 escaped prisoners who have perished from exposure^ or 
 else persons who have been murdered; and these finds of 
 corpses are so common that they are called by the people 
 " podsnieshniks" (snow-flowers). This Andree report was 
 explained in the same way by other Siberians. 
 
 From the bridge over the Ob, 875 yards in length, we 
 had a magnificent view of the great river, now filled with 
 
IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA. 29 
 
 masses of drifting ice. At this point we entered the central 
 section of the Trans-Siberian railway between Ob and Irkutsk, 
 which has a length of 1136 miles. The line now runs for 
 about 120 miles through an undulating forest-clad country, 
 the beautiful natural park-region forming the transition 
 between the thick virgin forest and the steppe, and then 
 the train plunges into the "taiga", as the virgin forest of 
 Siberia is called. 
 
 In this park-like region, with its natural meadows mingled 
 with groves of cedar, pine, and birch, are seen, between 
 the sparse huts of the new settlers, the large enclosures of 
 the old colonists. These so-called "■ poskotina" (from skot 
 = cattle) and the " zaimki" or "occupations" will ere 
 long belong only to history. The Russian colonists have 
 always settled in groups, and not on single farms widely 
 separated from one another, as did the colonists of America 
 and Australia. The reasons for this are to be found both 
 in the gregarious instinct of the Slav and in the necessity 
 for common protection against the attacks of hostile natives 
 and bands of robbers. As long as there was a superfluity 
 of land the immigrants settled wherever they pleased, 
 enclosing a common pasture-ground, i.e. forming a "posko- 
 tina", which would sometimes comprise sixteen square 
 miles or more. Early in the spring, or in the fall when 
 the crops had been gathered in, the cattle would also be 
 pastured on the cultivated and sometimes specially enclosed 
 fields. The Russian communal ownership of the soil has 
 also been introduced into Siberia. At first this was limited 
 
30 
 
 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 to the pasture-grounds, which all settlers had the same 
 duty to enclose and the same right to use; but later 
 it was extended even to the cultivated land. In con- 
 sequence of the great superfluity of land in Siberia, only 
 the most primitive system of agriculture— " a system of 
 pillage and plunder" — has been followed, and the soil 
 
 A GLIMPSE FROM THE TRAIN. 
 
 being as a rule much less fertile than in Europe, it is very 
 soon exhausted. 
 
 The colonist now simply leaves his exhausted piece of 
 land and commences to exhaust another piece. When all 
 his land within the enclosure is thus worked out, he goes 
 beyond its borders and finds out the most fertile spots, 
 which he ploughs and reaps until they in their turn are 
 
IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA. 31 
 
 exhausted. A Siberian colonist of the old type may thus 
 have twenty different pieces of cultivated land scattered 
 far and wide in the forest, some of them, perhaps, as 
 much as a dozen miles away from his home. Finally, the 
 long journeys to and fro between his home and these 
 scattered plots taking too much time and trouble, he builds a 
 hut for himself and an enclosure for the cattle, and spends 
 part of the year at some of his occupied places. This is 
 then called a " zaimka" or occupation. Sometimes it hap- 
 pens that, finding sufficient fertile soil, he moves away 
 entirely to the new place. Others, perhaps, will come after 
 him, and thus a new " olstschina^' (community) arises. 
 
 In such a system of free occupation and " plundering " 
 of the soil conflicts will often, of course, arise between the 
 colonists, and these conflicts en dernier ressort are usually 
 settled by the community, which thus asserts its funda- 
 mental right of ownership to the land. "The community 
 is the possessor and distributor of the land." 
 
 A strong animosity exists between the old settlers and 
 the new, the former considering the latter as intruders, and 
 not without reason, for with the influx of the famine-stricken 
 masses from Russia the comparatively well-to-do old Sibe- 
 rian peasantry will be reduced to poverty. The new- 
 comers settling within the borders of an old settlement 
 have each the right of obtaining some 38 acres of land, 
 which means that the old settlers are deprived of a corre- 
 sponding area of their land with little or no recompense 
 for it. To retaliate for this intrusion the members of 
 
32 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the old peasant-communities compel the new-comer to pay 
 about 150 roubles for the right of membership in the 
 community, without which he is not allowed to settle within 
 its border. New-comers who form independent communi- 
 ties of their own avoid this outlay, but very often fall into 
 the hands of "lawyers" and usurers. instead. The immi- 
 grants in their turn take revenge for the real or imagined 
 wrongs suffered at the hands of the " tscheldon" (a nick- 
 name of the old settlers). Many of these are sectarians 
 or political offenders of some kind, whose previous life- 
 history has some vulnerable point, of which the new-comers 
 are not slow to avail themselves. Sometimes they denounce 
 a rich sectarian before the police, or the ecclesiastical 
 authorities; at another time they report an "unreliable" 
 political in order to get him banished and occupy his land 
 and house. In this they sometimes succeed, and thus 
 the 'system of denunciation" is freely practised. The sec- 
 tarians in their turn accuse the new-comers, and not with- 
 out reason, of disturbing the good order of the communi- 
 ties by introducing drunkenness, stealing, and immorality, 
 which were unknown before their arrival, and ask to be 
 delivered from the intruders. In the end it not unfre- 
 quently happens that entire sectarian communities are thus 
 compelled to leave their old homes and move away into 
 the wilderness. 
 
 From the station of Taiga, situated in the midst of the 
 principal forest, a branch-line runs 56 miles to the city of 
 Tomsk, where I made a short visit to deliver a valuable 
 
IN THE HEART OF SIBERIA. 33 
 
 gift from Baron Nordenskjold to the University of Tomsk 
 in the shape of a scientific collection. The railway station 
 of Tomsk, like almost all Siberian railway stations, is situ- 
 ated a few miles outside the town, to which a road leads 
 which in dirtiness vies with the streets of Tomsk itself. 
 Beautifully situated on the river Tom, and having several 
 large public buildings, among which the University is the 
 most prominent, the town would make a pleasant impression 
 if it were not for the horrible dirt prevailing everywhere - in 
 the streets, in the stores, in all public places. Time — 
 perhaps fortunately — did not permit us to stay in Tomsk 
 more than one day. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 
 
 Krasnoyarsk and the Yenisei — Delayed at Tulun — By Tarantass on the 
 Old Siberian Road — The Taiga — Its Influence on the Settler — Bad 
 Characters — The typical Siberian Village — Its Inhabitants — ^A Night 
 Adventure. 
 
 From Taiga to the town of Krasnoyarsk, situated on 
 the western shore of the Yenisei, the railroad runs more 
 than 300 miles through the virgin forest, until, not far from 
 the latter town, it comes once more into the open country. 
 The bridge over the Yenisei not yet being ready, we had to 
 cross the river, together with our luggage, in a rickety old 
 boat rowed by prisoners, and this was not done without 
 danger, owing to the strong current and the floating ice. 
 
 At the time of our journey the railroad was not officially 
 opened further than to the Yenisei. East of this river, 
 however, the new road was nevertheless trafficked as far 
 as Tulun, a distance of 430 miles. Having learnt that 
 property was not secure on this section of the line, thefts 
 constantly occurring, I was anxious to obtain a special car 
 for our expedition. This, I am glad to say, was granted 
 me, thanks to the kindness of the chief of the district, 
 who also sent us a man to watch our things. 
 
< 
 o 
 
 < 
 
THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 37 
 
 Leaving the Yenisei we ran for a long distance through 
 the exceedingly lovely valley of Beresovka with its natural 
 parks and charming meadows, surrounded by picturesque 
 mountains. Soon, however, the train again plunges into 
 the mysterious and gloomy taiga, which, only here and 
 there broken by a river, and the two little towns, Khansk 
 and Nishni Udinsk, continues to the present terminus of 
 traffic at Tulun, and for hundreds of miles beyond. 
 
 From Tulun to Irkutsk there remained a distance of 
 about 250 miles for us to travel by means of horses. A 
 large number of passengers and piles of goods were crowded 
 into the former place, waiting for conveyance eastward, 
 and we also had to stay here for three days in conse- 
 quence, and would have had to wait still longer had we 
 not met with such cordial help from some of the engineers. 
 Having bought a tarantass (a long travelling coach with 
 wooden springs) and two telegas or carts for our equipment, 
 we left Tulun, accompanied by a man going to Irkutsk, 
 who had been recommended to us to serve as a kind of 
 guide and as guard of our equipment. In Siberia etiquette 
 forbids all inquiries as to a person's previous history, 
 but I understood that there had been some kind of hitch in 
 our guide's career, and our experience proved that there 
 were still some defects in his conception of the difference 
 between mine and thine. 
 
 We now exchanged the rail and steam for the small but 
 tough Siberian post-horse, and started eastward on the 
 great historical Siberian road, which during more than two 
 
38 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 centuries has been trodden by a million prisoners, the 
 clanking of whose chains has echoed against the dark walls 
 of the gloomy_ forest through which they march. 
 
 In a quarter of an hour we were again in the taiga. 
 If you want to know Siberia and the Siberians, you must 
 first get acquainted with the taiga, which occupies such a 
 vast area of the country and exerts so strong an influence 
 on the character and the habits of its people. Before we 
 proceed further on our journey therefore, it will be worth 
 while for me to try and give some idea of it. 
 
 It is difficult from our knowledge of European forests to 
 form any just conception of the Siberian taiga. Our tree- 
 covered areas, however large they may be, are limited by 
 fields and villages ; in a word, they are controlled by man. 
 But no human hand controls the Siberian taiga. Dark and 
 almost impenetrable it covers a marshy lowland extending 
 more than 4500 miles from east to west, and from 1000 to 
 1500 miles from south to north. In this endless monotony 
 there is no change, no variety. You may travel hundreds 
 and thousands of miles without seeing a human habitation, 
 or any living creature other than wild animals or perhaps 
 some stray Tungus or Ostiak. Only by means of the great 
 rivers and their tributaries may civilised man penetrate this 
 gigantic wilderness, whose inmost depths have never been 
 trodden by the foot of any human being, for even the 
 natives keep near the rivers. The taiga as yet rules supreme 
 and bids defiance to the explorer. 
 
 The taiga has its secret, which it hides in its sombre 
 
THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 39 
 
 depths, and the wanderer penetrating into its dark recesses 
 is overpowered by its mysterious gloom and majesty. 
 Only when you travel through it on the iron track behind 
 the all-subduing iron horse, which hinders all intimate inter- 
 course with nature and destroys all poetry, you do not 
 feel its conquering power. But it is otherwise when you 
 are in close touch with it. I have travelled through the 
 taiga in the summer some 500 miles in a tarantass. I 
 have followed the course of the gigantic Lena through it 
 for three thousand miles to the Arctic Ocean, and for twelve 
 hundred miles and more I have sledged through its gloomy 
 depths in winter. In the bright summer Arctic nights I 
 have wandered through it in search of the mossy graves 
 of the Shamans. And everywhere I have felt the power- 
 ful influence and fascination it exerts. 
 
 It is a clear spring evening on the upper Lena. In the 
 indefinite light of the Arctic spring we direct our steps from 
 the river into the huge forest. All is dark and gloomy. 
 Only a few streaks of pale, cold light filter through the 
 dark green vault of thick branches. We are in a world of 
 big and rugged cedars^ dark Siberian spruces, the stately 
 pyramids of the northern pine and the Siberian larch-tree, 
 the belle of these northern forests. In front of us looms 
 a wall of dark pine which we with great difficulty penetrate, 
 making our way through the under-brush over moist green 
 moss and trunks of fallen trees. At length we come to a 
 small river forming an opening in the dark wall, which 
 again closes behind us to hide its secret. Around us is 
 
40 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the overwhelming silence of the taiga. You hear only the 
 throbbing of your heart, the sound of your own footsteps. 
 An indescribable feeling of mystery and awe creeps over 
 you in the twilight of the spring night among the motionless 
 and mute forms which surround you. It is as if you were 
 wandering in some cold and sombre temple, the pale light 
 filtering down between the branches as through high 
 clerestory windows, and the tall stems oppressing one's 
 very soul like some huge and towering wall. 
 
 We continue our way and finally emerge into a little 
 open space, the bleak sky of the spring night above us, 
 from which a few pale stars look down upon the weird 
 and lonely scene. We sit down and listen. Far away is 
 heard the monotonous cry of some bird, like the sound 
 of a solitary worshipper in the great temple, constantly 
 repeating his plaintive prayer . . . Listen 1 A deep sigh 
 quivers through the taiga, a light trembling flutters the 
 crown .of the stately aspen hard by, and a feeble current 
 of air carries to us the strong, clean scent of the pines. 
 
 It is a few weeks later on the lower Lena. The night 
 sky is lighter, but it is covered with fleecy clouds. Our 
 steamer is lying at anchor in a protected bay, and I land 
 for a stroll in the taiga, which here is thin and more 
 monotonous in character. The cedar, the spruce, and the 
 northern pine have ceased long ago. Only the hardy 
 Siberian larch-tree is left besides the birch, the willow, and 
 the alder. Over a carpet of bog-myrtle and various mosses 
 I wander for miles into the depth of the great forest. 
 
THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 41 
 
 Suddenly in a grove of larch-trees I come upon two 
 Shaman graves, constructed of hoUowed-out stems of trees 
 resting on a wooden scaffolding, the poles of which are 
 ornamented by rough images of birds placed upon their 
 summits. ' 
 
 As I sit down to look on these solitary graves, which 
 hold the remnants of the seers of the taiga, a loud groaning 
 sound comes up from the far distance, growing rapidly in 
 volume as it approaches, nearing and nearing till it moves 
 among the tops of the trees around me, which it shakes 
 and tears at viciously, finally dying away in the endless 
 stretch of forest behind. A short pause, and from another 
 direction my ear catches the sound as from a choir of in- 
 struments out of tune, increasing to a wild and hideous 
 howl. The taiga is roaring with rage at the intrusion of 
 the stranger, or perchance the spirits of its prophets are 
 angry with the audacious one who has ventured to tread 
 the sacred groves of their last resting-place. =^ 
 
 Such to the traveller, perhaps, the taiga may appear— a 
 gigantic prison or a pandemonium of howling spirits; but 
 to the first immigrant from "little mother" Russia, it pre- 
 sented itself as a new world of struggle for life, a stern reality 
 which remodelled his life and character. He brought with 
 him the memory of merry scenes on the shores of the 
 
 ' The Shamanists always bury their dead above ground, because be- 
 nealh the surface of the earth is the abode of evil spirits. 
 
 •^ According to the Shamanistic belief, the Spirits of the Shamans are always 
 hovering about their graves, and no Shamanist ever ventures to walk in their 
 vicinity. 
 
42 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Volga, he brought with him his good-natured sociability, 
 the songs and the legends of his native land. I see him 
 in the midst of the taiga, whither he has gone alone to 
 hunt and trap. By-and-by he is subdued by his surround- 
 ings. He feels no inclination to smile, and no songs now 
 pass his lips — the voice of man sounds too strange in the 
 death-silence of the endless forest, or is swallowed up by 
 its wildly roaring music. He sees neither the rising nor 
 the setting of the sun. It appears to him above one dark, 
 impenetrable wall, and sets behind another alike sombre 
 and gloomy. Wherever he looks, his eye only falls upon 
 the mossy trunks, and the dark branches of the spruce. 
 And with this his spiritual horizon also becomes more and 
 more limited. Day by day he finds it more difficult to 
 break through the dark circle which surrounds him and 
 his home. The old songs are silenced, the old memories 
 wither away and die, the old legends are forgotten. He 
 is no longer the talkative and sociable Russian mujik; he 
 becomes uncommunicative and gloomy : his look is no longer 
 open and steady, but shy and restless like that of some 
 wild beast looking for its prey. 
 
 But these first immigrants to the Siberian forests, leading 
 the life of semi-nomads, had to fight not only with nature, 
 but also with hostile natives and brigands, which helped 
 to develop in them the instincts of the wild beast rather 
 than human feelings. They not only hunted the natives 
 Hke wild animals, but, under the influence of drink, often 
 fought and killed one another for trifles. One of the prin- 
 
THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 43 
 
 cipal causes of these sanguinary conflicts among them- 
 selves was the lack of women. Families were few in num- 
 ber, and those parents that had daughters would not give 
 them away in marriage, because they needed them for 
 work at home. Then there was an ukase promulgated, 
 ordering parents to marry their daughters at the risk of 
 severe punishment in case of refusal, and girls who refused 
 to be married were to be beaten with birch boughs. As 
 in ancient times, expeditions were undertaken to the vil- 
 lages of the natives in order to rob them of their girls, yet 
 the lack of women still continued, and so did also the 
 murderous feuds. It was a common occurrence not only 
 for neighbours to kill one another, but also for men to 
 kill their wives from jealousy, and the wives their hus- 
 bands. These traits of character, it is true, have been 
 modified somewhat in later years, but among the genuine 
 " tsckeldbn,'" or old Siberian settlers, they still prevail. 
 
 Between Tulun and Irkutsk we travelled night and day, 
 except when we had to wait for horses. During the day 
 the sun was hidden by clouds of smoke, and at night the 
 forest was here and there lit up by immense forest-fires, 
 in the fierce glare of which would now and then be seen 
 groups of rag-covered brodyagi or tramps, whose look 
 was more picturesque than reassuring. At intervals of 
 fifteen or twenty miles we would come to a village with 
 a stantsia or posting-station, where our horses were changed. 
 
 These Siberian villages make a peculiar impression on 
 
44 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the traveller. The first thing that strikes him is the absence 
 of open fields about them. One comes suddenly out of 
 the forest into the village street, and plunges again into 
 the virgin forest once more. The villagers have their 
 plots of cultivated land scattered far and wide in valleys 
 or open places in the forest. Seldom does one see barns, 
 sheds for the cattle, or enclosures of any kind, even these 
 being in the forests. Moreover, the inhabitants of the 
 villages on the great Siberian road have not devoted them- 
 selves much to agriculture. Founded by command to serve 
 as posting-stations, many of the villages are situated in 
 places quite unsuitable for agriculture, and their inhabitants 
 have spent most of their time on the box-seat. With 
 the opening of the railroad many of these villages will be 
 ruined. 
 
 Surrounded by the forest as by a dense wall, the vil- 
 lages consist almost invariably of two rows of houses 
 lying one on each side of the road, and extend some- 
 times to a length of three or four miles. In the middle 
 or at one end the gloomy and weather-beaten station-prison 
 towers above the rest of the houses, with its courtyard sur- 
 rounded by a high wooden fence. This itape-prison domi- 
 nates the settlement, which is only its attribute, its child, 
 on which it impresses its character. In the centre of the 
 village may be seen a couple of two-storeyed houses with a 
 drinking-saloon or a store on the lower floor. On either 
 hand stretches the long row of one-storeyed houses or huts, 
 gray or black from exposure to the hard climate or from 
 
THROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 45 
 
 smoke. The further away from the centre, the smaller 
 and more poor-looking do these houses and huts become, 
 till they reach the forest as mere earth-covered yurtas. 
 The inhabitants of these izbas and huts are the foster- 
 children of the prison, which they have more or less 
 recently left, and year after year this row of huts increases. 
 
 The villages present a many-coloured picture of different 
 nationalities, costumes, and architectures. Beside the Rus- 
 sian izba with its ornamented window-frames you see the 
 earthen hut of the Bashkir with its open fire-place instead 
 of the Russian oven, and the ox-bladder in lieu of glass 
 for window-pane. You note the Asiatic summer kaftan 
 worn by the Sibiriak in his high boots, the black suit of 
 the modern city-dweller, and the beschmet of the Tatar. 
 And these different elements have evidently not entered 
 into any organised union, but are only by outward forces 
 pressed together into a loose conglomerate. Each man 
 lives his own life. Even if the South-Russian wears the 
 Asiatic kaftan, he is none the less a South-Russian; the 
 gipsy has not commenced to wash his dark face; and the 
 chaotic sounds of ten different languages strike your ear 
 as you saunter down the street. 
 
 On our way to Irkutsk we met with many Siberians of 
 the old type. If I happened in conversation with them to 
 say: "You Russians," they would exclaim: "We are 
 not Russians, we are Siberians 1 " Their self-asserting, inde- 
 pendent manners, which sometimes bordered on impudence, 
 contrasted sharply with the servility of the Russian peasants. 
 
46 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 They did not hesitate to demand 20 roubles as hire for a 
 distance which, according to the official tax, would cost a 
 fifth of that sum, and when I showed them my recommen- 
 dation from the Minister of the Interior, according to which 
 they were in duty bound to provide horses at the regular 
 price, they replied with a shrug, and told me that all the 
 post-horses were out, and that they were free men, 
 independent of all orders from St. Petersburg. 
 
 Although we had a man with us to watch our things, 
 and also, when we had to stop anywhere for the night, 
 hired someone to act as guard, yet the spare wooden shafts 
 for our carts, various ropes and clothes, etc. were stolen. 
 At the time of our journey two travellers had been robbed 
 and murdered close to one of the settlements. In a small 
 village where there seemed to be a great many question- 
 able characters, we had to spend the night waiting for 
 horses, and Mr. Fraenkel and myself slept in the tarantass. 
 About two o'clock in the morning I awoke, as the 
 tarantass started at a tremendous pace away from the 
 village. Not finding our third companion, Mr. Nilson, in 
 the coach, I cried out to the driver to stop, but he 
 merely increased his speed still more, and only when 
 Mr. Fraenkel put a revolver to his head did he pull up and 
 return to the posting-station, where Mr. Nilson was soundly 
 sleeping. Our "guide" was also pretending to sleep, 
 although there were reasons for beheving that he was not 
 ignorant of the scheme of driving our coach out of the 
 village into the forest, while we were sleeping, in order to 
 
IHROUGH THE FOREST-REGION. 47 
 
 rob me of the money which he very well knew that I 
 always carried on my person. It was afterwards found out 
 that a number of ruffians had gone to the forest before 
 the driver started with our coach. There was no represent- 
 ative of the police to be found in the place — he being 
 reported to be away — and when we started at daybreak 
 we saw a group of '^ brodyagi" waiting by the roadside 
 as we drove past them at a gallop, revolver in hand — I 
 having warned the driver that I would report him to the 
 police if he did not drive quickly through the forest. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 OVER THE BURIATIC STEPPE. 
 
 In Irkutsk — Buriat Villages — History of the Buriats — Communism — Shaman- 
 ism — Buddhist Missionaries — The " Burialisation " of the Russians — 
 Dorschi Bantsaroff— A Gifted Race. 
 
 On the 13th of May we arrived at Irkutsk, "the white 
 city," beautifully situated on the river Angara about 44 miles 
 west of its outlet from Lake Baikal. Here we spent three 
 days to have our instruments repaired, as some of them had 
 been broken by the jolting of the telegas. We also had to 
 complete our equipment, and to get letters of introduction 
 from the Governor-General. 
 
 During our stay here I was very busy by day in getting 
 everything ready for our voyage to the north, while by night 
 I was fully engaged in fighting the vermin at the principal 
 hotel of the city where we had put up. The Governor- 
 General received me very kindly, not only giving me the 
 necessary mandates and introductions, but also sending 
 telegraphic orders to the village authorities between Irkutsk 
 and the upper Lena to have horses ready for the conveyance 
 of our expedition. 
 
 In Irkutsk they did not know whether trappers had visited 
 
H 
 D 
 
 O 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 H 
 
 !z; 
 o 
 
OVER THE BURIATIC STEPPE. 51 
 
 the New Siberian Islands or not during 1897 or in the 
 spring of 1898, nor was any other information obtainable 
 which could justify a change in our plans. The prominent 
 firm of Gromoff, owners of the steamer Lena, which 
 accompanied the Vega on her memorable voyage round 
 northern Asia, accordingly kindly promised to transport our 
 expedition on this steamer from the city of Yakutsk to the 
 Lena delta, if we could reach Yakutsk in time. The 
 Lena was to start from Yakutsk about the middle of June. 
 The distance between Irkutsk and Yakutsk is about 2000 
 miles, of which 250 have to be made by road to the upper 
 Lena, and the remainder by lodka or steamer down the river. 
 On the 15th of May we left Irkutsk. The road runs 
 through a forest-clad country gently rising towards the 
 highland steppes which extend westward from Lake Baikal. 
 Having passed the forest-region, we enter the so-called 
 Buriatic Steppe. On each side of the road, scattered here 
 and there over the steppe, are seen the Buriatic ulus 
 or villages. An Ulu is, literally, a group of famiUes (ail) 
 constituting a tribe or part of a tribe (aimak). The yurtas 
 or cabins of the families are not built in regular rows like 
 the houses of the Russian villages, but are scattered in 
 picturesque confusion and surrounded by a large common 
 enclosure. At a distance from the village are the so-called 
 "k^^^" — immense enclosures where the cattle graze in 
 winter and whence in summer-time the Buriats gather 
 splendid crops of hay. By the side of the houses are seen 
 high poles resembling maypoles. On these are hung sacri- 
 
52 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 ficial gifts to the Buriatic divinities in the shape of goat-skins 
 with head and horns attached, rags, and different kinds of 
 clothing. 
 
 Besides the villages, in which they spend the winter, the 
 Buriats have their summer stations, between which they 
 move with their herds of cattle. Up to the beginning of 
 this century they lived only in yurtas or earth-cabins; but 
 now well-to-do Buriats have comfortable houses, and only 
 a few families live in yurtas. 
 
 The so-called Barga-Buriats live in the government of 
 Irkutsk, and the Mongolian-Buriats in Transbaikalia. They 
 have all come from Mongolia, whence they probably were 
 driven by some nomadic people (neutcha). The history of 
 the Buriats before they were conquered by the Russians is, 
 however, only legendary ; and very little has been done to 
 investigate their past. With certainty it is known only 
 that they have never played any prominent part in the 
 history of eastern Asia, and that at the time of Jenghis 
 Khan they lived in the regions surrounding Lake Baikal, 
 where they live to-day. According to Buriatic legends a 
 "Batyr", Bachak-Irban, served at the court of Sian 
 Khan, who from jealousy resolved to punish him in a most 
 cruel manner. But Bachak-Irban gathered together the 
 Buriats and led them northwards to the land of Agan 
 Tsagan Khan. Here they encountered the Yakuts, whom 
 they drove northwards. At the invasion of the Russians 
 about 1740 the Buriats were the only occupants of the 
 country. The horrible cruelties of the Russian voyevodes 
 
OVER THE BURIATIC STEPPE. 53 
 
 (military chiefs) compelled a large number of Buriats to 
 flee back to Mongolia, where, however, they only fell from 
 the frying-pan into the fire, and had to return to their 
 country again, because at that time the cruel Haldan 
 Khan was spreading terror all over Mongoha. 
 
 At the present time the Buriats are divided into tribes 
 (aimaki). Until 1886 a group of such tribes were under 
 the administration of a council, at the head of which was 
 an hereditary chief. The jurisdiction of this council was very 
 extensive. In 1887 reforms began to be introduced. In 
 Transbaikalia the old council was let alone, but among the 
 Buriats in the province of Irkutsk a system of administra- 
 tion was introduced corresponding to that of the Russian 
 village-districts. Among all the natives of Siberia the 
 Buriats have best preserved the ancient custom of the 
 community of goods. A poor Buriat, for example, has the 
 right to receive food or shelter from his well-to-do brethren. 
 When a Buriat kills game, his neighbours first receive 
 their share of the meat, and the host gets only what is left. 
 In like manner the Buriat girl simply goes to the village 
 smith and selects metal ornaments for her hair and dress 
 without paying ; and the crops on the fields are gathered 
 in by the community, each member of which has the right 
 to take what he needs from the common store. This prin- 
 ciple of communism also finds expression in the large 
 communal hunting-parties which at certain periods take 
 place and are accompanied by great festivities. 
 
 On the Buriatic Steppe we first saw in the twilight of the 
 
54 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 northern spring night the fantastic forms of the Shaman 
 Mountains, the principal sanctuary of the Buriats, while in 
 the clear sky the " tengerin-oedol" , i.e. "the road of the 
 gods", (the milky way) glittered over our heads. 
 
 Until the beginning of the 1 8th century the Buriats, like 
 all the peoples of northern Asia belonging to the eastern 
 branches of the Ural-Altaic group (i.e. all the Tungus, 
 Mongol, and Turki tribes), were members of the so-called 
 Ihbro religion, or what we generally call Shamanism. At 
 the time of the advent of the Dai-Tsin dynasty to the 
 throne of the Chinese Empire, Shamanism was introduced 
 in China under the name of Tjao-Shen, but the new reli- 
 gion did not meet with any success there. The fact, how- 
 ever, deserves to be nientioned, because in China was 
 published in 1747, in the Manchu language, a description 
 of the ceremonies of Shamanism, which is the only printed 
 account existing of the ancient religion of the Mongols. 
 
 In 1727 Buddhist missionaries came to MongoUa and 
 converted the Transbaikalian Buriats and the inhabitants 
 of the Tungkin valley to Buddhism, which, however, became 
 very much mixed up with Shamanism. At one time the 
 Buddhist monasteries in Transbaikalia and the southern 
 parts of Irkutsk were counted by hundreds. At present 
 their number is much smaller. These Buddhist missionaries 
 exerted a great civilising influence on the Buriats by 
 introducing the art of writing among them, and by trans- 
 lating several Tibetan religious books into the Mongolian 
 language. At the present time the Buddhist monastery at 
 
OVER THE BURIATIC STEPPE. 55 
 
 the Goose Lake is the most important, and there resides the 
 chief of the Siberian adherents of the Lama faith, Bandilo- 
 chambo-lama. At the same place is a Hbrary containing 
 a very valuable collection of books and manuscripts in the 
 Tibetan and Mongolian languages. Great annual religious 
 festivals also take place at this monastery. 
 
 Part of the Buriats, the so-called Yasdtckni (tributary), 
 having married Russian women, belong nominally to the 
 orthodox Russian Church, although secretly continuing their 
 sacrifices to the Shaman divinities. The pagan Buriats 
 have also to some degree been influenced by the official 
 Russian religion, and the Shamans sometimes use the sign 
 of the Cross at their pagan ceremonies. The natives have 
 learned from the Russians better agricultural methods and 
 how to build better houses. 
 
 On the other hand, the Russian settlers here have to a 
 great extent become " Buriatised ", as the Russians in 
 Yakutsk have been "Yakutised". This is to be seen not 
 only in physical changes of the Russian type — the dark 
 colour of hair, eyes, and skin, and the Mongolian or Tatarian 
 facial traits characterising the old Russian population in 
 Siberia — but also in their habits and ideas. Thus, both here 
 and in Yakutsk, the old Russian settlers and their descendants 
 have forgotten their mother-tongue, and speak only the Buriat 
 and Yakut languages, or some kind of mixed tongue. Their 
 Russian orthodoxy has also become very much weakened, 
 many of them cherishing stronger faith in the powers of 
 the Shaman than in the ceremonies of the Russian priest. 
 
56 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The Buriats and the Yakuts are the only natives in 
 Siberia who do not show any signs of dying out, but on 
 the contrary are increasing. Among the Buriats illiteracy 
 is much less than among the peasants of European Russia, 
 and from this gifted people have even sprung some promi- 
 nent scientists. Among the last-named deserves to be 
 mentioned the learned Buriat, Dorschi BantsarofT, who, in 
 spite of his wide and thorough learning, remained faithful 
 to the religion of his forefathers until his death. 
 
 The wide cultivated fields, the large herds of cattle, and 
 the comparatively well-built Buriat villages testified to 
 the general prosperity and good order existing among these 
 interesting natives. The deep-rooted national feeling, and 
 the resistance they have made against the innovations of 
 their conquerors also prove the strong vitality of this sturdy 
 people. With steady persistence they have fought for their 
 rights against the intrusion of the immigrants. In this fight 
 their knowledge of reading and writing has been of great 
 service to them. Well acquainted with the history of 
 their country, they always use an elaborate apparatus of 
 official documents, proving their right to the lands which 
 the authorities want them to give up for colonisation, and 
 which more and more are being wrested from them in 
 defiance of all justice. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE UPPER LENA. 
 
 Katschuga and Schigalova — Steamers oq the River — Pauski — We commence 
 our Voyage — Configuration of the Lena Valley — Its Size and its 
 Tributaries — Scenery — Ust Kutsk and its History—" Gold-Barons" on 
 the Steamer — Kirensk. 
 
 Having passed the Buriat Steppe, we reached the forest 
 line at Katschuga, and here for the first time, about 120 
 miles north of its source, we saw the river Lena whose 
 course we were to follow for a distance of over 3000 miles 
 to the Arctic Ocean. ^ 
 
 At highest water the Lena is navigable by small steamers 
 up to Katschuga, at which place a large number of craft 
 are built every year for the transport of goods down the 
 river. The flood season was, however, past when we arrived, 
 and we were obliged to continue our journey by road to 
 Schigalova. The scenery was picturesque and in places 
 
 ' Concerning the entire length of the river Lena, which as yet has never 
 been properly measured, the calculations of different authorities vary. It is 
 estimated at between 3000 and 4000 miles. The length of the navigable part, 
 from Schigalova to the sea, is calculated by some at 3120 miles and by others 
 at 2925 miles. The Vitim, which is called only a tributary of the Lena, is 
 considered to be about 200 miles longer than the latter. The Lena has its 
 origin in 54° N. lat., at a height of 2855 ft. above the sea, near the western 
 shore of Lake Baikal; the sources of the Vitim are east of Baikal. 
 
58 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 magnificent. Now and again the road runs near the river at 
 the foot of overhanging crags, while at otlier places it leads 
 over heights whence one looks over wide stretches of a 
 forest-clad mountainous country. On the 28th of May we 
 reached Schigalova. The steamer by which we had ex- 
 pected to go from here part of the way to Yakutsk not having 
 yet arrived, we were obliged to wait and see whether by any 
 chance some other vessel would turn up, for if not we should 
 be compelled to make the voyage in a lodka, a sort of 
 open wherry, though sometimes partly covered in aft. 
 After some delay it was discovered that the steamer we 
 were waiting for had run aground some 80 miles north of 
 Schigalova. Happily, however, after a few days, another 
 steamer turned up, and in her we thankfully started on 
 our way northwards. 
 
 Schigalova is a remarkably busy place in the spring, being 
 the main starting-point of the navigation down the Lena. 
 At present there are about 20 steamers on the river, of 
 which the largest number run between Schigalova and the 
 gold-fields of Vitim and Olekma. Three or four go to 
 the city of Yakutsk, but only one — namely, the above- 
 mentioned Lena, is strong enough to stand the storms 
 which make navigation on the river below Yakutsk so 
 dangerous, and every summer she makes two or three 
 trips between Yakutsk and the Lena delta — a distance of 
 about 1250 miles. In addition to the steamers, a large 
 number of various craft are used for transporting goods or 
 prisoners down the river. Most of these are the so-called 
 
THE UPPER LENA. 59 
 
 "pauski." A pausk, being a special product of this part 
 of the world, needs perhaps a moment's description. It 
 is a floating shop, a drinking saloon, and a cargo-boat at 
 one and the same time, and its appearance and construction 
 are peculiar. The bottom is flat, and constructed of heavy 
 timbers; the sides are perpendicular and made of clumsy 
 planks, sawn by hand. The deck — or roof, as it might be 
 more accurately called — is slightly rounded. The stern is 
 as square as the end of a house, and the bows form an 
 obtuse angle. Viewed from above, the craft strongly re- 
 sembles a box-iron, II I >. The cargo is placed in the 
 middle, the shop and the saloon occupy the forecastle, 
 while aft are to be found the kitchen and the sleeping- 
 places. These craft stop at the villages and towns selling 
 their goods, or are towed up the rivers Vitim and 
 Olekma to the gold-fields. Having reached their destination, 
 they are sold as building-material or fuel, and the mer- 
 chants return southwards in the fall by steamer. Besides 
 the pauski there are other kinds of boats — a sort of barge, 
 and the kayuks, which are provided with mast and sails, and 
 resemble primitive and old-fashioned fishing-smacks. In not 
 one of these vessels, from the smallest to the largest, is 
 there a single nail or bolt. All are fastened by wooden 
 pegs only, and all the planks and knees are sawn by hand. 
 On the 1st of June we started on our way down the 
 gigantic Lena on the small steamer Synok. In sailing 
 down the river you get the impression that you are passing 
 through a mountainous country. On each side a continuous 
 
6o THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 mountain-wall towers up to the height of looo feet above 
 the water, in some places approaching the river, forming 
 picturesque "gates" or "pillars", at others diverging from 
 it, and enclosing large river-basins with numerous islands. 
 
 CHALK CLIFFS ON THE LENA. 
 
 But if you ascend any of these apparent mountains, you 
 will find that they resolve themselves into a plateau of 
 undulating forest-clad country, through which the giant river 
 has cut its way. Only in two places has the Lena carved 
 
THE UPPER LENA. 6i 
 
 a path for itself through mountain-chains — at Scherebinsk, 
 about 1050 miles south of Yakutsk (near the border between 
 Irkutsk and Yakutsk), and at the most northern part of its 
 course, where it has eroded its deep channel through the 
 Kara Ulak mountains, which form the most northern out- 
 skirts of the Verkhoyansk chain. 
 
 Between Katschuga and Kirensk the plateau-land through 
 which the Lena has carved its deep and tortuous channel 
 consists mainly of horizontal layers of red sandstone and 
 slate- marl. At Kirensk the layers of upper-silurian sandstone 
 begin to appear, generally feebly folded. Below the river 
 Aldan, more than 60 miles north of the city of Yakutsk, 
 the course of the Lena lies through a flat country, built up 
 from mesozoic rocks, while towards the mouth of the river 
 carboniferous, brachiopod, and coralliferous layers appear. 
 It is impossible to convey by words and figures any 
 idea of the gigantic proportions of this superb river. Every 
 second it empties into the ocean 10,000 tons of water, 
 which, through its myriad tributaries, it receives from an area 
 of one million square miles, or about five times the size 
 of Great Britain and Ireland. The greatest part of the area 
 drained by the river lies east of it, the water-parting 
 between the Yenisei and the Lena running so far east that 
 it nearly touches the shores of the latter at Kirensk, where 
 the Lower Tunguskaya takes its rise only some ten miles 
 east of the Lena. The principal tributaries of the Lena 
 on its eastern side, counting from the south, are the fol- 
 lowing : — the Vitim, about 1 100 miles in length, of which 300 
 
62 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 are navigable; the Olekma, more than iioo miles in length, 
 navigable about 560 miles; and the Aldan, 1360 miles in 
 length, and navigable for over 900 miles ; the Aldan having 
 in its turn two large tributaries, the Amga and Maya. The 
 latter, which is of great importance as the transport -route 
 of goods from the Pacific Ocean to Yakutsk, is navigable 
 for nearly 400 miles. From the south-west the Lena receives 
 only one large tributary, the Vilui, which is about 1350 
 miles in length and navigable for about 750 of them. 
 
 The course of the Lena is very tortuous, thus making 
 its absolute length so great. In its upper part the current 
 is rapid, as also is the case near the delta; otherwise it 
 runs very slowly. At its source it is about 2855 feet above 
 the level of the sea, at Ust-Kutsk 921 feet, at Kirensk 820, 
 and at Yakutsk only 213 feet. On the upper Lena navi- 
 gation commences in the first part of May and closes in 
 the middle of October ; at the delta the breaking up of the 
 ice takes place at the end of June, and it freezes at the 
 beginning of October or even sooner. The breaking up 
 of the ice on this gigantic body of water is one of nature's 
 most stupendous phenomena, and often causes very great 
 devastation. 
 
 After these general remarks on the Lena and its basin, 
 it is time for me to return to our voyage down the majestic 
 river. As we steamed along, the air was heavy with the 
 aromatic odour from the endless forests, below which ap- 
 peared the rocks of red sandstone, the fantastically-shaped 
 
THE UPPER LENA. 63 
 
 limestone pinnacles, or the picturesque strata of slate which 
 formed the cHffs, all mirrored in the calm surface of the 
 river, while gigantic blocks of ice, though we were still at 
 the beginning of June and at the same degree of latitude 
 as northern Germany, lay here and there upon the shores. 
 From time to time we stopped at a village, which, with its 
 monotonous row of small grey or smoke-blackened houses 
 on each side of the village-street, produced a melancholy 
 impression, which was still more strengthened by the looks 
 of the inhabitants, who, consisting largely of exiles and 
 their descendants, betrayed both physical and moral misery. 
 As soon as the steamer stopped, a crowd of rag-covered 
 and evil-smelling beggars would congregate at the landing- 
 place, asking for alms in piteous tones. 
 
 In places the river widened, enclosing islands, on which 
 small horses and a few equally small cattle were grazing; 
 and often we passed pauski and kayuki, silently drop- 
 ping down the river with the current. The navigation of 
 the upper Lena is not without its dangers, owing to the 
 many shallows. During the first 24 hours of our voyage 
 we passed several craft, mostly pauski, which had run 
 aground, and our steamer lost much time in trying to 
 help some of them afloat. Finally the barge towed by 
 our own vessel ran aground, and we worked a whole night 
 trying to get it afloat without succeeding. Fortunately, 
 however, another steamer came up, and by her we were 
 able to proceed to Ust-Kutsk. Even to steamers navigation 
 on the upper Lena is risky, because the numerous shal- 
 
64 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 lows are not in any way marked out. Instead, two men 
 stand at the bows, one on each side, by turns measuring 
 with long poles the depth of the river, which they call 
 out in a monotonous sing-song drawl. 
 
 On the 4th of June we arrived at Ust-Kutsk, picturesquely 
 situated on the western shore of the river, at the mouth 
 of its tributary, the river Kut. This place was originally 
 one of a series of forts established by the Kossacks along 
 the Lena in the i6th century; it derives its importance of 
 to-day from the salt-works, owned by the government, and 
 also from being the terminus of the road from Yeniseisk con- 
 necting the Siberian railroad with the upper Lena. The 
 distance from Tulun on the Trans-Siberian railway to Ust- 
 Kutsk is only about 140 miles. Even now large quantities 
 of goods are transported by this road, and a branch line 
 to connect the Lena with the great Siberian railroad from 
 Tulun to Ust-Kutsk is probably only a question of time. 
 
 The historical interest of Ust-Kutsk ought not, perhaps, to 
 be altogether passed without notice, for it was one of the first 
 spots on the great river to be occupied by the Russians. 
 And here, perhaps, it would be as well to point out the 
 fact that it was originally the adventurous Russian hunters 
 and trappers who first penetrated eastward as far as the 
 Lena, and later to the Pacific Ocean and America, pre- 
 paring the way for the Russian dominion, and not the 
 Kossack warriors, who only followed the track of the 
 former and enrolled them as members of their marauding 
 expeditions. Thus it was ten hunters and trappers who, 
 
THE UPPER LENA. 65 
 
 with a certain Vasili Bugor at their head, came on snow- 
 shoes in the year 1628 from the Yenisei and discovered 
 the great river Lena, on which lived at that time about 
 150,000 Yakuts. In Ust-Kutsk also lived for many years 
 the celebrated and adventurous beaver-trapper Yevropei 
 Pavlovitch Khabaroff, who with a handful of kindred spirits 
 conquered the immense territory of the Amur region 
 in 1649 and, provided with fire-arms, defeated entire com- 
 panies of Chinese soldiers. Soon, however, Khabaroff was 
 summoned to Moscow, from whence he returned to Ust- 
 Kutsk, where he had the mortification of learning that the 
 Amur region had been restored to China through the treaty 
 of Nertschinsk. Khabaroff established the salt-works of Ust- 
 Kutsk, and also made the first agricultural experiments 
 in that place. 
 
 At Ust-Kutsk our expedition arrived just in time to catch 
 an old and rickety mail-steamer, the Rabotnik, a craft with 
 flat bottom and paddle-wheels, and the after-part covered 
 with a wooden superstructure. Like the Lena steamers in 
 general, it had the appearance of a crawfish. The first- 
 and second-class passengers consisted of "gold-Barons" on 
 their way to Vitim, some merchants, and a couple of civil 
 officers. Everything — tickets, food, and drink — was exorbi- 
 tantly dear. There was, nevertheless, a good deal of drink- 
 ing, although a bottle of champagne cost from 12 to 15 
 roubles 1 
 
 Although there is plenty of coal on the Lena, wood is 
 alone used for the steamers, the larger vessels consuming 
 
 5 
 
66 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 15 or 20 fathoms in 24 hours. Most of the steamers not 
 having room for so bulky a fuel are thus compelled to 
 make frequent stoppages. This is the cause of much loss 
 of time, because in most cases the wood has to be cut from 
 the root, chopped, and carried on board. These frequent 
 halts on the way were, however, of considerable_interest 
 and use to us, for they gave us excellent opportunities 
 for studying the country and making collections. The 
 captain warned us to be on the look-out for bears, with 
 which the forests were said to be teeming, but we never 
 saw any, although there were plenty of fresh tracks. 
 
 In the town of Kirensk, beautifully situated opposite the 
 mouth of the Kirenga, we stopped several hours. This 
 enabled us to get a glimpse of the transport-prison, an old 
 tumble-down, one-storeyed building with broken windows, 
 and the picturesque old cathedral, built at the time of the 
 fort of Kirensk, in 1635. 
 
 I had a conversation with one of the chief men of the 
 place, who complained bitterly of the want of popular edu- 
 cation, the small number of teachers, and their miserable 
 pay. The sanitary condition of the place, also, was said 
 to be worse than bad, and epidemics had been raging. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE MIDDLE LENA. 
 
 Vitim — The Gold Districts — Labour on the Goldfields — " Varnak- Wages " — 
 Statistics of the Gold Output — System of Mining — Pay-day — "The 
 Nobility of Vitim" — Trans-shipment to the Permiak — Scenery of 
 the Middle Lena — Exiles northward bound — Yakutised Russians — 
 "Pillars of the Lena" — Olekminsk. 
 
 At the town of Vitim we also stopped for a few hours. 
 This place has considerable commercial importance as the 
 depot for the gold-fields on the river of the same name. 
 It is now connected with Yakutsk by telegraph, and is the 
 northern terminus of the telegraph-hne. 
 
 The gold-production of the gold districts of Vitim and 
 Olekma was in former years very large. The wealth of 
 the SibiriakofF family and others has been created here. 
 Of late years, however, it has been diminishing, for the 
 primitive methods hitherto followed have only worked the 
 richest deposits, and this in a very slovenly manner. It is 
 only latterly that modern machinery has been introduced. 
 Considerable foreign capital, mostly Belgian, has recently 
 been invested in these mines, and negotiations with foreign 
 capitalists were said to be going on to sell a great part 
 
68 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 of the gold-fields on the Vitim.i About 7500 men are 
 engaged here, of whom nearly half the number are "var- 
 naki" — i.e. exiled criminals. Their work is really forced 
 labour, for which they receive very small pay. "Varnak 
 wages" means in Siberia starvation wages. 
 
 The "free" labourers receive better pay, it is true, 
 but the greater part of it goes to the stores of the " gold- 
 barons" or to the rum sellers — the truck-system and illegal 
 sale of spirits flourishing here to an extent that is probably 
 unsurpassed elsewhere in the world, not to speak of other 
 means and ways of robbing the working men. 
 
 The work in these gold-fields is exceedingly hard; the 
 soil being frozen to unknown depths, the miners have to 
 work wading knee-deep in ice-cold water; and after the 
 long day's work they spend the night in overcrowded 
 barracks, begrimed with dirt and teeming with vermin. 
 Disease, especially scurvy and diarrhcea, is rife, and the 
 mortality enormous. 
 
 The diggers commence operations in the spring, going 
 to the taiga, as it is called, and working hard all the 
 summer under the guard of a special police until the 22nd 
 
 ' The statistics of tlie gold-production of Siberia in general show the fol- 
 lowing figures. During the period from 1836 to 1847 the annual output 
 increased from 1375 to 22,440 kilograms; in the period from 1847 to 1852 
 it oscillated between 18,000 and 18,200 kg.j but from 1852 to 1870 it 
 diminished constantly. From 1875 it again increased, but only because of 
 the discovery of gold on the Amur. More than half of the entire amount 
 of gold produced in Siberia now comes from eastern Siberia (i.e. east of the 
 Yenisei). Thus of the total output, 44,060 kg. (or 1,550,912 ozs.), in 1894, 
 25,000 kg. (or 880,000 ozs.) came from eastern Siberia. 
 
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 PS 
 
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ON THE MIDDLE LENA. 71 
 
 of September. All this time they receive no money, only 
 food, clothing etc. "on the book" at the storehouse. On 
 this great pay-day they get what is left of their earnings 
 and go to Vitim, which for a couple of weeks is now 
 changed into a veritable pandemonium, until the gold 
 earned or stolen during the summer has all gone to the 
 drinking-saloons, the brothels, or the robbers. It is a 
 common occurrence for gold-diggers to disappear during 
 these days of riot without leaving a trace behind them. 
 And who cares for their loss — "it was only a varnak!" 
 
 At Vitim several passengers left the steamer, and some 
 new ones, belonging to "the nobility of Vitim", came on 
 board. A few miles north of the town we passed the 
 mouth of the river Vitim, where we had a beautiful view 
 of the snow-clad mountains towards the south-east. Accord- 
 ing to the information we received at Ust-Kutsk we were 
 to meet the steamer Lena at Vitim and continue our 
 northward voyage in her. But as neither the Lena nor 
 another steamer which was expected made their appearance, 
 the old Rabotnik, which should have returned at Vitim, 
 had to continue her way further north. 
 
 In the middle of the night we met the steamer Perm- 
 iak, coming from Yakutsk, overcrowded with passengers 
 and goods. The two vessels having anchored alongside 
 each other, the trans-shipment began in general crowding 
 and confusion, and continued till late in the morning of the 
 following day. The Permiak was an old steamer, very 
 much like the Rabotnik. 
 
72 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 North of Vitim the villages, originally established by 
 command to serve as posting-stations, became smaller and 
 smaller. Now for the first time we began to hear the 
 Yakut language, which was to sound in our ears for several 
 months, Yakuts now' and: then increasing the number of 
 the third-class passengers. 
 
 The wild beauty and overpowering majesty of the great 
 Lena here reigns supreme. On the rivers and in the forests 
 of the far north of Europe your individuality finds, so to 
 speak, a support in the constant change of scenery ; but 
 here it is suppressed by the monotonous, endless wilderness, 
 and the solemn grandeur of the vast river. You steam on 
 day after day, night after night, for hundreds of miles in 
 the same direction, ever further and further away from 
 civilisation, and nearer and nearer to the eternal domain 
 of the polar ice. In this vast wilderness the "Mother 
 Lena" with its ever-growing proportions and mightiness, 
 forms the piece de resistance. In its serene depth all is 
 mirrored. Here a cyclopean wall of immense blocks of 
 sandstone has been reared by primeval forces; there a 
 colossal mass of rock overhangs the water, into which it 
 would fall were it not sustained by a row of strange and 
 gigantic pillars of the same material. Here beneath a huge 
 perpendicular cliff a whirlpool is ever moving in its eternal 
 circle; while yonder are seen cathedrals with innumerable 
 spires and pinnacles, or ruins of fairy castles of greyish 
 and white limestone. Columns of magnificent larch-trees 
 and Siberian pines stand in the ravines and valleys like 
 
ON THE MIDDLE LENA. 73 
 
 an army ready to attack the fortresses which are threat- 
 ening above their heads, while higher up stand scattered 
 individuals of Siberian pine, as if trying to fight their 
 way alone and unaided towards the fort. Then the scene is 
 changed, and a view slowly opens out of cliffs of beautifully 
 regular layers of slate and green porphyry, producing an 
 impression alike fantastic and unreal. Now and then the 
 mouth of some great cave yawns before you, or hot sulphur- 
 springs are seen welling forth at the foot of the mountain, 
 filling the air with pungent odour. And ever and again 
 the "shore-mountains" are cut through by nameless rivers 
 coming from the unknown depths of the taiga, where 
 the foot of civilised man has never trod. 
 
 This mighty nature overpowers you. The voices of men 
 on board sound strange and inharmonious, and you find 
 a place in the bows away from the crowd where you may 
 rest undisturbed, or on the captain's bridge, at the side of 
 the Yakut pilot standing silent and serious at the helm, 
 knowing all the windings and turns of " Mother Lena ", its 
 currents, its shallows, and its rocks. And in the twilight 
 of the northern night, when the voices and noise on board 
 have subsided and the strong scent of the forest is un- 
 polluted by smells from the kitchen, you are overpowered 
 by the mighty spirit of nature. As the night-hours ad- 
 vance, the cold increases. The glass has dropped below 
 freezing-point and one shivers, partiy from cold, partly 
 perhaps from one's surroundings. Listen! What is that? 
 Deep melancholy tones, as if coming from an unknown 
 
74 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 world quiver through the cold night air, echoing faintly 
 from the steep cliffs, which tower up like prison-walls on 
 either side of the river. The steamer rounds the promontory, 
 and yonder in the pale light of the Arctic night appear 
 two craft resembling gigantic coffins, slowly moving forward 
 with the current. The plaintive tones become stronger and 
 stronger, the outlines of the coffins clearer and clearer. 
 On their lids are sitting a crowd of men and women and 
 a few children, and at each end stands an armed gendarme. 
 They are pauski laden with exiles on their way to 
 Yakutsk. The captain slows the engines, and while our 
 steamer glides gently past, I open the camera to impress 
 on its plate the image of these melancholy craft. 
 
 Among these exiles, as I afterwards learnt, were not only 
 common criminals, but also some followers of Leo Tolstoy, 
 and others of the best and noblest sons and daughters of 
 Russia, on their way to Yakutsk, to Verkhoyansk, and 
 — hundreds of miles beyond— to Kolymsk, to be buried 
 alive in the most dreary land on the surface of our globe. 
 
 The distance increased between the steamer and the 
 floating coffins, their outlines became more and more dim, 
 the now but half-caught tones of the plaintive melodies 
 grew weaker, and finally died away behind us into the night. 
 
 We have passed the border between the provinces of 
 Irkutsk and Yakutsk. The villages on the western shore 
 have become still smaller, but the river has grown to several 
 kilometres in width, here and there, as before, enclosing 
 
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 W 
 
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ON THE MIDDLE LENA. 77 
 
 islands on which the small and shaggy cattle are now and 
 then seen grazing. These cattle belong to the Yakuts, 
 who seldom live near the river, but have their yurtas by 
 the lakes in the interior of the country, or in the forest at 
 some distance from the Lena. The villages are peopled 
 by Russians with a smaller or larger percentage of Yakut 
 blood in their veins. Most of them have forgotten their 
 native tongue and speak only the Yakut language, and 
 have also in other respects become "Yakutised." On a 
 sunny day we passed the "Pillars of the Lena," fantastically- 
 shaped rocks of limestone, forming an unbroken chain of 
 cliff for about five and twenty miles along the eastern 
 shore of the river. A little later we approached the "town" 
 of Olekminsk, situated at the mouth of the river Olekma, 
 and came to anchor. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF YAKUTSK. 
 
 Physical Characters of the Province — Intense Cold — Noises of the Arctic 
 Night — The Storms of Spring — Break-up of the Ice — Summer in the 
 Far North — An ever-frozen Soil — ^Products of the Province — ^Mam- 
 moth Ivory. 
 
 Before proceeding further north we may pause for a 
 moment for a glance at the province of Yakutsk and its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 According to the calculation of General Strelbitsky, the 
 area of the province of Yakutsk comprises in round figures 
 3,900,000 square kilometres, i.e. as much as the whole of 
 European Russia with the exception of Poland and Finland. 
 Orographically it may be naturally divided into two parts — 
 namely, the lowland west of the Lena, through which only 
 a few less important mountain ridges run, and the immense 
 region to the east of that river, traversed by the great 
 chain of the Jablonoff mountains, which in some places to 
 the south-east reach a height of nearly 7000 feet, giving to 
 this part of the province the character of a mountainous 
 region. Shut off by mountain-chains from the warmer cur- 
 rents of air coming from the south and the south-east, and 
 exposed to the Arctic winds from the north, this immense 
 
THE PROVINCE OF YAKUTSK. 79 
 
 country has the severest climate in the world, with an 
 extreme temperature varying between + 103° and — 93° 
 Fahrenheit. The winter commences early. The smaller 
 rivers and the numberless lakes — of which there are said to 
 be 100,000 — begin to freeze in September. In the first or 
 second week of October the whole country is covered with 
 snow. The cold increases day by day. The mean tem- 
 perature of October and November varies between + 5° 
 and — 22° Fahr. ; in the months of December, January 
 and February between — 13° and — 40° Fahr.; and in March 
 and April between + 14° and — 22° Fahr. In the middle 
 of the winter the temperature may remain for weeks to- 
 gether below the freezing-point of mercury, and at times 
 will sink to 80° below zero Fahr. Such a low temperature 
 gives a keen and penetrating sharpness to the air, and all life 
 seems to have congealed. The Yakut winter does not rage 
 and roar, as does that of northern Europe, but suppresses 
 all motion. Neither the sun, which only for a few hours 
 appears above the horizon, nor the earth, which is frozen 
 to an unknown depth and in the summer melts only two 
 or three feet, can withstand its power. The constantly 
 growing cold compresses the air more and more, until it 
 finally threatens, as it were, to suffocate all life beneath 
 its weight. The strongest currents of air from the Arctic 
 sea, from the Pacific, or from the immense continental re- 
 gions lying to the south are unable to move this inert and 
 compressed mass of air. The heaviest storms powerlessly 
 rebound from it and, so to speak, become bound at its feet, 
 
8o THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 being cooled down and assimilated in their turn into the 
 colossal frost-mass, which is sufificient to cool all Siberia 
 during the whole year. This incubus, as with justice it 
 may be termed, lies immovable over the whole country for 
 weeks and months, and if the dry and compressed air did 
 not itself somewhat hinder the radiation of heat, all life 
 would perish beneath the colossus. 
 
 All moisture is pressed out of the atmosphere by this 
 terrible cold, becomes crystallized, and fills the air as a 
 thin, frosty fog, making the moon appear as if surrounded by 
 a silvery ring. And when a faint milky or silvery phosphor- 
 escence shines from the polar ice, and the many-coloured 
 flames of the aurora borealis suddenly appear, then the frost 
 is reaching its climax. Perhaps from an instinctive knowledge 
 of the approach of still greater cold, or more probably 
 frightened at the sight of this phenomenon, the Yakut 
 sledgedogs unite in raising a protracted and hideous howl, 
 which ceases only when the last flames of the northern lights 
 have disappeared. Then every living sound ceases and 
 silence as of the grave prevails, the Yakuts shovel more 
 snow about their huts, and even the smoke has hard work 
 to go up through the chimney and rises only a few feet 
 above the roof. 
 
 But the stillness is only apparent. The snow does not 
 creak, it grates and squeaks under foot, and rings like 
 metal; the breath congeals and falls to the ground in the 
 shape of fine ice-crystals. The deep silence of the night 
 is broken only by weird and hideous sounds resembling 
 
THE PROVINCE OF YAKUTSK. 8i 
 
 long-drawn-out moanings and bowlings, with now and 
 again a sudden thunder as of a cannonade, from the 
 bursting ice and the rending of the frozen earth. 
 
 In the lakes which do not freeze to the bottom, the 
 ice attains a thickness of lo feet; in the rivers still more. 
 The ice becomes as hard as stone, its splinters cut the 
 hands like a knife, and if a hard-tempered axe is directed 
 against the stem of a tree its edge breaks into fragments. 
 
 The terror of the Yakut winter is increased by its 
 darkness, especially in the northern regions, where the 
 winter night continues for weeks and months. Only in the 
 month of March do " the horns of the bull of winter begin 
 to break," as the Yakuts say in their picturesque language. 
 The sun rises higher and higher every day, its rays in the 
 clear air begin to melt the snow on the roofs of houses, 
 while in the shadow the temperature still marks twenty 
 degrees below zero. 
 
 In March and April terrible storms prevail. The transi- 
 tion between winter and summer is so sudden that one can 
 hardly speak of spring and autumn. In a couple of weeks 
 the winter is transformed into summer. The snow melts 
 with incredible rapidity, and the water, flowing into valleys, 
 lakes, and rivers, lifts the thick ice, which has been riven 
 into small fragments by the winter cold. In the lakes the 
 ice melts slowly, and the storms which drive it against 
 the shore only crush it little by little. In the rivers, on 
 the other hand, the ice is violently broken up and carried 
 towards the sea by the powerful spring-floods. At first 
 
82 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the water is unable to carry with it the huge ice-floes, 
 which in narrow places are heaped up in colossal masses, 
 damming up the river until the barrier is broken, when, 
 carried along with resistless force, it destroys everything in 
 its way, sweeping away earth, rocks, and entire groves of 
 trees, which are mown down like grass. As we descended 
 the Lena in the middle of June gigantic blocks of ice 
 were still lying on the shores of the river, some twenty 
 feet or more above its water-line. 
 
 The summer in Yakutsk is short, only four months in 
 the south and two months in the north; but it is bright 
 and usually warm, indeed in some places the mercury 
 even touches 103° Fahr. on occasion. The ever- frozen soil, 
 which in the neighbourhood of the city of Yakutsk melts to 
 a depth of 3 to 4 feet, and in the northern regions to 
 barely a foot at times, becomes so heated that you can 
 hardly walk barefooted on the sand. The first half of the 
 summer is usually dry, and the plants then receive moisture 
 exclusively from the melting soil. If the soil in the autumn 
 has been sufficiently saturated by rain, there will be no lack 
 of this; if not, the crops will fail from drought. During 
 the latter part of the summer the quantity of rain is usually 
 so large that it is difficult to prevent the crops from rotting. 
 Great variations occur also in temperature in summer, thus a 
 northerly storm may in a few hours lower the thermometer 
 from 85° to freezing-point, and snow may fall in July at a 
 distance of fifteen hundred miles south of the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 The perennially frozen soil begins in the southern parts 
 
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IHE PROVINCE OF YAKUTSK. 85 
 
 of Yakutsk. In the neighbourhood of the city of Yakutsk, 
 according to the calculations of the savants, the earth is 
 frozen to a depth of 1000 feet! This ever-frozen soil exerts 
 a great influence on the configuration of the lakes and 
 rivers. It prevents the absorption of the water by the 
 earth. There are no springs and no subterranean waters. 
 This accounts also for the very great number of lakes and 
 marshes in northern Siberia. For the same reason the 
 rivers very rapidly swell above their normal limits, causing 
 at times most disastrous inundations. 
 
 As a rule, the lakes and rivers abound with fish, while in 
 the forests are to be found elk, reindeer, fox, sable, etc., and 
 in the north a species of bighorn or mountain sheep. In 
 spring the country teems with birds of passage. 
 
 The greater part of the province of Yakutsk is covered by 
 virgin forest, mainly consisting of the Siberian larch and 
 the Siberian spruce. Among the larches the birch is always 
 to be found ; in the southern parts the Norwegian spruce 
 and pine, the aspen, and the "cedar" occur. The shores of 
 the rivers are fringed with different species of willow and 
 the Siberian alder. Natural meadows are found only in 
 river-valleys and on the bottoms of dried-up lakes. On 
 these natural meadows the Yakuts pasture their herds of 
 Ccittle, and in their neighbourhood they erect their yurtas. 
 
 The greater part of the immense region of Yakutsk is 
 still a ^^ terra incerta et incognita". Thousands upon thou- 
 sahds of square miles where the wild animals and the Tun- 
 guses roam have as yet never been trodden by the feet of 
 
86 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 civilised man. To judge from the comparatively limited 
 regions more or less explored, it is probable that great 
 natural resources are to be found in the forests and in the 
 mountains by the explorers of the future. Besides the 
 gold-fields on the rivers Vitim and Olekma, which have 
 been worked since 1840, both gold and silver have been 
 found on the river Aldan and elsewhere. Rich iron ore 
 has been discovered in several places, and in the middle 
 and northern parts of Yakutsk there is plenty of coal. The 
 Lena and some of its tributaries yield precious stones of 
 various kinds, and the existence of malachite and graphite 
 has also been ascertained in more than one spot. 
 
 I have already spoken of the abundance of fish. The 
 quantity of fur obtained, on the other hand, has grown 
 smaller and smaller, the valuable sable having diminished 
 greatly or entirely disappeared over wide regions, probably 
 not only on account of the war of extermination carried 
 on against it, but also because of the great forest fires, 
 which annually lay waste hundreds of square miles. One of 
 the natural resources of Yakutsk, which has been worked 
 for ages, belongs to the extinct animal kingdom — namely, 
 the valuable mammoth tusks. Middendorff calculated in 
 the forties that, during the period of two hundred years 
 previous to that time, the tusks of at least twenty thousand 
 mammoths had been obtained in northern Siberia. At the 
 present day, within the province of Yakutsk alone, about 
 17 tons of mammoth tusks are annually collected. 
 
 This does not, however, represent the total of the finds, 
 
..^=-rTrrrTT.,CE OF YAKUTSK. 87 
 
 for numbers of them being decayed or cracked are left behind 
 as valueless. It is only for a short time in the first part 
 of the summer, when the spring floods have washed out 
 the frozen earth in which the remains of this animal are 
 buried, that the mammoth tusks can be gathered. Then 
 the natives roam about far and wide searching the river- 
 valleys and ravines where the floods have left fresh surfaces 
 exposed, and gather in their crop. In consequence of the 
 perennially frozen condition of the soil the floods wash out 
 the earth more in a horizontal than a perpendicular direc- 
 tion, and from this cause these annual wash-outs often extend 
 over a large area. The mammoth crop, then, may in a 
 certain sense be said to depend on the amount of rain and 
 the weather in general during the spring. On the New 
 Siberian Islands, on the other hand, it is the ice and the 
 sea which make the tusks accessible to the collectors, by 
 undermining and eroding the beach or cliffs; while some- 
 times, especially after heavy weather, they are thrown up 
 on shore by the waves. The natives in the service of the 
 merchants usually start over the frozen sea with their 
 dogs and sledges for the islands in March, staying there 
 all the summer and returning with their sledges loaded 
 with ivory in the autumn, when the sea is again frozen. 
 The mammoth crop on the islands is very greatly dependent 
 on the winds. If, for example, protracted westerly weather 
 prevails, the water rises very high, while during easterly 
 storms it sinks, making a larger surface of cliff and beach 
 accessible to the collector. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE YAKUTS. 
 
 Population — Social Organisation — Yakut Horses and Cattle — Culture of 
 Cereals — The Yurta — Dress and Ceremonies — Shamanism — Russian 
 Shamanists. 
 
 The entire population of Yakutsk amounted in January 
 1897, according to official reports, to 277,835, of whom 
 6 per cent were Russians, the remainder belonging to different 
 native races. Of these natives no less than 93 per cent, or 
 244,183, are Yakuts; 10,269 are Tunguses, and the rest 
 belong to various smaller tribes, such as the Dolgans, 
 Lamuts, Yukagirs, etc. 
 
 The Yakuts live in groups, scattered here and there in 
 the forests or on the tundras, each family living in a 
 yurta, or, if on the tundra, in tents. If they were evenly 
 distributed over the whole country, each family or yurta 
 would dispose of an area of nearly twenty-eight square 
 miles. But the Yakuts, as we have mentioned above, 
 prefer settling in groups, where there is plenty of pasture, 
 or in the neighbourhood of lakes and rivers abounding 
 with fish, or in forests where game is to be had. Such 
 groups or communities are called aga-usa (" paternal-families " 
 
THE YAKUTS. 89 
 
 or relations). The members of these communities of rela- 
 tives do not marry within the community, but they keep 
 together to help and protect each other. They elect an 
 "elder" and form a council, which decides their common 
 afifairs, settles disputes, etc. These communities in their 
 turn associate themselves into larger groups, forming the 
 so-called naslegi (association of family communities), which 
 again are organised into ulus, corresponding to the 
 Russian village-districts (volost). At the head of the ulus 
 stands the golova or chief, with an uprava or kind of police- 
 court. The naslegi are administered by a district-council 
 and a district-elder having the title of kujas (prince), which 
 was conferred on these tribal chiefs by Catherine II. The 
 taxes are collected by the local authorities of the ulus, 
 which are by law connected with the officials of the imperial 
 treasury and the police authorities. The taxes (Yassak) 
 were formerly paid in the shape of furs, but the sable 
 having to a great extent been exterminated, they are now paid 
 in money, the amount of which, plus communal taxes, 
 varies between 12 and 50 shillings per tributary "soul", 
 depending on the decision of the local authorities and the 
 economical condition of the tax-payer. 
 
 The Yakuts are generally poor. Their principal posses- 
 sions consist of cattle and horses. The Yakut horses are 
 small and shaggy, but very hardy, strong, and good- 
 tempered animals. Throughout the long and terrible winter 
 they subsist on the grass underneath the snow, which, like 
 the reindeer, they remove with their feet, the strongest 
 
Qo THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 horses going in front, and the weaker ones following them, 
 eating the uncovered grass. The Yakuts, like other Tatar 
 peoples, are very fond of horse-meat, and from the horses ' 
 milk they prepare the well-known kumiss. The number 
 of horses they own, however, is diminishing, and only 
 well-to-do Yakuts as a rule now keep them, the great 
 majority having cattle instead.' The Yakut cattle are 
 very small and of inferior quality. The cows give very 
 little milk ; a family of ordinary size needs for its subsistence 
 from lo to 15 head of cattle, of which 7 to 9 are milch 
 cows. The great majority of Yakut families, however, have 
 not so many, and want and famine are very common among 
 them. As a rule they are deeply in debt to a few wealthy 
 individuals, mostly of their own people, who keep them 
 in a state of slavery, and being thus compelled to work 
 most of their time for them, they are unable during 
 the short summer to provide for their own wants. Their 
 principal work consists in gathering hay on the meadows 
 and marshes. 
 
 The usual food of the great majority of Yakuts is the 
 so-called "tar," which is a mixture of meat, fish, various 
 roots, grass, and pine-bark. This is put into skimmed 
 milk mixed with water, to which is added a little flour, if 
 such is to be had, and the whole is boiled into a kind of 
 
 ' In former limes the Yakuts regarded cattle as unclean animals, but little 
 by little utility has conquered superstition, so that the cow has now to a 
 great extent replaced the horse both as a yielder of milk and meat, and also 
 as a beast of burden. 
 
THE YAKUTS. 
 
 91 
 
 porridge. The Yakuts drink a great deal of tea, and 
 are very fond of strong spirits. The wealthy eat: meat 
 every day and a kind of thick pancake, made of water 
 and barley-flour. 
 
 The culture of cereals has only of late years been intro- 
 duced among the Yakuts by the Russians, especially the 
 
 YAKUTS ON THE LENA. 
 
 " Skoptsi" and other sectarians. Instead of flour they 
 formerly used the juicy part of the bark of the pine and 
 different kinds of roots. Half a century ago no one believed 
 it would be possible to cultivate cereals in Yakutsk. In 
 the first experiments the crops were frost-bitten, but by- 
 aud-by the corn became acclimatised, and now in favor- 
 
92 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 able years good crops are secured. In the short space of 
 two months from sowing, thanks to the usually hot summers, 
 the grain ripens and is harvested. In the neighbourhood 
 of the city of Yakutsk are thus grown barley, oats, wheat, 
 potatoes and even water-melons ! The implements and methods 
 of agriculture are of course very primitive, wooden ploughs 
 and harrows being exclusively used. 
 
 The Yakut dwellings, the " yurtas," are wooden huts with 
 sloping walls covered with a thick layer of turf. In the place 
 of window-glass ox-bladders are used in summer-time and ice 
 in winter. The window-openings are usually not more than 
 a foot square in size. The fireplace is in the middle of 
 the yurta, and is made of poles, placed close together and 
 covered with mud or clay. Along the walls inside the 
 dwelling run low nares or benches, between the wooden 
 pillars, serving as sitting-places during the daytime and 
 as bedsteads at night. The yurta is divided into two parts: 
 to the right from the entrance is the women's and child- 
 ren's apartment, where, among the poorest classes, the cattle 
 are also housed ; and to the left that of the men. To the 
 women's apartment men not belonging to the family are 
 not allowed to go. The Yakuts generally have special 
 yurtas for winter and summer, the latter usually situated 
 near their meadows and haystacks. In the far north they 
 often live in tents or huts resembling those of the Lapps. 
 
 The summer dress of the Yakuts consists of the ro- 
 baschka (the Russian "over-shirt"), and the balachbn, a kind 
 of blouse, both of cloth, long boots of soft leather, and 
 
THE YAKUTS. 93 
 
 wide lareeches of the same material. The dress of the 
 women differs from that of the men only by its greater 
 length and its ornaments. In the winter they dress in fur, 
 more or less costly according to their circumstances. The 
 warm skin of the polar hare is very much in use as lining. 
 The fur-coat, which is made like a shirt and put on over the 
 head, has usually a hood of the same material attached to it. 
 All the Yakuts are inveterate smokers, and always wear 
 the tobacco-pouch with pipe and flint and steel, together 
 with the indispensable long knife, attached to the belt 
 about their waist. They are fairly clever handicraftsmen as 
 carpenters and above all as smiths, a craft which has old 
 and high traditions, and is inherited. At the time of their 
 subjugation by the Russians 300 years ago they knew how 
 to produce iron from the ore, and their traditions show 
 that the metal has been known to them from time imme- 
 morial. They are also clever carvers of wood and bone. 
 Generally speaking, they are a gifted people, and some 
 of their number have gone through the university and 
 become learned men. But their thirst for knowledge can- 
 not be satisfied in the few official schools, where the teach- 
 ing is given in Russian. After three or four years' study 
 in these schools they know only a smattering of the 
 language, which they soon forget. 
 
 The Yakuts marry early and, as a rule, have many 
 children, few of whom, however, survive the age of early 
 childhood. Marriage among them is a matter of business, 
 though behind the cold formalities of the transaction there 
 
94 
 
 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 may sometimes lurk warmer human feelings. To the father 
 of the bride is paid a certain price (kalyin), varying 
 in amount according to circumstances. The kalym is 
 considered as payment for the rearing and education of 
 
 YAKUTS AND YURTA. ' 
 
 the girl. The purchase is done by the father of the 
 bridegroom or his representative. The terms of payment 
 as well as the marriage ceremonies in general vary; the 
 
 ' The Yakut Androssoff who saved the lives of the two survivors of the 
 yeannetie Expedition, with his wife. (See p. 152.) 
 
THE YAKUTS. 95 
 
 customs of the northern Yakuts differing from those of the 
 people in the southern parts of the province. The wedding, 
 which is attended by many guests, both invited and 
 uninvited, takes place both in the home of the bride and 
 that of the bridegroom ; the relatives and friends of the 
 bride congregating at her home, and those of the bride- 
 groom at his. The bride and bridegroom do not sit at 
 the table, but in a corner behind the door, with their 
 faces turned towards the wall, the bride on the women's 
 side, and the bridegroom on the men's side of the yurta. 
 Both are dressed in their best clothes. Thus they sit 
 for three days, i.e., as long as the festival continues, 
 without looking at one another. The young people, both 
 girls and boys, are all the time singing, dancing, and playing. 
 Prominent guests and old men sit on the nares along 
 the wall, smoking and drinking tea, kumiss, and vodka. 
 ■ Food is eaten every now and then all the time, but the 
 principal festival-meals are the dinner and supper. In front 
 of each guest, on a horse-hide which serves as table-cloth, is 
 placed a large piece of boiled meat with the bones attached. 
 The relatives of the young couple exchange these pieces 
 of meat, and this performance is the principal part of the 
 Yakut marriage ceremony, symbolising the union between 
 the families, which henceforth are to forget all enmity, 
 and for the future be " flesh of one flesh and bone of one 
 bone." Formerly, when the custom of " robbing the bride " 
 still continued, this ceremony consisted in the exchange 
 of gifts as a token of reconciliation and as compensation 
 
96 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 for losses sustained during mutual feuds. When the wed- 
 ding is over and the guests are ready to leave, the following 
 ceremony takes place. Holding a goblet of kumiss in 
 their hands, the guests are conducted by the host and 
 hostess three times around the konovjasi — poles standing 
 outside the yurta, to which horses are tied, and which 
 are considered sacred. Then the guests mount their horses, 
 drink part of the kumiss, and pour the rest on the manes 
 of their steeds. 
 
 At the present day the Yakuts are often married in 
 churches according to the orthodox ritual, and they also 
 bury their dead in the Russian manner. For the last 
 hundred years they have been nominally members of the 
 orthodox Church, and very often make the sign of the 
 Cross, but in their inmost hearts they have stronger faith in 
 the power of the Shaman over the evil spirits than in the 
 dogmas of the Church, of which they know but little. 
 Indeed, not only the Yakuts, but even the Russians them- 
 selves — the officials, too, among the number — apply to 
 the Shaman to heal their diseases, drive away evil spirits, 
 and predict coming events. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SKOPTSI IN EXILE. 
 
 Olekminsk — Spaskoie — What Skoptsi Labour has done — An uneasy Corpse — 
 Marscha, the Skoptsi Colony — A Finnish Member of the Sect — A 
 Philosopher's Library — ^History of the Skoptsi. 
 
 The first place of any importance at which we stopped 
 after having crossed the border of the province of Yakutsk, 
 was the town of Olekminsk, the depot of the gold-fields 
 on the river Olekma. The town proper, with its small 
 grey houses and its filthy street, deserved no higher rank 
 than that of village. In the neighbourhood of the town, 
 however, and connected with it by a broad street, lies 
 Spaskoie, the village of the " Skoptsi ", which, with its 
 substantial and well-built houses, its cleanliness and good 
 order, forms a most remarkable contrast with the town. 
 
 In Olekminsk, as in Kirensk, various epidemics had been 
 raging, and had carried off many of its inhabitants. In 
 the colony of the Skoptsi, on the other hand, there had 
 been no epidemic of any kind, thanks to the cleanliness 
 and rational way of living of its inhabitants. 
 
 In this place, as elsewhere, the Skoptsi have done 
 wonders as agriculturists. When they came here forty 
 
 7 
 
98 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 years ago the virgin forest covered the marshy country 
 right up to the river bank. Now, cultivated fields extend far 
 away beyond the village. One of these remarkable people, 
 pointing to them, remarked : " Yes, God has verily blessed 
 our work." He complained, however, of being compelled 
 to live so far away from his native land, for which he 
 was longing. The Skoptsi, I found, were making bread 
 and other things, which they sold, not only to the town, 
 but also to the gold-fields. The townspeople blamed 
 them for enriching themselves at their cost, totally obli- 
 vious of the fact that bread has become four or five times 
 cheaper since they began to cultivate the soil. I was told 
 by a reliable person that these sectarians were not only 
 slandered, but even attacked and robbed by their neigh- 
 bours, and were compelled to keep watch-dogs and fire- 
 arms for self-defence, although this was contrary to their 
 religious principles. I asked one of their adversaries 
 why they did not raise their own crops and make bread 
 themselves, instead of enriching the Skoptsi. 
 
 "What! We dig in the dirt! No, Sir; our business is 
 with the gold-fields." 
 
 This "business" from what I learnt, is very much of the 
 same nature as that carried on at Vitim. When the gold- 
 diggers arrive at Olekminsk, they squander their earnings 
 in a few days, and some of them disappear without 
 leaving a trace behind them. In the spring, when the 
 snow melts, corpses of " unknown persons " are found here 
 and there on the shores of the Lena or in the forests. 
 
THE SKOPTSI IN EXILE. 99 
 
 These corpses are kept in a store-house belonging to the 
 local hospital, sometimes lying there for weeks before 
 legal investigations can be made, the hospital being only 
 occasionally visited by the physician. On one occasion, I 
 was told, the following incident took place. A corpse had 
 been found, and was sent by the chief of the police to 
 the store-house of the hospital. The physician, however, 
 refused to receive it and sent it back again, but the chief 
 of the police again returned it, and so it went its grisly 
 journey to and fro, until a compromise was effected 
 and it found a resting-place at length among the hospital 
 provisions! 
 
 At the time of our visit to Olekminsk the temperature 
 had risen to 66° Fahr. and, looking out over the green 
 fields, I found it hard to realise the fact that I was walking 
 on soil frozen to the depth of several hundreds of feet. 
 
 Having received its great tributary, the Olekma, the Lena 
 increases to the width of about two miles, and widens more 
 and more, until, at the city of Yakutsk, the distance between 
 the hills which form its valley is not much under twenty miles. 
 
 On our arrival at the city of Yakutsk the Governor 
 kindly conducted me to Marscha, a colony of the Skoptsi, 
 situated some four miles outside the city. We drove through 
 cultivated fields, granted by the government to the Kos- 
 sacks, but to a great extent rented and cultivated by the 
 Skoptsi. The meadows were bright with brilliant spring- 
 flowers, and the even and fresh green carpet of the sown 
 fields promised good crops. After half-an-hour's drive 
 
loo THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 some windmills were seen between groves of birch-trees, 
 and soon rows of well-built wooden izbas or farm-houses 
 came in sight, and crossing a bridge over a beautiful brook 
 we came into one of the main streets of the village. 
 Neatly-clad men and women in holiday dress — it was a 
 Sunday — stood in groups by the roadside, saluting reveren- 
 tially the Governor and the strangers. Our carriage turned 
 through an open gate into a yard in front of the house 
 of the starosta or village elder, a tall and strongly-built 
 man, who, surrounded by a number of his co-religionists, 
 received us with uncovered head and conducted us to a 
 large verandah. The floor was covered with carpets, and 
 on a large table stood a boiling samovar, surrounded by 
 all sorts of eatables, from delicious butter, eggs, and sar- 
 dines to different kinds of marmalades and biscuits. Before 
 sitting down to luncheon, we looked at the rooms. On 
 all the floors were carpets, on the walls hung portraits of 
 the imperial family and of different distinguished persons, 
 but no pictures of saints were to be seen. 
 
 While at table, the Governor told me that there was 
 a Swedish-speaking Finn among the exiled Skoptsi, and 
 asked me if I would like to meet him. To this of course 
 I gladly assented, and in a few minutes a venerable-looking 
 old man came in and made a deep bow, whereupon he 
 was introduced by the Governor. His name, I learnt, was 
 Aug. Lindstrom. Born in Abo in Finland, 72 years before, 
 he had spent no less than forty years in exile in Yakutsk, 
 yet he spoke Swedish still with perfect fluency. He had 
 
s 
 
 H 
 A. 
 O 
 
 D 
 O 
 
 a 
 
THE SKOPTSI IN EXILE. 103 
 
 been a dyer by trade, and as a young man was working 
 in St. Petersburg, when he became seriously concerned 
 about the salvation of his soul. About this time he came 
 in contact with some Skoptsi, who persuaded him to 
 self-mutilation and the acceptance of their creed. He then 
 resolved to go through "the baptism of fire" in order to 
 become fit for the kingdom of heaven. The ceremony, 
 which cost him three weeks of serious illness, resulted shortly 
 afterwards in exile to Siberia for life. But he was 
 happy to suffer all " for the sake of truth and the kingdom 
 of heaven." 
 
 Mr. Lindstrom was a genuine type of an old quiet pietist. 
 He spoke with the greatest affection and reverence of his 
 old Swedish bible, which he read every day, and which 
 gave him consolation in his trials. A big tear glistened in 
 his eye when I spoke to him about "the land of the 
 thousand lakes " (Finland), which he never more should see. 
 "But," said he, "I shall soon go to a better land, where 
 all trials and sorrows shall have an end." 
 
 After luncheon we were shown the barns, store-houses, 
 threshing-machines, mills etc., built by these strange people. 
 We visited a number of homes in the village, and found 
 everywhere the most scrupulous cleanliness and good 
 order. In one izba, to my great surprise, I came upon a 
 large collection of books, containing, besides poetical works 
 by Puschkin, Lermontoff, Niekrassoff and others, some rare 
 volumes, and also various Russian translations of the works 
 of Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and other English writers. 
 
I04 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The sectarian owning this library had recently died, and he 
 was spoken of as "a philosopher." 
 
 Comparing the homes of these people with those of the 
 ordinary Russian settlers, the contrast, with regard to 
 cleanliness and good order, was so great that we could 
 hardly believe that the inhabitants belonged to the same 
 nationality. A great many of the Skoptsi of Marscha, it 
 is true, had come from the Baltic provinces; and their 
 brethren of Russian extraction did not observe such scrupu- 
 lous neatness as did they, but the contrast between the 
 former and the orthodox population was, as I have said, 
 astonishing. 
 
 As early as the beginning of the 19th century the Russian 
 Government began to exile Skoptsi to Siberia. In the year 
 1838 the sending of this class of exiles to Yakutsk com- 
 menced, and at the beginning of i860 it was resolved to 
 send them exclusively to the province of Yakutsk. In 
 those days they were often exiled to places unfit for 
 agriculture, and many of them succumbed to famine and 
 the hard climate. 
 
 In 1 86 1 an ukase was issued that those of Protestant 
 extraction should be sent to the above-mentioned colony 
 of Marscha, and their brethren of the orthodox Russian 
 connection to Olekminsk and the upper Aldan, in order to 
 establish stations and serve as drivers on the so-called 
 Ayansky line of communication between the sea of Okhotsk 
 and the river Aldan. 
 
 In 1 866 the Skoptsi in Yakutsk numbered 476 ; in 1 894 
 
THE SKOPTSI IN PXILE. 105 
 
 they had increased to 1329, and at the present day there 
 are probably not less than about 1600. As there is 
 of course no natural increase of population among these 
 sectarians, it is evident from the above figures that the 
 number of them annually sent into exile is considerable. 
 
 The members of this sect are total abstainers, and by 
 that fact alone have risen far above the level of the 
 Russian mujik, slave as he is to vodka. By their care and 
 patience and thriftiness they soon succeed in producing 
 good crops on their land, and have acquired considerable 
 property, especially in the colony of Marscha, which, in fact, 
 feeds the whole city of Yakutsk, and has on two occasions 
 saved it from famine. Before they introduced agriculture, 
 the price of flour in Yakutsk was five to seven roubles a pood 
 of 361b., now it costs at the most one rouble. Together 
 with other sectarians they have, in more senses than one, 
 been promoters of culture in Yakutsk as well as in Siberia 
 at large, having taught the Yakuts agriculture and other- 
 wise exerted a civilising influence on them by their example. 
 The Skoptsi number at present about 7 per cent, of the 
 Russian population in Yakutsk and about § per cent, of 
 the entire population, but more than 15 per cent, of all 
 the cultivated land in the province belongs to them. 
 
 Like so many other Russian sects, that of the Skoptsi 
 derives its origin, at least in its present shape, from the 
 great separatist movement in the Russian Church which 
 followed upon the revision of the liturgy by the patriarch 
 Nikon in the i6th century. Within the separatist party 
 
io6 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 known under the name of the Starovieri or " Old Behevers ", 
 are comprised among others the sect of the Khlists, and 
 among these the Skoptsi first arose and formed themselves 
 into a separate sect. But it is still, in my opinion, an open 
 question whether the peculiar tenets of these people do 
 not extend their roots back to ancient oriental sects — a 
 question which only future researches will decide. 
 
 Under the pressure of barbarous persecution the sect of 
 the Skoptsi assumed the character of one of the many 
 secret societies in Russia, and at times it has counted 
 several adherents among the wealthier classes. At the 
 present day their extreme views have been considerably 
 modified, and as a body they stand morally and intellec- 
 tually far above the average of the Russian common people. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 IN THE CITY OF YAKUTSK. 
 
 Andr^e Stories — -Yakutsk and its Mud — The Freebooters — Atrocities of the 
 Voyevodes — Revolt of the Natives — Yakutsk of To-day — The Kossack 
 "payek'\ 
 
 In the city of Yakutsk we spent over a week, waiting for 
 the steamer Lena, in which we were to go down the river from 
 which she takes her name. Besides the governor and other 
 officials, I here interviewed several persons who were said 
 to have more or less knowledge of the Arctic regions, but 
 it was impossible to ascertain whether trappers had or had 
 not visited the New Siberian Islands during the summer of 
 1897 or the spring of 1898, nor could I get any reliable 
 information calling for alteration of our original plans, 
 Andree stories of the usual kind, of course, were showered 
 upon us even here. Thus a certain merchant of Yakutsk 
 had seen a luminous balloon sailing southwards one night 
 in November, 1 897 ; a number of Yakuts in the fall of the 
 same year, while travelling on the Upper Aldan, had ob- 
 served among the mountains "an immense balloon, and 
 in the balloon were three white men ; " while a certain 
 person visited us almost every day with a wonderful story 
 to the effect that Yakuts had found Andree and his com- 
 panions dead in the forest, and that he would conduct 
 
io8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 me to the place, if I would only pay him a certain sum 
 of money down. His story, it is perhaps unnecessary to 
 say, varied every time. From reliable persons who had 
 lived for some time near the mouth of the Yana, I learnt 
 that the depots which had been left on the New Siberian 
 Islands by Baron von Toll for Nansen, and which Andree 
 also had received permission to use in case of need, were not 
 in a satisfactory condition. Trappers had visited the islands 
 and had reported that bears had broken open the cases and 
 consumed the contents. There were also other reports, but 
 all agreed in one point — namely, that little or no provisions 
 of any sort were likely to be obtainable at these depots. 
 The city of Yakutsk is situated on the western bank of 
 the Lena. It is built on a flat, alluvial, ever-frozen soil, 
 forming a foundation as strong as any rock, which in 
 summer-time melts only to a depth of three or four feet. 
 Only a few houses of brick, however, are built on this 
 eternal ice. The "Mother of Yakutsk" — the weather- 
 beaten wooden fortress erected by the Kossacks in the year 
 1636 — still remains. The town, which in 1897, according 
 to official reports, numbered 5825 inhabitants, consists — 
 besides the churches, the prison and a number of other 
 official buildings — mainly of small dilapidated houses, yurtas 
 and (in the outskirts of the town) earth-huts. In the broad 
 streets the melted soil shakes beneath one's feet, here and 
 there the thin dry crust which covers it breaks through 
 under the pressure of the cart-wheels, and the horses sink 
 knee-deep into the half-frozen sludge. There are no pave- 
 
i4 
 K 
 
 O 
 
 W 
 
 y 
 3 
 
IN THE CITY OF YAKUTSK. iii 
 
 ments, a few boards only being laid down in some of the 
 better streets. Nor is there anything in the shape of drains 
 or sewers; the refuse being thrown out on the streets and 
 filling the air with an unexampled series of stenches, to 
 which the epidemics which prevail are doubtless in great 
 measure due. Apart from a large number of officials, the 
 police and the merchants, the population consists mainly 
 of exiles from all parts of Russia and Siberia, and of Yakuts. 
 As I have already said, it was the adventurous hunters 
 and trappers of the early days who first opened the way 
 for the Russian dominion eastward through Siberia, the 
 Kossacks following in their track, and enrolling them as 
 guides and fellow-brigands. Part of these adventurers 
 coming from Tobolsk through Turukansk on the lower 
 Yenisei, followed the course of the Lower Tunguskaya to its 
 head-waters, whence they crossed the water-divide to the 
 upper Vilui, went down this river, and from its confluence 
 with the Lena ascended the last-named river to the place 
 where the town of Yakutsk now stands. Another party of 
 the invaders, coming from the town of Yeniseisk, followed 
 the course of the tributaries of the Yenisei, the Ilim and 
 Yerma, eastward, crossed the divide, and descended the 
 Lena via the Kut and other streams to Yakutsk. It was 
 one of the ^chiefs of these freebooters, Beketoff by 
 name, who erected the fort of Yakutsk in 1636. These 
 different bands of adventurers having robbed and massacred 
 the natives, quarrelled amongst themselves over the rich 
 booty they had secured, until the robbers of Tobolsk 
 
112 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 conquered the brigands of Yeniseisk and sent their leader 
 as a prisoner to the authorities. 
 
 The historical records of those times, scanty though they 
 are, serve, in addition to the traditions of the natives, to 
 show the manner in which the latter were subjugated to 
 Russian rule. Having by finesse or by firearms made them- 
 selves lords and masters, and robbed the natives of their 
 furs and skins, these scoundrels compelled them to con- 
 tribute annually, under the name of Yassak or taxes, a 
 large quantity of sable and other valuable furs, and in 
 consequence they were soon reduced to extreme want and 
 famine. A large number of them fled to the most distant 
 parts of the country to the north and north-east, but the 
 invaders followed them even down to the Arctic sea and 
 to the border of the land of the Tschuktchis, compelling 
 them to pay the Yassak. These adventurers met with very 
 little resistance ; only the then numerous Yukagirs and 
 Lamuts fought bravely for their liberty, and, later, the 
 courageous Tschuktchi, who up to this day, though nomin- 
 ally under Russian rule, have in reality preserved their 
 independence. A merchant of Yakutsk in those early 
 times has left a description in a manuscript, which has 
 been preserved, of the way in which the natives were 
 treated. He says: "The Voj evades or Military Governors 
 began their rule by imposing the most intolerable burdens 
 in the way of taxes, which went not only to the govern- 
 ment, but also to appease the insatiable covetousness of 
 the tax-gatherers. They oppressed, tormented, and tortured 
 
IN THE CITY OF YAKUTSK. 113 
 
 the subjugated natives, under pretext of their taxes being 
 
 in arrear, but the amount of these taxes was never fixed". 
 
 Driven to despair by these constant extortions, the natives 
 
 revolted, but these risings were quenched in blood, thanks 
 
 to the firearms of their oppressors. A whole series of the 
 
 most barbarous punishments were then inflicted on the rebels. 
 
 By order of the vojevode Golovin, the ears and noses of the 
 
 rebellious Yakuts were cut off and their eyes put out ; they 
 
 were suspended by iron hooks fastened in their backs and 
 
 between their ribs, and some of them were buried alive. 
 
 Within the old fort there was a special torture-chamber, 
 
 where the torture-master worked from early in the morning 
 
 till late at night. A short respite was afforded the natives 
 
 when quarrels arose between the vojevodes Gleboff and 
 
 Golovin over the spoil. Golovin, who was dismissed and 
 
 punished with the knout, was succeeded by a number of 
 
 vojevodes who remained only a short time at their post. 
 
 But the extortions from the natives did not diminish, and 
 
 their sufferings became intolerable when Andrei Afanasevitch 
 
 Baryschnieff was appointed to the office of vojevode in 
 
 Yakutsk in the year 1675. It was during his rule that 
 
 political offenders and sectarians began to be exiled to the 
 
 province of Yakutsk, the former usually arriving there with 
 
 their tongues cut out. " When Baryschnieff entered on his 
 
 office," says the above-quoted Moskvin in his narrative, " a 
 
 regime of veritable terrorism began. Almost every day 
 
 sectarians and natives were executed in Yakutsk in the 
 
 most barbarous manner." The smallest offences were 
 
114 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 punished in the most horrible way. The culprits were cut 
 in pieces, burnt alive, boiled alive in kettles, etc. 
 
 This fiend of a vojevode was replaced by a certain 
 Priktonsky, under whose rule the Yakuts made, in 1682, 
 their last effort to throw off the foreign yoke. Many sec- 
 tarians and some Kossacks joined the rebels. The revolt 
 was suppressed and followed by the usual monstrous cruel- 
 ties. One of the leaders of the revolt, Dschennik, for 
 example, who had been wounded and brought to Yakutsk, 
 was skinned alive ! Those who were left of the beaten 
 Yakuts fled to the Vilui, Yana, and Kolyma. 
 
 The reform-movement which passed over European Russia 
 in the beginning of the i8th century did not at all touch 
 the far-off Yakuts. Only larger and denser did the throngs 
 of exiles sent to Yakutsk become, and they increased still 
 more during the troublous times immediately after the death 
 of Peter I., many of the noblest and greatest sons of Russia 
 being expatriated to the distant tundras of Yakutsk to be 
 buried alive near the Arctic sea. The vojevodes still con- 
 tinued to rule as tsars in Yakutsk, official " Revisors," who 
 were sent there to investigate into their rule, were im- 
 prisoned, knouted, and sent back to Irkutsk. 
 
 During the 19th century, with its unsuccessful efforts in 
 the direction of political and religious reform, the stream of 
 political and sectarian exiles to Yakutsk, together with 
 that of common criminals, constantly grew in volume. The 
 barbarous rule of the past has, it is true, been modified 
 during the last few decades, but yet as late as 1889 such 
 
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IN THE CITY OF YAKUTSK. 117 
 
 atrocious deeds occurred as the horrible massacre of the 
 political exiles in the city of Yakutsk. 
 
 Under the rule of the present governor some efforts have 
 been made officially to direct the attention of the govern- 
 ment to the evil effects on the province of the exile system. 
 Since the opening of part of the Trans-Siberian railway 
 the number of exiles to Yakutsk as well as to other distant 
 parts of Siberia has, however, still increased, because of 
 the necessity of sending them away from the regions 
 near the railway. The Duchobortsi, i.e., the Quakers of 
 Russia, and the followers of Count Tolstoy, are being exiled 
 north-east of Yakutsk to the forest regions on the Aldan 
 river, where they suffer fearfully from privations and the 
 severity of the climate. 
 
 In spite of the numerous police and the soldiery, the 
 security to life and property in Yakutsk is small, and the 
 common level of morality is, to say the least of it, not 
 very high. The corruption, moreover, is spreading from 
 the town far and wide among the natives. The merchants 
 leaving Yakutsk in the fall for the distant parts of the 
 north — the mouth of the Lena, Verkhoyansk, Kolymsk, 
 etc. — to exchange their goods for the valuable furs of the 
 natives, buy the healthiest and best-looking girls from the 
 natives for an even smaller sum than the cost of a reindeer, 
 and take with them a small harem on their long journeys. 
 In the city of Yakutsk these girls are left to their fate and 
 finally perish, or return to their people, spreading physical 
 and moral contamination among them. 
 
ii8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The following curious custom among the Kossacks is an 
 illustration of the moral conceptions of the Russian colonists 
 of Yakutsk. Among the privileges granted to the Kossacks 
 is the so-called " payek" or "share," which is given to 
 each male Kossack. For each Kossack boy who is born a 
 "pol-paika" or "half-share" (i pood of rye-meal per month) 
 is granted, and from his seventh year a full "share," or 
 double this quantity, is given to him as long as he lives. 
 Each boy born, therefore, is a considerable addition to the 
 wealth of the Kossack's family. The increase of humanity 
 has therefore become a species of game of chance among 
 the Kossacks of Yakutsk, the issue being watched with 
 the greatest suspense. Will a '^ payek" or "share" (a boy) 
 be born or "only a girl?" But not content with this the 
 Kossacks also try to influence the issue of the affair. If 
 the wife has no children, or only girls, she is given over 
 by contract for some time to a father of "shares." If 
 then a boy is born to her, the paternal substitute receives 
 "a half-share" for one year as a remuneration for his 
 services. The unmarried girls are also encouraged to produce 
 "shares," because, according to law, even illegitimately born 
 male children receive the allowance. The reputation of the 
 girl-mothers does not suffer in the least by these proceed- 
 ings; on the contrary, girls having borne "shares" are in 
 great demand in the matrimonial market of Yakutsk. ' 
 
 ' Vide Dioneo; Na Krainem Sjevero Vostokjc. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE POLITICAL EXILES AND THEIR SERVICES TO SCIENCE. 
 
 The Early Explorers — Martyrs of Science — The Meteorology of Verkhoyansk 
 — A Via Dolorosa — The Life-Work of Tschekanovsky — His Suicide. 
 
 While speaking of the town of Yakutsk, we must not 
 omit a word in recognition of the services of those men 
 who, starting thence on their adventurous journeys to 
 the unknown regions in the far north and east, have, 
 perhaps unwittingly, contributed largely to our geogra- 
 phical knowledge of Siberia — men such as Djeschneff, who 
 discovered Bering's Strait long before the voyage of Bering ; 
 Liakoff, the first known discoverer of the southern group 
 of the New Siberian Islands, named after him ; Andreieff, 
 who gave the first information of the existence of the Bear 
 Islands ; Staduschin, Schaluroff, Bachoff, Laptefif and others, 
 who have helped to unroll the map of those far-off lands. 
 Many of these men did not possess the knowledge or the 
 means of publishing their travels to the world at large, nor 
 indeed did they undertake their voyages for scientific pur- 
 poses. Their names and deeds have for the most part 
 remained unknown until explorers and savants of later times 
 have brought them to light. 
 
I20 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 But there is another band of men who should still less 
 be forgotten — heroes and martyrs, who under the most 
 adverse circumstances have done noble service in the cause 
 of scientific research within the vast regions of the province 
 of Yakutsk. I mean the scientifically-educated political 
 exiles, who have been sent to different parts of that remote 
 and inhospitable country. A full description of their work 
 in the cause of science, not to speak of civilisation in 
 general, both in Yakutsk and throughout Siberia, would fill 
 several volumes. The scientific services rendered by the 
 political exiles have indeed been unique. The ofiScial work, 
 however valuable, has always had this drawback, that 
 scientists have gone out on the expeditions as officials, of 
 whom the natives are afraid, and almost invariably without 
 any knowledge of the native languages. Both these cir- 
 cumstances are, of course, great hindrances in the way of 
 scientific travel. The "politicals", on the other hand, com- 
 ing among the natives as their equals and friends, ' have 
 the immense advantage of at once being en rapport with the 
 people among whom they live, and, knowing their language 
 like their own, they have thus been enabled to study the 
 everyday life and customs of the natives in a way that the 
 Russian official traveller could never have done. Many 
 prominent politicals have used these opportunities for study- 
 ing the languages and traditions, the habits and ideas, 
 the social and religious organisations and so forth of the 
 
 ' The natives make a sharp distinction between common criminals and 
 political exiles. 
 
THE POLITICAL EXILES. 121 
 
 natives, and many of them have received official recognition 
 of their work. Among these may be mentioned Bogeras 
 and Yochelson, who have made linguistic and ethnographic 
 •researches among the Tschuktchis; Kudiyakoff, who pub- 
 lished a very valuable ethnographical work on the Yakuts 
 of the region of Verkhoyansk, and who, after a long and 
 painful exile, lost his reason and died in Siberia; Mainoff, 
 who has received the highest tokens of recognition from 
 scientific institutions for his eminent researches concerning 
 the Buriats; Schklovsky — better known by his pseudonym 
 of "Dioneo" — who contributed most valuable ethnographical 
 studies and descriptions of the natives of northern Yakutsk ; 
 Tscheraschevsky, who, for his great work on the Yakuts, 
 was awarded the gold medal of the Imperial Geographical 
 Society ; and others. Within the domain of natural science 
 also, the political exiles have done noble service. 
 
 Take, for example, the meteorological observations made 
 at Verkhoyansk,— a most important place, as it is the thermo- 
 metric north-pole of the earth, the coldest known point in 
 our hemisphere. Such observations were made only occasi- 
 onally by passing scientists, till in 1887 the political exiles 
 S. Kovalik and Voynaralsky, after having served their 
 term of hard labour in the terrible convict-prisons of the 
 Kharkoff province, were exiled thither, and carried out a 
 most comprehensive and systematic series of observations, 
 thus furnishing science with invaluable material. The East 
 Siberian branch of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society 
 sent out meteorological instruments to different points in 
 
122 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Siberia, entrusting them to the care of political exiles, and 
 thus got valuable reports; and it profited by the intelli- 
 gence and industry of these people in many other ways. 
 But many, if not most of them, worked in the scientific 
 field of their own initiative. 
 
 Life has been a via dolorosa to these heroes of light, 
 and often it has had a tragical end. Many of them have 
 succumbed to privations and to the hard climate, some 
 have lost their reason, others have in despair committed 
 suicide. At best they have returned to Europe with their 
 lives for ever ruined. 
 
 A typical example of these martyr scientists was the 
 geologist A. L. Tschekanovsky. Endowed with uncommon 
 talents and energy he finished his studies at the university 
 under circumstances of much hardship and privation, and 
 afterwards, while earning a scanty living by practical work, 
 he devoted all his spare time to scientific researches, until, 
 during the troubles of 1863, he was banished to Siberia as 
 a political offender. In irons and fetters he had to march 
 on foot from Kieff to Tobolsk together with common 
 felons. Fortunately he had in his company a friend of his, 
 Mr. N. Hartung, who, like himself, was an enthusiastic 
 naturalist. On their way, to quote an account of his life 
 which appeared in the journal of one of the Russian 
 scientific societies, they had to live in the most miserable 
 circumstances, not seldom suffering from utter want. Those 
 having any knowledge whatever of the exile system know 
 what those "most miserable circumstances" mean I Yet, 
 
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THE POLITICAL EXILES. 125 
 
 even under such conditions, and being watched at every 
 step by their guards, Tschekanovsky and his companion 
 were true to their mission as scientists, making a rich 
 collection of insects. With the aid of a magnifying-glass, 
 which they themselves made from a fragment of a broken 
 decanter, which they ground and polished, they classified 
 the ants they had collected. This and other similar occu- 
 pations helped to keep up their courage in the midst of 
 the nameless misery of their march, and both of them 
 reached Tobolsk safely. On the way between Tobolsk 
 and Tomsk, however, where they arrived at the beginning 
 of the winter of 1864, Tschekanovsky was attacked with 
 typhus fever, and his state was considered to be hopeless. 
 He recovered, but the disease left its traces, which lasted 
 for life, and doubtless in the end contributed to his prema- 
 ture death. 
 
 He had not even fully recovered, when he was sent on 
 to Irkutsk, and in May 1865 he arrived at his place of 
 exile in Transbaikalia. In that region, which offered so 
 much of the greatest interest to the naturalist, he had to 
 spend a year under circumstances which made it impossible 
 for him to devote himself to any scientific researches what- 
 ever. In 1866 he was transported to a distant village on 
 the river Angara, east of Irkutsk, where he suffered from 
 the direst want, having to work as a common day-labourer 
 for the poor peasants. Yet, even under such circumstances 
 he did some very valuable geological work, contrived 
 to make various scientific collections, and, in addition, occu- 
 
126 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 pied himself with meteorological observations, for which he 
 himself constructed all the instruments. 
 
 In this forlorn corner of the world he was visited by 
 the well-known academician, Fr. Schmidt of St. Petersburg, 
 who, after energetic endeavours, finally succeeded in obtain- 
 ing permission for him to devote himself exclusively to 
 scientific work. Commissioned by the East Siberian branch 
 of the Imperial Geographical Society, he now made very 
 important geological explorations in the province of Yakutsk 
 during the years 1870 — 71. In 1872 he worked out his 
 great plan of investigating the unknown river-systems be- 
 tween the Yenisei and the Lena, and in the same year he 
 was commissioned by the above-mentioned society to 
 undertake an expedition which was to last for two years. 
 During the first year he was to explore the valley of the 
 Lower Tunguskaya, and in the second the river Olenek. 
 For this work he was granted the inadequate sum of 3000 
 roubles. To this expedition was joined the astronomer, 
 T. F. Miiller, and 700 roubles were added for him, besides 
 which he received 900 roubles from private parties. With 
 these small means Tschekanovsky carried out his plan in 
 its entirety, and returned to Irkutsk in the beginning of 
 1876 with valuable results from his expedition. 
 
 Through energetic and persistent petitioning on the part 
 of various scientific societies, Tschekanovsky was finally 
 pardoned, and returned to St. Petersburg in the spring of 
 1876 in order to arrange and classify his rich material. 
 He also visited Sweden to compare his collections 
 
THE POLITICAL EXILES. 127 
 
 with those made on Spitsbergen by the Swedish 
 expeditions. 
 
 He now conceived the plan of a new expedition for the 
 exploration of the river-systems of the Anabar, Katanga and 
 Piasina, but this was destined never to be carried out. 
 Tschekanovsky had long suffered at intervals from attacks 
 of melancholia, the result, doubtless, of his terrible ex- 
 periences in exile, and during one of these, on the 30th 
 of September, 1876, he committed suicide by^taking poison. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 
 
 The Lena and its Scenery — Osfa — The Tunguses — The Shaman Spirit- 
 World — Schigansk — Bulun — The "King" of Bulun — Slavery and 
 Famine — Fish and Fisheries of the Lower Lena. 
 
 On the 1 7th of June we left Yakutsk for the Lena delta 
 in the steamer Lena, accompanied by Mr. Gromoff, junior, 
 the representative of the firm of Gromoff of Yakutsk, owners 
 of the vessel, Mr. Pichtin, and a Kossack officer, Mr. Konda- 
 koff, whom the governor sent with us as interpreter and 
 guide. The little steamer Lena, which has had several 
 different owners since, 22 years ago, it made its memor- 
 able voyage in company with the Vega around northern 
 Asia, has been very badly used. Still it is even now the 
 only steamer which is able to stand the storms on the 
 Lena between Yakutsk and the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 Having received its great tributaries, the Aldan and the 
 Vilui, the Lena gives the impression of an interminable 
 broad inland lake with many islands rather than a river. 
 Often the surface of its waters fades into the horizon, and 
 the distance between its shores widens to as much as 
 fifteen miles or more. In stormy weather, the motion of 
 
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FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 131 
 
 the vessel and, maybe, the sea-sickness which accompanies 
 it, contribute to create the illusion that you are on the 
 open sea rather than on fresh water. 
 
 Having passed the mouth of the Vilui, one gets the first 
 sight of the snow-clad Verkhoyansk mountains far away 
 to the east, the outskirts of which, cut through by the 
 Lena, form the Utesi or "strand mountains." The country 
 is utterly wild and desolate. The trees become smaller, 
 the woods thinner. North of the Vilui the pine is no more 
 seen. Near the polar-circle the spruce ceases, and yet a 
 little farther north the beech, until finally only the hardy 
 Siberian larch remains and continues all the way to within 
 a few miles of the Lena delta. 
 
 On the shores of the river were heaped masses of drift- 
 wood, and here and there, even though we were at the 
 end of June, lay colossal blocks of ice. In the steep cliffs 
 rising from the shore and composed of yellow and whitish 
 sandstone, are seen layers of coal of varying thickness. 
 Immediately north of Schigansk they have a thickness of 
 as much as eight or nine feet. 
 
 Day after day we went down the gigantic river without 
 seeing any other signs of man than fox-traps, a lonely 
 cross over some grave on the top of a conspicuous rock 
 or promontory, or a little group of tents and yurtas at 
 the mouth of some tributary stream where fish were in 
 especial plenty. 
 
 Some 500 miles north of the city of Yakutsk we met 
 with the first Tunguses. They were "fishing Tunguses," 
 
133 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 living in primitive tents on the shore, below a group of 
 yurtas which have not been inhabited since — some ten 
 years ago — the fearful Ospa, as small-pox is called, raged in 
 that region, exterminating the majority of the inhabitants. 
 Ospa, according to the opinion of the natives, is an evil 
 spirit, which has entered the country with the Russians, 
 and in the shape of an old Russian woman lurks in the 
 forests in order to steal into the yurtas of the natives. 
 Woe to the families living in the regions where the Ospa 
 makes her appearance 1 Like wildfire she flashes from 
 one yurta to another, from one camp to another, scourging 
 the people, until their bodies are covered all over with 
 red and black spots, and they finally die 1 And there is 
 no help against her devastation. The Shaman is able to 
 exorcise the native evil spirits, but against the fiends 
 brought into the country by the Russians — Ospa, syphilis, 
 and others — he is powerless. In this place, for example, 
 a Shaman had tried to drive away the Ospa, but without 
 success. Then there came another Shaman, one of "the 
 strong ones," and he shamanised night and day for three 
 days, several times attaining the ecstatic state, until he 
 at length fell into a stupor from which he never awoke. 
 Shortly after his death Ospa disappeared. Thus the Shaman 
 — so the natives believed— saved them from the fearful 
 Ospa by the sacrifice of his own life. ^ 
 
 ' The Tunguses, who had moved there afterwards, dared not live in the 
 huts where the terrible disease had made such havoc, but pitched their tents 
 on the shore of the river below them. 
 
FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 133 
 
 It may be said with truth that it still remains for 
 scientists to determine the anthropological and ethno- 
 graphical relations of the several native races and tribes 
 in Siberia. Without entering into the different theories with 
 regard to the ethnological position of the Tunguses, it may 
 
 TUNGUS YURTA ON THE LENA. 
 
 be as well to state here that the latest investigations made 
 by savants — for the most part political exiles — who have for 
 many years studied this interesting people, do not con- 
 firm the theory that the Tunguses are "essentially a 
 Mongolic people." There is a wide gulf, not only between 
 the language of the Tunguses and that of the Mongols, 
 
134 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 but also between their physical characteristics. The well- 
 built symmetrical figures of the Tunguses, with admirably 
 proportioned arms and legs, are in sharp contrast with 
 the somewhat clumsy forms of the Mongols, who have 
 disproportionately short legs and arms. The former people, 
 too, have thin lips, while those of most Mongols are thick 
 and everted. 
 
 Nor do the moral characteristics of the Tunguses show 
 much approximation to their Turki neighbours, such as the 
 Yakuts. Thus the unimpeachable honesty and straight- 
 forwardness of the former, who will take care to pay, not 
 only their own debts, but also those of their dead forefathers, 
 make them an easy prey to the less scrupulous Yakuts, not 
 to speak of the rapacious merchants and dealers in strong 
 liquors, who swindle them at every term. Their contact 
 with so-called "civilisation" has, of course, made sad havoc 
 among them, having reduced many to the most abject 
 poverty with all its accompanying misery. But among 
 the really nomadic Tunguses, who have not degraded 
 into pure ichthyophagy, ' but live as all of them did in 
 former times, on the meat and the milk of the reindeer, 
 you will always meet with a natural honesty and pride 
 which forms a very pleasant contrast to the deceitfulness 
 and mendacity of most of the other natives. If you give 
 
 ' When the Tunguses lose their herds of reindeer they sink into the most 
 abject poverty, and are thus obliged to live almost exclusively on fish. The 
 term fish-eaters, therefore, has become among them synonymous with 
 pauperism. 
 
FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 135 
 
 a present to a Tungus of this type, he will not receive 
 
 it unless he can give you a present in return, often of 
 
 much greater value. This, at least, is my experience of 
 this people. 
 
 TUNGUS WOMAN. 
 
 I had occasion to meet with some Tunguses of the last- 
 named type, who in summer-time come down with their 
 reindeer-herds a thousand miles and more from the forest- 
 regions near the Vilui to the shores and islands of the 
 
136 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Arctic Ocean, and I found them to be a highly interesting 
 people. Their wiry and well-knit figures contrasted sharply 
 with the short-legged clumsy Yakuts. Their gait was elegant, 
 and at the same time showed an alertness and agility as 
 quick and charming as the motions of their reindeer. They 
 also dressed tastefully, and some of their women carried 
 themselves like queens. Their manner and address, too, 
 seemed to me to breathe something of the serenity and 
 quiet of the endless forest. 
 
 But, unhappily, the number of these people is diminish- 
 ing very fast, and if some radical change for the better 
 does not take place in the administration of the natives, 
 their end will be only a question of time, and the Tunguses, 
 hke so many other native tribes of Siberia, will be counted 
 among the extinct races of mankind. 
 
 The religion of the Tunguses is a mixture of Shamanism 
 and nature-worship. All the peoples of northern Asia 
 belonging to the eastern branch of the Ural-Altaic family 
 were formerly Shamanists. At present Shamanism is gener- 
 ally practised only among the Tunguses. The Mongols, 
 through Tibetan influence, are almost without exception 
 strong adherents to Buddhism, only the Buriats living 
 west of the lake of Baikal having become Shamanists 
 
 To give an exact description of Shamanism is very diffi- 
 cult, because it has no written records ' and the oral tra- 
 ditions are very varying and contradictory. It must be 
 
 ' There is, however, a manuscript in Chinese describing some of the Sha- 
 manistic ceremonies. 
 
FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 137 
 
 added, moreover, that the adherents of Shamanism themselves 
 have very foggy ideas about their rehgion, and their priests, 
 the Shamans, from fear of the Russian authorities or for 
 other reasons, refuse to betray their secrets. 
 
 During my travels in northern Siberia I gathered some 
 most interesting information from educated persons who had 
 spent several years among Shamanists, studying their mode 
 of life and religious ideas, and later I came in contact with 
 Shamans. My observations in this direction I will describe 
 later. Here I will only give a general description of the 
 principal tenets of Shamanists, as far as they are at present 
 known. 
 
 The universe, according to their opinion, consists of a 
 number of layers or strata, which are separated from each 
 other by some kind of intermediate space or matter. Seven 
 upper layers constitute the kingdom of light, and seven 
 (or more) lower layers the kingdom of darkness. Between 
 these upper and lower layers the surface of the earth, the 
 habitation of mankind, is situated; whence mankind is ex- 
 posed to the influence both of the upper and the lower 
 world, i.e. the powers of light and of darkness. 
 
 All the good divinities, spirits, and genii, which create, 
 preserve, and support the weak children of men, have their 
 abode in the upper layers, in the world of light. In the 
 layers of the lower world the evil divinities and spirits 
 lurk, always seeking to harm and destroy mankind. 
 
 In the highest layer, "the seventh heaven", the great 
 Tangara, or Ai-Toion, as he is called in northern Siberia, 
 
138 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 is enthroned in eternal light. He is perfect and good, or 
 rather is exalted above both good and evil, and seems to 
 meddle very little with the affairs of the universe, caring 
 therefore neither for sacrifices nor for prayers. In the fifth 
 (or ninth) layer of the lower world the fearful Erlik Khan, 
 the Prince of Darkness, sits on a black throne, surrounded 
 by a court of evil spirits and genii. The intermediate layers 
 are the abode of divinities and spirits of different degrees 
 of light and darkness. Most of these are the spirits of 
 deceased men. All spirits exert influence on the destiny 
 of man either for good or for evil. The children of men 
 are unable to soften or to subdue these spiritual beings, 
 whence the necessity of Shamans, who alone possess power 
 over the spiritual world. 
 
 The first real settlement we came to was Schigansk, 
 situated about 700 miles north of Yakutsk, on the left 
 bank of the Lena, at the mouth of its tributary the Streka- 
 lovka. This place, now only consisting of a church served 
 by a "pope" and his lay helper, and four yurtas with a 
 couple of native families, was once the centre of adminis- 
 tration and trade in the immense district of Schigansk 
 ("Schigansky Ulus"), comprising the area between Lat. 65° 
 and 73° N. and Long. 127° and 148° E. According to 
 tradition, a band of robbers attacked the place some 80 years 
 ago and slaughtered nearly all its inhabitants. Those who 
 escaped fled down the river and founded the new settle- 
 ment of Bulun, 500 miles to the north, and this latter 
 
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FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 141 
 
 place has now become the administrative and commercial 
 centre of the district. 
 
 The climate of the district of Schigansk is, of course, 
 very severe, the thermometer not seldom registering 70° 
 below zero, or even lower, in winter-time. In the summer, 
 however, the temperature, at least in the southern parts of 
 the district, may reach 68° Fahr. or more. This was the 
 case when we stopped at Schigansk. I took a bath in 
 the river, which showed a surface temperature of 53° 
 Fahr., while on the shore were still lying immense blocks 
 of ice. Before we took our departure the priest kindly 
 held a short service in the quaint little church to pray for 
 the prosperity of our voyage. 
 
 Our next stopping-place was the above-mentioned Bulun 
 — the "capital of the king". For although nominally 
 under the sway of the Tsar, yet in reality this vast district, 
 like all these distant regions of northern Siberia, has up to 
 the present time been governed by a merchant. In some 
 places, however, the rule is shared between two or, maybe, 
 three "kings". "God in heaven, the Tsar in St. Petersburg, 
 and Ivan the merchant in Bulun." This saying among the 
 people on the lower Lena no doubt contains a great deal 
 of truth. In the "capital" of Bulun there is the church 
 with its priest, there is a civil officer and the "uprava" 
 or police-court, there are about 40 yurtas with some 200 
 natives, and in the midst of these towers the palace 
 of the king, in the shape of a large Russian izba. The 
 stranger is courteously invited into the palace, and is 
 
142 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 shown much hospitality in the shape of vodka and dried 
 reindeer-meat, vodka and jukkala (dried fish), vodka 
 and boiled fish, vodka and stroganina (ft-ozen fish), and 
 vodka and ikra (caviar). The walls of the reception- 
 hall in the palace are covered with costly and shining 
 ikons, and in the peredny ugol (the right corner) a lamp is 
 constantly burning in front of the image of St. Nicolas. 
 The king now and then reverently bows and crosses him- 
 self before one or the other of these many saints. He 
 evidently stands on good terms with all of them and with 
 niebesni Tsar, the Heavenly Tsar, who, he himself humbly 
 and gratefully acknowledges, has bestowed great blessings 
 upon him. "I have not even learnt how to sign my own 
 name," the king proudly remarks, taking me to his store- 
 house to show me his treasures, "but look here, and see 
 if the good God has not blessed my undertakings!" and 
 he points with pride to an immense heap of mammoth- 
 tusks, worth many thousand roubles, and a large pile of 
 skins of white foxes, blue foxes, and even black foxes, 
 worth goodness knows how much more. Yes, the " Heavenly 
 Tsar" has indeed blessed his favorite, so that he is said to 
 be worth some ^£"50,000 or so. But judging from all 
 appearances and from the testimony of those who ought 
 to know, the king is also on the best of terms both with 
 the representative of the earthly Tsar in St. Petersburg — 
 the local civil oflficer, and the representative of the Heavenly 
 Tsar — the priest, who do not hinder him from adding to 
 his treasures, even if the ways and means of doing so 
 
FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 143 
 
 should happen to clash with the laws of heaven and the 
 ukases from St. Petersburg. Friction and collision can 
 easily be avoided by sharing the blessings. 
 
 But in these blessings— the mammoth-tusks, the fox-skins, 
 and the sables, etc. — the unfortunate natives have -no share, 
 albeit they have been the means whereby their white rulers 
 have acquired them. Quite the contrary ; the very process 
 of acquiring them, if it be not stopped or changed, will 
 sooner or later exterminate the greater part of these people. 
 To describe this process fully would fill a whole volume. 
 I must therefore limit myself to some of its principal 
 features. The natives are kept perpetually deep in debt 
 to the merchant king, who treats them as his own pro- 
 perty. They are to all intents and purposes his slaves. In 
 order to pay their debts for strong spirits of the worst 
 possible quality, for tobacco, tea, cloth, or whatever it may 
 be, the natives are often obliged to neglect to provide 
 for their own necessities by tending their reindeer herds, 
 collecting stores of dried fish etc., and have to devote 
 nearly all their time to hunting and trapping, or to making 
 dangerous excursions to the islands in search of mammoth- 
 tusks. The price of the natives' furs as well as of the 
 trader's goods are alike fixed by the latter individual, who 
 takes good care to make a double profit. 
 
 The poor natives are constantly kept on the verge of famine 
 and in nameless misery, being absolutely dependent on the 
 merchant's "clemency". This is, in short, the real cause 
 of the terrible cases of famine which so often occur among 
 
144 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the natives of northern Siberia, and which at times have 
 led to cannibalism among the Ostiaks and the Samoyedes 
 on the Taimyr and west of the lower Yenisei. 
 
 Very often not only the agents of the merchants, but 
 also the priest and his wife carry on an unhcensed sale of 
 strong liquors among the natives, and thus " the messengers 
 of salvation to the heathen" help largely in the work of 
 their systematic extermination. Thus, for example, a number 
 of barrels filled with spirits, each one marked with the mys- 
 terious name of Orlofif, were on a certain occasion unloaded 
 from the steamer at a place, which shall be nameless, on the 
 lower Lena. The barrels lay on the shore a whole day 
 without being confiscated by the local representative of the 
 law ! During the night, however, they disappeared and soon 
 reached their real destination, the house of the ^' matuschka" 
 (the priest's wife) of the place. This, of course, I did not 
 witness, but there was no doubt of the fact that she always 
 had some means of " making people happy " who visited 
 her, and brought furs with them. 
 
 On the lower Lena a large number of the natives are 
 occupied with fishing in summer-time, enormous shoals of 
 different species of the salmon family going up the river 
 from the sea during this period. Among these may be 
 mentioned the Nelma (Salmo leucichthys), the Taimen (S. 
 fluviatilis), the Muksun or Moksun (Coregonus muksun), 
 the Omul (C. autumnalis), and the Sik (C. lavaretus). 
 
 The natives generally catch the fish by means of small 
 floating nets, usually made of horse-hair. Sitting in his 
 
FROM YAKUTSK TO THE LOWER LENA. 145 
 
 vetka or dug-out canoe, the fisherman floats along with 
 his net, watching it carefully. When he observes that a 
 fish is fast in it, he quickly pulls up the net, gaffs the 
 fish with an iron gaff, kills it with a small wooden mallet, 
 throws out the net again, and floats on as before. 
 
 Of late the seine has been introduced by the merchants, 
 who carry on fishing on a large scale with native labour. 
 The catch is salted in large barrels and transported in craft 
 called "kayuks" some 1800 miles up the Lena to Olekma 
 and Vitim, and thence to the gold-fields, where it is sold 
 at prices varying between 10 — 15 roubles a pood. When 
 sailing is impossible these kayuks are towed by natives 
 up the river, the trackers hauling sometimes from the bank 
 and sometimes in the water, with the tow-ropes over their 
 shoulders. The natives as a rule obtain as pay for this 
 work the free transport of some 20 or 25 poods of fish. 
 
 Native labour here has often the character of the corvee. 
 If the native is in arrear in the payment of his taxes, 
 the authorities simply hire him out to work in the fisheries, 
 taking his earnings to pay his debt to the crown. As the 
 taxes are very high there are always a great many natives 
 in arrear, and as a consequence plenty of cheap labour. 
 As a curiosity it may be here stated that the natives have 
 to pay taxes, not only for themselves, but also for their 
 dead forefathers. This was explained to me in the follow- 
 ing way. The natives are taxed according to some old 
 census of the population, and not according to their actual 
 number at the present time. Now, more than half of 
 
146 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the population has been exterminated by smali-pox and 
 famine since this census, but each native chief is still 
 responsible for all the taxes of his district. It is certainly 
 a fact that the taxes have to be paid in very irregular 
 proportions; thus while one man had to pay lo roubles in 
 taxes, another in the same neighbourhood had to pay 
 about 20 roubles. 
 
 A wealthy Irkutsk firm, the Gromoffs, owners of the 
 steamer Lena, has for the past two or three years been 
 trying to establish fisheries on rational principles and on a 
 large scale at the Lena delta, but hitherto it has only 
 incurred losses, mainly owing to the difficulty of obtaining 
 efficient labour and reliable persons as managers of the 
 undertaking. The immense distance from the markets, and 
 the bad quality as well as the expensiveness of salt (obtained 
 from Vilui and Ust-Kutsk), add to the difficulty of profitably 
 carrying on this business. The time, however, will no doubt 
 come when fish-curing establishments will be profitably 
 worked on the lower Lena, but hardly under the present 
 regime. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AMONG THE NATIVES ON THE LOWER LENA. 
 
 Our Plans for the Arctic Journey — Lodkas and Vetkas — The "Christian" 
 Russians — Native Graves — A Tungus Dance — Story of the Jeannette — 
 Bulkur — Ancient River-terraces — " Rock -Ice." 
 
 On our arrival in Bulun, at the end of June, I obtained 
 information from natives who had returned from the New 
 Siberian Islands in April that no traces of the Andree 
 Expedition had been seen there. I also had news to the 
 same effect from reliable persons who during the winter 
 had met with nomadic natives roaming about on the coast 
 of the polar sea east of the Lena as far as the Indigirka, 
 and west of it as far as the Anabar; an immense region, 
 covering a distance of more than 2000 miles. 
 
 I accordingly resolved to proceed westward from the 
 Lena across the Olenek, Anabar, and Katanga rivers and 
 the Taimyr peninsula to the Yenisei in the hope of finding 
 some trace. I considered it important to make personal 
 enquiries of the nomad tribes of this vast extent of country 
 in order to learn where they had been during the last two 
 years ; if they had observed any traces of Andree ; and also 
 to interest them in the search by promises of reward in 
 
148 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the case of any discovery relating to the Expedition. This 
 long journey over tundras, marshes, lakes, and rivers could 
 not be commenced before the autumn, when the cold had 
 set in and made it possible to travel in sleighs. I intended 
 to start in August in a lodka, or open boat, go through the 
 Lena delta and over the sea to the mouth of the Olenek, 
 and there wait until the rivers and lakes became frozen. 
 The interval until August was to be spent on the 
 lower Lena and in the delta. This programme was 
 afterwards carried out, except that the boat-journey could 
 not be commenced before the middle of September. After 
 an adventurous and dangerous passage of 300 miles 
 through the labyrinths of the delta, we were thus^ as the 
 reader will learn, unfortunately cut off by the ice on a 
 small uninhabited island in the Arctic sea, 120 miles from 
 the mouth of the Olenek. 
 
 One great drawback in travelling on the lower Lena 
 and in the delta was the impossibility of obtaining really 
 strong and good boats. The splendid lifeboats of the 
 Lena — the first steamer that ever entered the river from 
 the sea — have all been destroyed and replaced by a couple 
 of miserable "boxes." The common lodkas on the river 
 are very clumsy boats, made from coarse planks sawn by 
 hand, and fastened together by means of wooden pegs. 
 The vetkas or dug-outs of the natives, formed of the trunk 
 of a species of alder, are very well made and are excellent 
 for their purpose, but they do not carry more than one 
 man, and are, of course, only suitable for river work. 
 
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AMONG THE NATIVES ON THE LOWER LENA. 151 
 
 On my first trip down the Lena from Bulun to the 
 neighbourhood of the delta, I and my two comrades 
 accompanied the civil officer stationed at the settlement. The 
 boat was of the usual miserable kind. Travelling in such 
 craft on this huge river is not without its dangers. Below 
 the city of Yakutsk the Lena often increases to a width 
 of twenty miles or more, and where it forms numerous 
 islands to as much as thirty. In the northern part, espe- 
 cially between Bulun and the beginning of the delta, the 
 shore is very steep, in many places indeed quite perpen- 
 dicular. In the sudden storms which so frequently arise 
 here, many a boat has been wrecked against the rocky 
 cliffs — an occurrence which actually happened with this 
 very boat on its return voyage. The occupants, among 
 whom was the civil officer, barely escaped with their lives. 
 
 When any official or priest travels in these regions, the 
 natives are in duty bound to transport them gratuitously, 
 but they are not necessarily masters of the sailor's craft. 
 The native boys who served as our rowers did not know 
 how to handle the oars. In general, though they are very 
 clever with their canoes, they do not know how to manage a 
 rowing or sailing-boat. To the great astonishment of these 
 natives, who evidently had not seen any " oloshon toion" 
 — Yakut words meaning "great lord" — handle the oars, 
 my companion set to work and showed them how to row. 
 After this they soon learned to row a little better. 
 
 On our way down the river we stopped at several fishing- 
 stations with native huts very much resembling the sum- 
 
152 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 mer huts of the Laplanders. We were invariably treated 
 by the hospitable owners to "jukkala" (sun-dried and 
 sometimes smoked fish) and other delicacies; we in our 
 turn presenting them with tea and tobacco. 
 
 At one of these stations I witnessed a touching scene. 
 It was the home of one of the boys who accompanied us as 
 rowers. His parents seemed to be above the average with 
 regard to intelligence and cleanliness. When we were about 
 to leave, I overheard the mother seriously talking to her 
 son in a half-whispering tone. Understanding very little 
 of the Yakut language, I asked our interpreter — a Kossack 
 officer, who stood by me — what she was saying. Somewhat 
 reluctantly he explained that the good mother was warning 
 her son that he " should be on his watch against the evil 
 ways of the Russians". At the very next station I had 
 an opportunity of observing that this warning of the 
 heathen mother against the evil ways of Christians was not 
 superfluous, for here we found all the natives dead drunk, 
 one of the " Christian " Russians having recently been there, 
 selling vodka to the poor people. 
 
 Besides the great harm which liquor does among the 
 natives, there is the evil influence of criminals to be reckoned 
 with, the worst class of whom are let loose among these 
 innocent people, who have to keep them in their homes. 
 These unwelcome "guests" of course invariably play the 
 part of masters, demoralising both young and old, and not 
 seldom both morally and physically ruining the girls. 
 
 On the tops of the hills near the river native graves are 
 
AMONG THE NATIVES ON THE LOWER LENA. 153 
 
 often to be seen, their "headstone" a simple wooden 
 cross. The majority of the natives are nominally Christians, 
 and pagan burials without crosses are now forbidden. 
 Besides, there is the belief spreading among the " Christian " 
 natives, that the Resurrection Angel will not recognise their 
 graves if he does not see the cross over them. But even 
 
 TUNGUS GRAVE ON THE TUNDRA. 
 
 these "Christian" burial-places show signs of heathenism 
 in the children's toys, the skulls of the reindeer, the sleighs 
 which were used in transporting the dead to their last 
 resting-place, and other belongings of the deceased with 
 which the graves are decked. 
 
 In spite of the official prohibition of pagan burials, pagan 
 graves both old and new, as well as the graves of the 
 Shamans, are still to be found in secluded places in the 
 
154 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 forest or far away on the tundras. For besides this pro- 
 hibition, there is another reason for burying the Shamans 
 in out-of-the-way places — namely, the belief that their spirits, 
 which are considered to be dangerous, are always hovering 
 about their graves, which therefore must be avoided. 
 
 At the Tungus village, Kumak-Surt, picturesquely situ- 
 ated on the western bank of the river with the Kara Ulak 
 mountains abruptly sloping down into the water on the 
 farther side, I spent some interesting days. The natives 
 were comparatively well off and showed us much kindness, 
 and I had an opportunity here of seeing the only dance 
 practised among the Tunguses in these regions. Taking 
 each other under the arm, both men and women circled 
 around with the sun, at the same time turning their bodies 
 from right to left, chanting in monotonous tones the words : 
 " Ek Kariol Ek Kario!" the meaning of which they did 
 not know. 
 
 At this place I met with the Yakut Androssoff, who in 
 1 88 1 saved the lives of Noros and Nindemann, members of 
 the Jeannette expedition. The reader will perhaps recall the 
 sad story : how the steamer Jeannette having been crushed 
 in the ice and sunk on the 12th of June, 1881, in lat. 
 ^f 14' 57" N., long. 154° 58' 45" E., north-east of the mouth 
 of the Lena, Captain De Long and his men, in three boats, 
 made their way amid a thousand dangers and great hard- 
 ships over and through the ice between the New Siberian 
 Islands towards the Lena delta ; and how, finally, the three 
 boats were separated by a storm — one of them being no 
 
o 
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 Q 
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AMONG THE NATIVES ON THE I,OWER LENA. 157 
 
 more heard of; one, under the command of the engineer 
 Melville, safely reaching the mouth of the river and finding 
 people ; while the third, under the command of De Long 
 himself, reached the delta near Saga-Styr. Not succeeding 
 in finding natives or in procuring food, De Long's party, 
 after horrible sufferings, died from exposure and famine, 
 with the exception of the above-mentioned two men, Noros 
 and Nindemann, who, being sent in advance by Capt. De 
 Long to try and reach Kumak-Surt for relief, after dreadful 
 privation, finally got to the hut of Androssoff at the small 
 river of Bulkur, where they no doubt would have perished 
 but for Androssoff. 
 
 It was on the 9th of October, 1881, that De Long ordered 
 Nindemann and Noros to start on their march, and on the 
 19th of the same month they reached the hut in a terribly 
 exhausted state, having lived mainly on pieces of skin and 
 willow-tea. Here they found some half-rotten remnants of 
 fish, which they greedily devoured. They intended to 
 proceed further, but their strength failed. At noon on the. 
 22nd of October, as they were seated by the fire, they heard 
 a noise outside like a flock of geese sweeping by. Ninde- 
 mann looked through the crack of the door and saw some- 
 thing moving, which he took to be a reindeer. He took 
 his rifle down, loaded it, and was moving forward, when 
 the door opened, and a man stood at the entrance. 
 According to the American report of the event, the native, 
 seeing Nindemann advancing towards him with his rifle, fell 
 on his knees, threw up his hands, and begged for his 
 
iS8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 life. This the native in question, Androssoff, told me he- 
 did not remember, only that "the strange men stretched 
 out their hands, which I grasped " (to use his own words). 
 Androssoff, having nothing to eat with him, hurried back 
 to the camp for food and another reindeer sledge, and 
 the starving men were thus brought to the friendly 
 Tunguses at Kumak-Surt and saved. If the natives had 
 comprehended the signs of the strangers and hurried to the 
 delta in search of De Long and his party, some of them 
 might have been saved, but they understood them to refer 
 to Melville's party, of the safety of which they had been 
 informed, and they therefore brought the half-dead men to 
 Bulun instead of going to the north. 
 
 Old Androssoff carries on his chest the medal which the 
 United States government bestowed on him, in addition to 
 other rewards, for this truly philanthropic act of his. 
 
 From Bulkur, where I stayed for some time, I made 
 several excursions in different directions, as far as it was 
 possible to do so amid the terrible storms of rain and snow 
 which rage almost all the summer in these regions. As 
 mentioned above, the Lena has here worked its way through 
 the Kara Ulak mountains. On the western side of the 
 river, where Bulkur is situated, the ancient beaches of the 
 gigantic river form terraces for a distance of about ten 
 miles or more inland, and through these old river-banks the 
 tributaries of the Lena, like the river Bulkur, have cut 
 their way. One day, following the latter river some six 
 miles to the west, I left its valley and ascended to the 
 
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AMONG THE NATIVES ON THE LOWER LENA. i6i 
 
 highest of these terraces or ancient beaches. Here, ten 
 miles from the Lena and about 600 feet above its present 
 level, in a layer of soil composed of turf and mud mixed 
 with sand, resting on a foundation of solid ice as clean and 
 blue as steel and of unknown depth, I found large quan- 
 tities of drift-wood, evidently brought down by the river 
 at the remote period when it had its course here. The 
 length of this period may be imagined from the gigantic 
 work performed by the river since that time: wearing down 
 the Kara Ulak mountains, about 1000 feet in height, little 
 by little, and thus moving its course eastward some ten 
 miles or more. 
 
 Later I found this boskaya, or "rock-ice", as the natives 
 call it, on the tundra west of Olenek, with a layer of earth 
 above, in which the natives had found both drift-wood and 
 remnants of the mammoth. This, as well as similar disco- 
 veries made on the New Siberian Islands, prove that this 
 "rock-ice," and the drift-wood in the earth resting on it, 
 belong to the period of the mammoth, or even previous 
 to it. The photograph I took on this occasion may help 
 to give an idea of this remarkable phenomenon. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 
 
 More Delays — Nilson bids us Adieu — Tit-Ary — The Stolb — Monument 
 Cape — rCross erected to De Long's Party — "Prince" Vinokuroff — 
 Migrations of Reindeer — Winter overtakes us — Storms and Gales — 
 Tora — Life with the Tunguses — A Tungus Orator — Ytang — Tungus 
 Marriage Customs — Fighting the Polar Storms — Frozen-in at last. 
 
 As I have already said, I originally intended to start for 
 the Lena delta on my way westward in August. This 
 plan, however, could not be carried out because the steamer 
 Lena, by which we were to receive mails, was belated 
 over three weeks. Finally it arrived on the 15 th of Sep- 
 tember. After some hesitation on account of the lateness 
 of the season, I ultimately resolved to try and carry out our 
 plan. On the 17th of September, our lodka having been 
 mended and strengthened as well as our resources permitted, 
 Mr. Fraenkel, the Norwegian Torgersen, and myself parted 
 with the other member of our little expedition, the botanist 
 Mr. Nilson, who was to return with the steamer Lena 
 via Yakutsk, and started with three natives on our somewhat 
 risky journey to the north. 
 
 The weather, which had been horrible all the summer, 
 was fair on the day of our start. Rowing energetically 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 163 
 
 and aided by the current, we made good progress. We 
 soon passed Tit-Ary, the island of larch-trees, situated some 
 twelve miles north of Bulkur, so named because of some 
 scattered groves of these trees upon it. I had visited this 
 island during the summer. The natives living there were 
 extremely poor and much given to drinking, vodka being 
 smuggled among them by an "agent" of their own people. 
 Thence we hugged the most northern outskirts of the Kara 
 Ulak range to their furthest point at the beginning of the 
 delta, where, at the mouth of the majestic river, the weird- 
 looking lonely "Stolb" or Pillar-mountain, the Gibraltar 
 of the Lena, towers up from the surrounding waters to the 
 height of 1000 feet. Here we camped on a sandy island 
 opposite the "Stolb," having made about 60 miles in twelve 
 hours. The still night was illuminated by the most magni- 
 ficent northern lights, against which the three Shaman graves 
 on the top of the "Stolb" showed off their dark contours. 
 The sky was clear; only to the north there loomed up 
 from the Arctic sea a dense wall of fog, above which the 
 rays of the aurora played like a flying cavalry of fire, the 
 gorgeous phenomenon with its flaming draperies and coronas 
 being mirrored in the still waters round about us. During 
 the night the temperature sank to 14° Fahr. 
 
 The following morning, while making our way north- 
 wards through a maze of channels, we were suddenly swept 
 into the midst of a dense and chilUng Arctic fog. Having 
 several times lost our way, we finally reached Monument 
 Cape in the afternoon. This hill, a remnant of the above- 
 
i64 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 mentioaed mountain-chain which has been worn away by 
 the river, has received its name from the fact that Capt. 
 De Long and his comrades were buried on its summit, 
 though their bodies were afterwards moved to America. 
 A large wooden cross marks the place where they were 
 in-terred. I went to the spot, and happily the fog dis- 
 persed a little, so that I was able to take photographs of 
 the hill with its cross, and the surrounding landscape of 
 the delta. 
 
 On the cross is the following inscription: — 
 
 In 
 
 Memory 
 
 of 
 
 12 
 
 of the 
 
 Officers and Men of the U. S. Arctic Steamer 
 
 JEANNETTE, 
 
 Who Died of Starvation in the Lena Delta, October 
 
 1881. 
 
 Lieut. G. W. De Long, 
 
 Dr. J. M. Ambler, 
 
 Mr. F. F. Collins, 
 
 H. H. Erichsen, 
 
 W. Lee, Mate, 
 
 A. GORTZ, 
 
 A. Dressler, 
 G. Boyd, 
 
 N. Iversen, 
 
 H. Kaak, 
 A. H. Sam, 
 
 Alexey. 
 
< 
 
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 in 
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 2; 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 167 
 
 Monument Cape is a barren rocky promontory, the per- 
 pendicular face of which overlooks the dreary wastes of 
 the delta towards the north-east. It was nearly dusk when 
 I reached the top, where the awful desolation and silence 
 was broken only by a howling wind, which chased the 
 cold Arctic fog over the wild-looking and dreary delta-land. 
 From the summit, the island Boren-Bjelkoi, the scene of 
 the heroic sufferings and tragic deaths of Capt. De Long 
 and his companions, is visible some twelve miles away. 
 
 With a mingled feeling of sadness and admiration I 
 looked at this rough monument of one of the most pathetic 
 of all the tragedies in the history of Arctic exploration, so 
 rich in traits of true heroism and devoted courage. 
 
 About a mile south of Monument Cape there are a few 
 yurtas with a couple of Tungus families, amiable and nice 
 people with whom we exchanged gifts. We photographed 
 them before we parted, and their cheers reached us far 
 across the water as we started on our way in the midst 
 of a blinding snowstorm. After hard rowing for some 
 three hours we finally reached Orto Stan, the occasional 
 home of the chief of the western district of the delta. 
 It was dark when we arrived, but Vinokuroff, the chief, 
 came down to the shore to meet us. He was dressed in 
 full uniform, a kind of brown jacket reaching to the knees, 
 and round his waist a gold-embroidered belt to which was 
 attached a short sword, the sign of the dignity of "kujas" 
 or "Prince", conferred by Catherine II. on the native chiefs 
 of northern Siberia. 
 
1 68 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Vinokuroff received us kindly. He had heard of our 
 expedition, and had expected us in August. We had come, 
 he said, too late in the season. Travel in the delta was 
 too risky now, and it would be very dangerous to try and 
 
 MONUMENT TO DE LONG AND HIS COMRADES OF THE "jEANNETTE."' 
 
 cross the sea at this time of the year in an open boat to 
 the mouth of the Olenek. The channels and the sea might 
 freeze any day. He had only women at home; all the 
 men being away hunting the wild reindeer. On account 
 of the bad weather they had not been able to kill any at 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 169 
 
 his place, and they were therefore short of food. We were, 
 however, invited to his hut, where all the women and 
 children of the place assembled, whom we treated to tea, 
 dried black bread, and tobacco. 
 
 During the night we had a long talk with the chief about 
 his people and their manner of life. Formerly the inhabitants 
 of the delta had numbered about 1000 souls, but about 
 ten years ago nearly half that number had perished from 
 the terrible small-pox, so that the whole population at pre- 
 sent is not much more than 500. These are divided into 
 groups, each under an "elder," somewhat after the fashion 
 of the Russian peasant communities. They lead a nomadic 
 life, moving from place to place according to the conditions 
 of fishing, hunting, and trapping. In the spring, that is 
 to say in the latter part of June, with the arrival of the 
 geese and other sea-birds, the natives go out to the islands 
 of the delta in their small canoes to gather eggs, and later 
 on in the spring to catch the wild-geese by means of nets, 
 enormous quantities being thus taken. 
 
 The greater part of the eggs and flesh of the geese 
 are spoilt, but the down is always carefully kept to be 
 sold to the merchants. During the whole summer they 
 catch fish in the channels and in the lakes on the islands. 
 The summer heat and the mosquitoes in the taiga of the 
 south drive thousands upon thousands of wild reindeer to 
 the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and especially to the delta 
 with its innumerable islands. In the fall these beautiful 
 animals, now fattened, return southwards, swimming in 
 
I70 THROUGH oicjij^in. 
 
 large herds over the channels at certain fixed places, known 
 to the natives from time immemorial. 
 
 At these places the natives lie in wait for the animals, 
 and when the herd is swimming over, the hunters in their 
 vetkas make a sudden attack upon them, killing the deer 
 sometimes by scores at a time with their iron-pointed wooden 
 spea:rs. Every year at least looo reindeer are thus killed 
 in the Lena delta. Then there is the white polar fox, 
 which the natives catch in traps. Late in the fall, i.e. in 
 Septembfer, when the reindeer-hunts are ended, the Tunguses 
 go in their vetkas to the islands and the shores of the 
 Arctic Ocean, putting up their fox-traps for the winter. 
 Later still, when the channels and the sea have frozen, 
 they move to their large winter-villages, such as Bykoff- 
 Myss, in the eastern part of the delta, Turak at its western 
 border, and Balkalak near the mouth of the Olenek. All 
 these villages are situated at places where there is winter 
 fishing, with which the natives occupy themselves during 
 this season, using ice-nets. As means of transport the 
 people of this region use dogs instead of reindeer. Some- 
 times the winter fishing fails, and then their dogs are deci- 
 mated by famine, which means great losses, and the natives 
 themselves also suffer famine from the same cause. This 
 year there was a famine of this nature in the Lena delta 
 caused, it was said, by the absence of strong northerly 
 winds, which seem to drive the fish up to the mouths of 
 the large rivers. 
 
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 the temperature of the water, only three degrees above 
 freezing-point, showed that its surface might become ice- 
 bound at any moment. The chief, having listened to my 
 recommendations from the Russian government, promised 
 to accompany us on our way until we should meet some 
 of his people. 
 
 PuUing away energetically down a winding channel in 
 a north-westerly direction, we made about 50 miles next 
 day, and camped for the night in company with two young 
 trappers, whom we met while engaged in getting our boat 
 afloat from one of the shallows, in which it had run 
 aground. The next morning was clear and calm, and I 
 took a picture of the party and of our boat at the 
 starting-place. Soon, however, the wind got up and within 
 two hours it was blowing a gale. We had a hard and 
 unpleasant struggle to save ourselves from a catastrophe. 
 The water of the channel, here about seven miles broad, 
 was lashed to foam by the fierce wind, which threatened 
 every moment to smash our miserable box of a boat 
 against the steep frozen shore. The natives were frightened, 
 and I had to use both kind and strong language to get 
 them to work with us at the oars at the most critical 
 moments. Finally, however, we reached the station of 
 Tora in safety. 
 
 To our great disappointment we did not even here find 
 the men at home. We had now some 90 miles to the 
 next "station" where there were people, and we were in 
 sore need of men to help us to row our heavy boat. 
 
174 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The distances proved to be much greater than we had 
 expected, owing to the fact that at this late season of the 
 year we were obliged to follow very crooked channels 
 through the delta, whereas, had we started earlier when the 
 water was higher, we might have taken a much lesg 
 tortuous route. 
 
 Again we had a very cold night. All the lakes and 
 marshes on the islands had already frozen, arid ice began 
 to appear in the large channel we were to follow. 
 
 At Tora there was plenty of provision, at all events of 
 reindeer-meat, and the hostess of the hut where we lodged 
 showed us great hospitality. As usual, I was invited to 
 the place of honour in the right-hand corner of the yurta; 
 In the meantime the hostess and her daughter were busy 
 sweeping out the place and preparing food for us. She 
 then took a low table, brought a kind of plane, and 
 planed it in lieu of scrubbing it, making it look quite new, 
 while the daughter cut shavings from a piece of willow- 
 bark, which were used as napkins 1 Finally,' the table was 
 placed before us, and dried reindeer-meat and frozen 
 reindeer-marrow were served in a large wooden bowl, and 
 frozen fish in another. I, in my turn, treated our hostess 
 and the other natives to tea, dried bread (the only vegetable 
 food in our possession besides some cocoa and oatmeal) 
 and tobacco. 
 
 During the night a fierce storm raged, which, however, 
 quieted down a little in the morning. The chief now said 
 he could not go with us further, having no winter clothes 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 175 
 
 with him, and fearing lest his wife should suffer for want 
 of food during his absence. Finally, however, he consented 
 to accompany us at least part of the way to the next 
 station. At our start the wind was favorable, and we were 
 able to make good progress for a few miles, until we came 
 to a turn of the channel, when we got an unfavorable wind 
 and had once more a very hard struggle to save the boat 
 from being swamped. A new reach of the stream happily 
 made our task easier, and a few hours later we met five of 
 the chief's men paddling along in their picturesque vetkas, 
 which were loaded with fresh reindeer-meat, the men having 
 had the good luck to kill about 30 reindeer on the previous 
 day. At the chief's order they all returned and accompanied 
 us to a sheltered place, where we landed in order to hold 
 a "palaver." 
 
 Before many minutes the natives had a fire going, and 
 had put on the kettles for boiling tea and meat. In the 
 meantime the chief held council with them. He told them 
 the story of our expedition and expressed great fears as to 
 the results of it, pointing out its dangers so late in the 
 year. I began to fear that we should get none of the men 
 to accompany us, when, lo 1 a man by the name of Kusma, 
 occupying some subordinate office under the chief, unexpect- 
 edly came to my rescue. Kusma had travelled far and 
 wide, had seen and experienced much. He had been as 
 far east as to the Indigirka, where he had met with 
 Tschuktchis; he had been in company with the Norwegian 
 Mr. Torgersen, our interpreter and pilot, on an island off 
 
176 
 
 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the mouth of the Olenek in the summer of 1893, watching 
 the dogs bought for Nansen, while waiting for the Fram, 
 
 KUSMA. 
 
 which, however, did not come that way ; and he had been 
 in Bulun and seen different " tchinovniki " (civil officers) 
 etc. Like other Yakuts, he was gifted with eloquence and 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 177 
 
 liked to talk. Now Kusraa rose and made the following 
 strong speech, addressing himself to the chief :^ 
 
 "Thou art a coward," he said, "and like a coward thou 
 talkestl Dost thou believe that the great Tangara (god) 
 has sent these ' oloshon jurokdakjon' (Yakut: meaning 
 'great and learned men') and ^ surdakjon' ('marvellously 
 powerful men') to this land to seek their lost brothers 
 and will let them perish from storm and cold? Twee! 
 (and he spat scornfully on the fire). No I" he continued, 
 "I for one will go with these remarkable and great men, 
 be it life or death." 
 
 This speech had a powerful effect on its hearers and result- 
 ed in two more of the men offering to go with us. Then 
 the chief himself resolved to go some way further also, 
 sending back a man with reindeer-meat for his wife. Our 
 talk over, we bade adieu to the others and continued on 
 our way, the picturesque flotilla of the native vetkas 
 disappearing in the cold fog which came sweeping up 
 from the north. 
 
 About 8 o'clock in the evening of the following day 
 we arrived at a place called Balagan Syr, where we put 
 up at the yurta of a widow, who hospitably invited us to 
 reindeer-marrow and frozen fish. The poor woman com- 
 menced telling us about her great loss in the death of her 
 husband, but soon her voice was choked with sobs, and 
 she cried bitterly like any other good widow in civilised 
 Europe. Her youngest son had now taken charge of the 
 home. According to the curious custom among these 
 
178 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 natives the youngest son alone succeeds his father, inheriting 
 not only his belongings, but also his debts ! The other sons, 
 and perhaps the daughters too, may receive some gift, or 
 else nothing. If there be only daughters, then the inheri- 
 tance goes to the youngest living brother, or the nearest 
 male relative of the deceased. 
 
 On the following day we worked hard, rowing against 
 strong winds. We ran aground several times on sandbanks 
 and had to wade in the ice-cold water to get the boat 
 afloat again, and on one occasion were within an ace of 
 getting swamped. Finally, a blinding snowstorm compelled 
 us to seek shelter and protect ourselves as best we could 
 during the bitterly cold evening and night. We were 
 unfortunately without proper winter clothes, the native who 
 had promised to make them for us having disappeared, 
 and consequently we suffered severely. During this day 
 we passed the island of Boskaya, consisting of pure ice, 
 with a stratum of earth and driftwood resting on it. 
 
 In the morning the storm had quieted down, and we 
 started early. When we were under way, the wind got 
 up again, but happily from the right quarter, so that with 
 occasional hard rowing and the aid of the wind and the 
 current we went along at a great pace and made about 
 50 miles in 7 hours, reaching a place called Ytang in the 
 afternoon without any more serious adventure than getting 
 the boat half filled with water in spite of constant baling. 
 At Ytang we found very good yurtas and nice hospitable 
 people. In the family with whom we put up there were 
 
TUNGUSES OF THE LENA DELTA. 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. i8i 
 
 two good-looking young daughters, who had recently been 
 wedded, but they would have to remain another two months 
 before their bridegrooms could take possession of them. 
 According to the curious custom among this people, it 
 would be in the highest degree improper for a young 
 couple to live together before three months had elapsed 
 from the time of the marriage ceremony. 
 
 The process of marriage here is usually the following. 
 When the father wants a wife for his son, he either goes 
 himself or sends some one of his trusted friends to find a 
 suitable girl. When one is found, the price to be paid 
 for her must be settled with her father. When the parties 
 have agreed as to the price, the first instalment is paid. 
 The second instalment is paid at the wedding, and the full 
 payment is concluded when the married couple live together. 
 In spite of the mercantile character of marriage here, I have 
 often observed evidences of real and warm affection between 
 man and wife among these natives, and still more so between 
 parents and children. 
 
 The lot of the married woman, however, is undoubtedly 
 a hard one among these people. Her duty it is, not only 
 to bear and bring up children, but to make and mend 
 the clothes for the whole family, make tents and pitch 
 them, gather and chop wood, take up ice and melt it into 
 water for family use, prepare food, etc., and help the men 
 in their hunting, fishing, and trapping occupations. 
 
 During the night a fearful storm once more raged, but 
 it abated a little in the morning. The chief now told us 
 
i82 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 that he had reached the border of his district and must 
 return home. Having ordered his men to faithfully accom- 
 pany us " in hfe and death," he received payment for his 
 services and presents. 
 
 This was the last inhabited place in the delta we should 
 meet with. There remained some i6o miles to the mouth of 
 the Olenek, and of this distance about lOO miles were over 
 the open sea. It was therefore with some hesitation that 
 we contemplated committing ourselves in our "box" on 
 so hazardous a voyage, but there was no time to lose, 
 and we had to make our decision quickly. The strong 
 wind being favorable we fesolved to run the risk, and ac- 
 cordingly started as quickly as we could, followed by the 
 cheers and good wishes of the natives. With the aid of our 
 primitive sail we made very fair speed in the strong wind. 
 We were most anxious to reach the last island in the delta 
 on that day, so as to be ready at the first favorable oppor- 
 tunity for the attempt to cross the sea to the mouth of the 
 Olenek. We never stopped for rest or food, but worked 
 away all the time, eating some frozen fish while at the 
 oars. In the evening after having made some 56 miles, 
 we reached the small uninhabited island of Kangelak, 
 the furthest western island in the Lena delta. Here we 
 found a number of yurtas, of which we selected the largest 
 and best. In Yakut fashion we put ice instead of glass 
 in the window-openings, mended the fire-place and the 
 chimney, and soon had a splendid fire with the tea-kettle 
 and meat-pot boiling over it. Only Arctic travellers will 
 
THROUGH THE LENA DELTA. 183 
 
 understand what a luxury this means after a whole day's 
 uninterrupted and arduous fight with the grim polar storms. 
 Our hope of being able to reach Olenek before the sea 
 froze was, however, not to be realised. Within two days 
 we had full winter with a temperature of 15° Fahr. below 
 zerol 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 
 
 Frozen-in on Kangelak — Native Habits — We send for Relief — The Dolgan 
 Naltlianoff — Arrival of the Relief Party — Sledge Dogs — ^We start for 
 the Olenek — Sledging Mishaps — An Arctic Post-Office — ^We reach 
 the Olenek. 
 
 Our party thus entrapped on the island of Kangelak 
 consisted of eight persons — namely, Mr. Fraenkel, Mr. Tor- 
 gersen, five natives and myself. There was nothing to do 
 but to try and make our captivity as tolerable as possible 
 until we could take measures to obtain relief. 
 
 The yurta provided good shelter, and there was plenty 
 of fuel in the shape of driftwood. We also had some pro- 
 visions — some cocoa, tea, and coffee, as well as tobacco; 
 and as mainstay a few pounds of rye biscuits, the greater 
 part of which, however, had become mouldy during the 
 wet summer. But this was to last us all the way to the 
 mouth of the Yenisei! We had, too, some reindeer-meat, 
 but this would not last long, and there was no possibility 
 of shooting anything before the sea was sufficiently frozen 
 to make it possible for us to get to the delta in search 
 of ptarmigan and reindeer. The natives told us, it is true, 
 that some years ago the polar-bears had visited this island 
 
ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 185 
 
 occasionally, but we could not rely on their kindness to 
 appear and sacrifice themselves on our behalf. Happily 
 our men had brought two small nets with them, and soon 
 the ice between the island and the delta became sufficiently 
 strong to walk on, and permit us to set the nets beneath 
 it. Early every morning they were overhauled, and on 
 almost every occasion we had the good luck to catch three 
 or four fish, weighing from one to three pounds or more, 
 and thus we were daily provided with one form, at least, 
 of excellent diet. 
 
 Occupation was not lacking either. The Yakut who had 
 promised to make us winter clothes from reindeer-skins had 
 disappeared and thus added to the long list of tailors' sins, 
 but in the delta we had been fortunate enough to buy 
 several skins, and these were now dried, tanned as well as 
 that operation could be carried out under the circumstances, 
 and made into winter furs for us by the natives. We 
 Europeans occupied ourselves with various matters, such 
 as meteorological observations, trips in search of game, 
 — which, however, had no other result than a few ptarmigan 
 — preparations for our ensuing journey and so forth. 
 
 In the long dark evenings, while the storm was raging 
 outside, we would sit about the fireplace in the yurta and 
 listen to the Shaman legends of the natives, or to the stories 
 of their adventures. Happily, we were all in good health, 
 except for the fact that I was more or less a sufferer from 
 rheumatism. 
 
 Living together with these natives in the same yurta, we 
 
1 86 THROUGBr-sTiJKKiTt- 
 
 had plenty of opportunity of observing their manners and 
 customs, and of studying their ideas. Generally speaking, 
 they were decidedly cleanly in their habits. Every morning 
 they washed themselves regularly. Having melted the ice 
 in a tea-kettle, they filled their mouths with water, which they 
 spirted into their hands and washed themselves. Having 
 performed this operation, they placed themselves before the 
 bilerik, i.e. the left corner of the yurta, which is by custom 
 reserved for guests, and commenced bowing and crossing 
 themselves at a rapid pace. There was no saint's image, 
 but the pictures of Baron Nordenskjold and Andree, which 
 we had hung on the wall, served the same purpose. Their 
 orthodoxy, however, was evidently not very deep, for on 
 seeing that we did not cross ourselves, their zeal cooled 
 considerably. Their faith in the power of the Shamans 
 over the evil spirits was evidently stronger than their belief 
 in the efficacy of the sign of the Cross. 
 
 In their sleep these people would often sing or rather 
 howl in the same manner as they do during the "func- 
 tions" of the Shamans. I have never in my Hfe heard 
 people make so much noise in their sleep as the natives 
 of northern Siberia, for when not indulging in these extra- 
 ordinary performances they would manage to produce the 
 most remarkable of snorings and gruntings, which at times 
 culminated in a sort of general pandemonium, in which 
 we Europeans would join rotunda ore to awaken the dream- 
 ing performers, and put an end to the concert. 
 
 Having spent nearly two weeks on the island, and the 
 
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ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 189 
 
 ice having become strong enough for sledging, we sent two 
 of the natives back some 70 miles to the delta to procure 
 people and dogs for our passage across the Arctic Ocean 
 to the Olenek. Fearing, however, that through the lateness 
 of our start, added to the still further delay on the island 
 of Kangelak, we might not be able to reach the mouth 
 of the Olenek before the native nomads returned south- 
 wards to their winter haunts in the forest, I considered it 
 necessary to send if possible a message to the Olenek as 
 well, in order that we might get some of the Tunguses to 
 delay their departure, and thus obtain reindeer for our long 
 journey over the tundras of the Taimyr Peninsula. Mr. 
 Fraenkel having volunteered to accompany one of the natives 
 on this mission, it was decided that they should travel 
 along the western border of the delta in a southerly direc- 
 tion to the mainland, and then follow the coast of the 
 Arctic Ocean westward to the Olenek, taking advantage 
 of the yurtas, which are from time to time met with 
 along the sea-shore, for shelter. This plan, as the reader 
 will learn, was successfully carried out. 
 
 On the fifteenth day of our imprisonment the Dolgan 
 Nalthanoff arrived, coming from the delta with his little 
 boy of five years old in reindeer-sledges. Nalthanoff, 
 an old acquaintance of our interpreter Mr. Torgersen, 
 was a great bear-hunter, and when he was informed 
 that I had killed a number of polar-bears I rose 
 greatly in his estimation, and we interchanged pipes 
 as a sign of hunting brotherhood. Nalthanoff, like most 
 
igo THROUGH^ijDiLj^iA. 
 
 of the Tunguses, had killed his bears with an iron-pointed 
 wooden spear. 
 
 One afternoon, after seventeen days' captivity had elapsed, 
 a distant howling of dogs was heard, which struck upon 
 our ears like the music of a relieving army, and far away 
 in the dim twilight appeared an indistinct dark mass, which 
 came sweeping over the ice like a whirlwind towards the 
 island. In a few minutes we were surrounded by nine 
 natives with as many sledges and a hundred and ten howl- 
 ing, yelling dogs. Our messengers sent back to the delta 
 for relief had fulfilled their mission faithfully, and the day 
 of our deliverance had come. 
 
 At daylight the following morning, the iith of October, 
 we were ready to start upon our journey over the Arctic 
 Sea. The thermometer showed 13° below zero, and an 
 unpleasantly strong wind was blowing. Fortunately it was 
 from the east, and therefore favourable. The distance over 
 the sea to the mouth of the Olenek was about 120 miles, 
 but owing to the strong wind and the rapid falling of the 
 barometer it was decided that we should take a southerly 
 direction across the sea, which would enable us to reach 
 the mainland in one day, and then proceed over the 
 tundra to our destination. 
 
 The dogs were strong and fat, having lately had plenty 
 of food in the shape of reindeer and fish, the season of 
 the hunting of wild reindeer in the Lena delta having just 
 closed. According to my own observation and that of 
 others, the dogs of the region of the Lena and Yana 
 
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ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 193 
 
 rivers are stronger and hardier than the majority of Samo- 
 yede dogs. Their general appearance, and especially their 
 coat, resembles very much that of the wolf. The tail 
 is not curly as in the ordinary dog, but hangs down like 
 that of the wolf; they do not bark like the dog, but have 
 a distinctly wolf-like howl, and when you are awakened by 
 their regular howling at midnight every night, you can 
 hardly free yourself from the impression that you are 
 listening to a chorus of wolves. 
 
 To each sledge with its ordinary load of, say, 450 lbs. 
 twelve or thirteen dogs are as a rule attached. Unlike 
 the Samoyedes and the Greenlanders, who fasten each 
 dog to the sledge by means of a separate leather rope, 
 the natives in the region of the lower Lena use one com- 
 mon trace, made of leather, to which the dogs are 
 attached on each side by means of short thongs, while at 
 the end is harnessed the peredovoi, or leader. This plan has 
 the advantage of preventing the dogs from becoming entangled 
 in a muItipUcity of ropes, but, on the other hand, a certain 
 amount of traction-power is lost owing to the trace of each 
 dog forming an angle to the common trace. The dogs 
 are steered, not by reins, but by word of command from 
 their lord and master, which they obey very well as long 
 as they do not scent any game; but if they are hungry 
 and get the scent, for instance, of a reindeer, they will rush 
 away after it until little is left of the sledge behind them 
 but splinters. To check the pace or stop the dogs the 
 driver ordinarily uses an iron-shod pole as a brake. 
 
 13 
 
194 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 To the music of the howling dogs and the yelling natives 
 our caravan started at breakneck speed from the island. 
 Every now and then a dog Jwould slip and lose its 
 footing on the smooth ice, and sprawling over on its back 
 or side would be dragged along in this fashion for some 
 distance by the others. As we proceeded, a long range 
 of huge torosses came in sight — great masses of heaped- 
 up ice like miniature bergs — which we approached at a 
 rapid pace. "How on earth are we to get over these?" 
 I was asking myself, when, lo, we are in the midst of the 
 foot-hills, so to speak, of the icy mountain- chain in front 
 of us. The air is filled with the howling of the dogs and 
 the shouting of the drivers, who yell out their commands to 
 their teams : " To the left'. "—" To the right! "—" Straight 
 on!" — ■ while the "dog-chiefs" in front, pricking up their ears 
 to catch the commands of their masters, turn now to the 
 left, now to the right between the "torosses," the sledges 
 jumping and dancing behind them over huge blocks of ice. 
 Now we come to the first chain of ice-mountains. Wildly 
 howling and yelling, the dogs, like a forlorn hope on 
 the point of assaulting a fortress, rush up the huge 
 masses of ice and down on the other side. With my 
 heart in my mouth, and my feet drawn up to protect my 
 limbs from getting broken — for such an accident would 
 not have been too pleasant in these regions — I could 
 hardly tell how this mountain-pass was negotiated before 
 the whole caravan was safe on the smooth ice once more. 
 Then a new chain of ice-mountains rises in front of us. 
 
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ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 197 
 
 and the dogs rush onwards and upwards in the same way, 
 until a sharp voice yells out in front: "Stopl Stopl" 
 The whole caravan stops, we jump from our sledges and 
 run to the spot. Here is a business with a vengeance I 
 The sledge is all in pieces, and the things loaded on it 
 are scattered far and wide over the ice 1 I become nervous, 
 but the natives, as tranquil as if nothing had happened, 
 set to work repairing the sledge by means of a primitive 
 drill, making a hole here and another one there and 
 binding together the broken parts with leather thongs, 
 while others with axes and iron-pointed poles are cutting 
 out a way for the caravan over the torosses. In half 
 an hour the expedition is again on its way. Other chains 
 of torosses are crossed in the same manner more or 
 less successfully, and our journey over the sea on the 
 whole goes quickly and well. 
 
 Towards noon we were enveloped in a heavy snow- 
 storm, but the ice became smoother, and the dogs ran 
 onwards at great speed. Only once did we take a short 
 rest, sitting down in a circle on the ice and regaling ourselves 
 with frozen fish, while the dogs fed beside us on the same 
 delicacy. In places where the wind had swept away the 
 snow, the crystallised salt, precipitated from the ice by 
 the cold, made the driving very heavy. 
 
 Nearing the mainland in the afternoon, the snowstorm 
 ceased, leaving the view of the country clear. Towards 
 the south-east and south extended a mountain chain falling 
 abruptly into the sea, diminishing in height to the west. 
 
igS THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 These mountains form the outskirts of the Verkhoyansk 
 range, through which the Lena has cut its deep channel. The 
 range continues to the north-west, until it is abruptly cut 
 off by the sea. 
 
 We turned towards the west and followed the shore, on 
 which were heaped immense masses of driftwood. The 
 region was desolate and dreary beyond all description. 
 No traces of man were to be seen, and only here and 
 there the track of a fox or wolf. We stopped not long 
 after at a promontory, on the slope of which was a series 
 of sticks and poles, placed in groups or singly in a certain 
 order, at various distances from each other, some of the 
 poles having mysterious marks cut on them, others having 
 incisions in which splinters were stuck, pointing in different 
 directions. These sticks and poles represented, as it were, 
 the letters and newspapers of this lonely land, and our 
 drivers studied them carefully. From them they learnt 
 that this place had been visited during the summer by 
 Tunguses, hunting the wild reindeer ; that a fox-trapper from 
 Olenek had passed a few weeks before on his way west- 
 ward; and that a Dolgan, who had visited the place, had 
 seen polar-bears in the vicinity. Our drivers in their turn 
 contributed to these "open letters," putting up new sticks 
 and poles in order to inform future travellers about our 
 journey. 
 
 Having followed the shore some fifteen miles westward, 
 we left the sea and turned over the hills into the tundra, 
 across a large promontory. Here we saw a large herd of 
 
ICE-BOUND IN THE ARCTIC SEA. 199 
 
 reindeer on a ridge in front of us. Happily, however, the 
 
 wind was favorable so that the dogs did not get their 
 
 scent. The animals, of course, soon got ours, and, taking 
 
 alarm at the aspect of our caravan, they speedily disappeared. 
 
 Late in the evening we reached a primitive winter yurta 
 
 at Krestovsky Myss — the " promontory of the Cross " — where 
 
 we spent the night. At this extremely wild and desolate 
 
 spot— which may be said to form the western limit of the 
 
 Lena delta, the sandbanks formed by the westerly branch 
 
 of the river reaching as far as to this place, where the 
 
 sea suddenly becomes very deep — immense quantities of 
 
 driftwood were heaped upon the shores, and here the 
 
 natives have erected a yurta to serve as shelter on their 
 
 journeys between the Lena delta and the mouth of the 
 
 Olenek. We at once encamped, and the dogs, now very 
 
 tired, lay quietly scattered about the sledges between the 
 
 trunks of driftwood around the yurta. I got out my camera, 
 
 and managed in spite of the feeble light and cloudy 
 
 weather, to take a photograph of the dreary scene by long 
 
 exposure of the plate. A small cache or store-house, not 
 
 far from the yurta, where the natives had placed some 
 
 reindeer-meat and other things, had, we found, been torn 
 
 down by polar-bears, and the contents eaten up, leaving 
 
 some pieces of skin as the sole relic of their feast. 
 
 At five o'clock next morning we started on our way 
 over the tundra towards the Olenek. The shortest way to 
 the mouth of this river would have been in a westerly 
 direction, but the natives declaring that the northern part 
 
200 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 of the tundra was cut through by deep ravines, and other- 
 wise difficult to traverse, we took a south-westerly direction 
 over an undulating tundra with several small lakes and 
 marshes. Having reached the divide between the Arctic 
 Ocean and the basin of the Olenek, we suddenly came upon 
 a herd of reindeer, which caused us more fun than we 
 wished for. Scenting the herd, the dogs started after it 
 at tremendous speed, without paying the smallest heed to 
 the commands of their masters, the sledges jumping and 
 bounding over the ice-humps, stones, and crevasses of the 
 frozen soil. I had the greatest difficulty in balancing my 
 sledge so as not to be , thrown out and left on the tundra. 
 Happily the dogs took their way along a valley which 
 narrowed into a ravine, and here they had perforce to stop; 
 Late in the night we arrived at Volkalak, 12 miles south 
 of the mouth of the Olenek, where we found three yurtas 
 and three families of natives. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 
 
 Natives of the Olenek — Prontchischtschev's Grave — A Tungus Chief and 
 his Reindeer — The Reindeer-Nomads — Reindeer and Sledges — We 
 start for Anabar — The Routine of Tundra Sledging — "Rock-Ice" — 
 Tameness of Birds — Wild Reindeer — Poverty and Epidemics. 
 
 The sparse population on the lower Olenek have their 
 yurtas on each side of the river, and on the hills further 
 away from the shore, where they take refuge when inunda- 
 tions occur. These natives, who are most hospitable and 
 honest folk, are a mixed race of Yakuts and Tunguses, 
 and a few of them have a little Russian blood in their 
 veins from the peasants sent to these distant regions during 
 the reign of Catherine II. The region about the lower Olenek 
 is also visited by the natives of the western parts of the 
 Lena delta, who spend the winter fishing at the mouth of 
 the Olenek ; and Tunguses come here in summer-time with 
 their herds of reindeer, travelling distances of from three 
 hundred to a thousand miles from the forest-regions in 
 the south. At Olenek there are a number of ambar or 
 small store-houses erected long ago by the above-mentioned 
 Russian peasants. These people soon succumbed to the 
 hard climate, and the few survivors became assimilated with 
 
202 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the natives without leaving any other traces than a trifle 
 Hghter complexion than usual, and sometimes a little beard 
 on the faces of their male descendants. Themselves un- 
 civilised, they could not of course exert any civilising 
 influence on the natives. 
 
 From Volkalak I made a pilgrimage to the grave of 
 Lieutenant Prontchischtschev and his wife, who after an 
 heroic attempt to sail from the mouth of Lena westward 
 around Cape Tscheliuskin, were obliged to return, and died 
 from scurvy in September 1737, at the mouth of the 
 Olenek. In the vicinity of a small group of yurtas on the 
 most northern point of the neck of land east of the. river, 
 at its mouth, I found their grave, over which stood a rude 
 and dilapidated wooden cross, so rotten that the next 
 Arctic gale must have levelled it with the ground. "To 
 the sad fate of Prontchischtschev," says Baron Nordenskjold 
 in his "Voyage of the Vega," "is attached a unique interest 
 in the whole history of Arctic exploration. He had recently 
 married when he started on his expedition. His young 
 wife accompanied him, sharing his dangers and privations. 
 She survived him only two days and now slumbers by his 
 side on the desolate coast of the Arctic sea." 
 
 It was twilight when I reached the spot, and while I 
 was taking a photograph of the lonely grave, a number of 
 natives came running from their yurtas, and stopped at a 
 distance, looking on with shy astonishment at the mysterious 
 doings of the stranger. 
 
 On account of our delay on the island of Kangelak 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 203 
 
 I was much afraid that we should not reach the mouth 
 of the Olenek in time to find any of the nomadic Tunguses, 
 who come there with their herds of reindeer in the summer 
 and return to the south in the autumn. Happily one of 
 these nomads, the Tungus chief Androssoff, was still camping 
 with a herd of about 1000 reindeer some twelve miles 
 west of Volkalak. Shortly after our arrival he paid us a 
 visit, bringing with him presents of reindeer-meat and frozen 
 reindeer-milk, which were very welcome to us after our 
 long diet on mouldy rye-bread and fish. 
 
 We now had a long parley with the chief as to the 
 ways and means of carrying out our plan of crossing the 
 tundras between the Olenek and the mouth of the Anabar, a 
 distance of about 320 miles over a frozen desert with no 
 natives and no yurtas. To this he demurred considerably, 
 as neither he himself nor any other natives that he knew 
 had ever passed over this immense tundra in winter-time. 
 In the summer, too, the custom is to follow the sea-coast, 
 where there is plenty of driftwood, but the country in this 
 part being so rough and so much intersected with ravines, 
 it would be impassable in the winter with sledges. He 
 was willing to take our expedition southwards to the forest- 
 region, and then westward to the Anabar, some 350 miles 
 south of the sea ; but I wanted to go in as northerly a 
 direction as possible in order to meet the native nomads of 
 this part of coast of the Arctic Ocean, and learn whether 
 they had observed any traces of the Andree expedition, 
 hoping to induce them, by promises of reward, to be on 
 
204 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the look-out in the future for any such traces. " It will 
 be a risky undertaking," explained the chief. " The tundra 
 is enormous and full of dangers. Wolves may come and 
 scatter the reindeer during the night, when we should be 
 left to perish ; storms may arise and compel us to stop at 
 the same spot for several days, or even weeks ; the reindeer 
 may get away, and we be left for ever on the tundra." 
 Then followed a long series of stories about natives over- 
 taken by wolves and storms on the tundra, of narrow 
 escapes after terrible suffering from hunger and exposure, 
 of disasters and lost parties, etc. The worst part of the 
 stormy season, which occurs when the sun disappears, i.e. 
 in the middle of November, had not yet come, but storms 
 might overtake us for all that. 
 
 I now appealed to the magnanimity of the chief, telling 
 him that "I was seeking my lost brethren," and asking 
 him to share my dangers for such a noble purpose. This 
 had the desired effect, and he at once gave in, explaining 
 that he had already heard about our expedition, and there- 
 upon solemnly promised to do all in his power to trans- 
 port our party over the tundra to Anabar. He agreed 
 to equip a caravan of about 40 reindeer with the necessary 
 number of sledges, a tent of reindeer-skin, and two loads 
 of wood, and he also promised that he would himself go 
 with us and take two of his best men with him. Throughout 
 the interview the chiefs quiet manners and dignified speech 
 impressed us all greatly. 
 
 After a long and comical palaver with the Yakuts from 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 205 
 
 the delta, who are very fond of making long speeches, and 
 having administered medical aid to some sick persons, we 
 took a solemn farewell of our dog-drivers and of the good 
 people of Volkalak, and started for the camp of the Tungus 
 chief, where we arrived after dark, finding about 200 fine 
 reindeer collected round the tents. 
 
 The chief had pitched a special tent for us, where we 
 put up. Later in the evening he made me understand 
 that I would do him a great honour if I would come and 
 spend the night in his own tent. I at once accepted, and 
 on moving in with my things I was welcomed with that 
 genuine and cordial hospitality which characterises the real 
 Tunguses. Later on my companions were invited, and we 
 were all treated to delicious frozen fish, reindeer-marrow, 
 frozen reindeer-milk, — which with hot tea is most nutritious 
 and excellent — and boiled reindeer-meat; we in our turn 
 treating the family to tea, tobacco, and a glass of rum. 
 Both men and women wore dresses of reindeer-skin, the 
 high boots and the pelts being tastefully ornamented with 
 glass beads, etc. The chief and his wife had healthy, good- 
 looking children, for whom they evinced much affection, 
 the children in their turn showing reverential attachment 
 to their parents. The chiefs mother also lived with them. 
 She was 80 years old, and blind, but otherwise hale and 
 lively, talking and laughing with the rest. Not only in 
 this instance, but everywhere during my travels in northern 
 Siberia I have invariably found that the genuine pagan 
 reindeer-nomads stand on a much higher level physically. 
 
2o6 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 intellectually, and morally than, for instance, the "fishing- 
 nomads" and other natives who have more or less come 
 in contact with so-called civilisation, and are nominally 
 members of the orthodox Church. 
 
 It was arranged that the chief's family should move south 
 with the reindeer-herd a distance of some 400 miles, to 
 the border of the forest-region, where the chief would join 
 them after having transported our expedition to Anabar. 
 Accordingly in the forenoon of the 14th of October the 
 caravan was ready for the start. To each of the eleven sledges 
 were put two reindeer, and to my sledge and that of the 
 chief three reindeer abreast. The sledges, which were long 
 and broad, were held together by means of leather strings 
 and sinews instead of nails ; and strong traces of leather were 
 used instead of shafts. Each driver used a long wooden pole, 
 somewhat like a fishing-rod, partly to urge on the animals, 
 and also partly to steer them. Besides the 24 reindeer 
 put to our sledges, there were 15 running loose as spare 
 animals in case of accidents. All of them were fine, strong 
 animals, and we started with great speed over an uphill 
 country from the valley of the Olenek. Our caravan took 
 a south-westerly direction over an undulating tundra with 
 a great many rifts and ravines in the frozen earth, resem- 
 bling the crevasses of a glacier. Suddenly a dense fog, 
 laden with ice-particles coming with the northerly wind 
 from the Arctic sea, settled over the desolate region we 
 were crossing, making it impossible for us to see further 
 ahead than the horns of the reindeer puUing our sledges. 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 207 
 
 and rendering our journey both difficult and dangerous. 
 Now and again the caravan would suddenly come to a full 
 stop in front of a crevasse yawning before us, the bottom 
 of which was completely invisible because of the fog. Then 
 we would have to lead the animals long distances to 
 find a way out of the labyrinth of these obstacles which 
 seemed to surround us, or to discover a place where we 
 
 ON THE OLENEK TUNDRA. 
 
 could cross. Sometimes our sledges would fall through a 
 treacherous bridge of snow and ice into one of these 
 crevasses, out of which it and the animals had to be hauled 
 and lifted as best we could. It was a wonder that no more 
 serious accidents occurred than broken sledges, which were 
 soon mended by the clever Tunguses, and it was no less 
 remarkable that the natives never lost the right direction 
 
2o8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 during these circuitous journeys in the fog, having no other 
 compass than their instinct. 
 
 Every now and then, when we came to a place which 
 the natives recognised as having good and abundant moss, 
 we would stop to rest for half-an-hour or so, and while the 
 reindeer fed on the moss, we would sit down in a circle on 
 the tundra and get a hasty meal on frozen fish, which was 
 cut in slices and eaten without either bread or salt, A fat 
 species of trout was a great delicacy, and proved a very 
 nutritious and warmth-producing food. Towards evening we 
 came to a series of lakes and marshes, over which we 
 drove with great speed in spite of the dense fog. 
 
 In a place with plenty of food for the reindeer we 
 camped for the night. Some of the reindeer were tethered 
 with long leather ropes, the others were left free. A suit- 
 able spot was cleared of snow, and then the conical 
 tent was pitched after the Lapp fashion, a flat stone being 
 put in the midst to serve as fire-place. 
 
 The wood, which we were obliged to economise as much 
 as possible, was chopped into fine splinters for cooking 
 meat and tea, and after our meal we slept soundly on the 
 outspread skins of reindeer, the tent affording a good pro- 
 tection against storms and cold. The next morning we 
 found our reindeer in the neighbourhood of the camp, and 
 having breakfasted as usual upon reindeer-meat, tea and 
 reindeer-milk, we started once more on our journey. 
 
 In this manner we continued our way over the tundra 
 day after day, the regularity of our progress only varied 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 20^ 
 
 by changes of weather and other minor circumstances. We 
 were, on the whole, fortunate with regard to the former 
 during our journey from Olenek to Anabar. On one night, 
 but on one only, we were able to pitch our tent in the 
 shelter afforded by a little valley, and we were nearly 
 losing some of our reindeer, although the natives took 
 turns in watching them all night long. During two days 
 we had clear weather, which, though the temperature was 
 about 22° below zero Fahr., enabled us to make a few observa- 
 tions in this part of the tundra, a region which I believe 
 has never previously been traversed by man, at all events 
 not by civilised man. Most interesting of all our finds, 
 perhaps, was the discovery of ancient driftwood in a 
 stratum of soil from four to seven feet thick, resting on 
 pure ice of unknown thickness, here playing the part of rock, 
 and therefore by the Yakuts very fittingly called boskaya 
 or "rock-ice". The configuration of the localities where 
 we found this ancient driftwood — which is not to be con- 
 founded with the so-called " Noah's wood " in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Arctic Ocean, which has been washed up 
 by the sea when its surface was much higher than now — 
 clearly indicated that they were ancient river valleys or 
 bottoms of ancient rivers. 
 
 When we had got some 153 miles to the westward of 
 the valley of the Olenek, and thus far away from the 
 haunts of trappers and hunters, the ptarmigan became so 
 tame, that numbers of these beautiful birds would light 
 down in the midst of our caravan and sit on or among the 
 
 14 
 
210 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 sledges while we were resting the reindeer ; and owls would 
 not move, although our caravan would pass close by the 
 knolls where they were sitting blinking their eyes. Once 
 during a storm a couple of white foxes were seen running 
 between the sledges of our caravan; but of wolves we 
 happily saw nothing save an occasional track here and 
 there. 
 
 We met with plenty of wild reindeer, but these animals 
 were very shy, and we only shot one. The natives hunt 
 the wild reindeer with the aid of their tame brethren, bulls 
 being specially trained for this purpose. When a herd of 
 wild reindeer is seen, the trained bull, who has a long 
 hide rope attached to his neck, is let loose. He imme- 
 diately joins the herd and. engages in a fight with one of 
 the bulls. Before long the horns of the latter are sure 
 to become entangled in the rope, and the hunter running 
 up, is able to shoot or spear the animal. 
 
 On the divide between Olenek and Anabar were several 
 lakes and marshes, and not so many fissures and rifts in the 
 ground, which enabled our caravan to travel very fast, not 
 only during the day, but also during the greater part of 
 the night; and thus after a journey of nearly six days we 
 arrived at the Anabar river, having made a little more 
 than 56 miles a day, thanks to the admirable condition 
 and strength of our reindeer. 
 
 Some twelve miles west of Anabar we found a camp with 
 families of natives of a mixed race of Yakuts and Dolgans, 
 all speaking the Yakut language. Both the animals and 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 211 
 
 we ourselves were now pretty well tired out, but being 
 anxious to get over the tundras before the worst winter 
 storms set in, I resolved to stop only one night here and 
 start early on the following day. The chief of the place 
 said it was "eleven days' journey with reindeer " from here 
 to Katanga, i.e. about 500 miles, but it was my intention, 
 if possible, to take a north-westerly course in order to meet 
 
 MY SLEDGE ON THE ANABAR. 
 
 the natives roaming about the tundras on the coast of the 
 Arctic sea, near the mouth of Katanga Bay, and ascertain 
 whether they had observed any traces of Andree's party. 
 The people on the Anabar, I found, knew nothing 
 whatever about the Andree expedition, although all the 
 natives of northern Siberia were said to have been informed 
 of it. Nor had any other of the natives between the Anabar 
 
212 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 and Yenisei had any warning of the possible arrival of the 
 balloon or its occupants. These natives on the Anabar 
 had during the summer roamed hither and thither on the 
 coast of the Arctic Ocean seeking mammoth-tusks and 
 tending their herds of reindeer, but they had come across 
 no traces of the expedition. 
 
 In former times the Anabar people were said to have 
 been well off, having had large herds of reindeer and 
 plenty of nets for catching fish. Now they have been 
 reduced to poverty by the Yakut agents of the Russian 
 merchants, who have made them only too well acquainted 
 with vodka. They soon become indebted to these un- 
 scrupulous people, and in order to work off these debts 
 are obliged to spend almost the whole of their time in fox- 
 trapping and collecting mammoth-tusks, and are thus 
 unable to provide for their real wants. Now only a few 
 famiHes have a small herd of 200 reindeer or so, the rest 
 living on fish or the meat of wild reindeer. These poor 
 people, innocent as children, understood neither the value 
 of money nor of their skins and furs, and accepted whatever 
 the agents of the merchant were pleased to give them as 
 payment. 
 
 We found a kind of croup and various other epidemics 
 raging among them, which had carried off several individuals 
 in a neighbouring camp. These distant regions are regularly 
 visited by agents of merchants, and every other year or so 
 by a priest, who sometimes combines the sale of vodka 
 with his profession, but they never receive any medical 
 
ACROSS THE TUNDRA TO THE ANABAR. 213 
 
 aid whatever. The poor natives use the excrement 
 of geese and of men to cure wounds, and their method 
 in cases of protracted labour is for two strong men to put 
 a leather rope about the mother's waist, and pull with all 
 their might, both mother and child, of course, often perishing 
 in the process. Though some of them nominally belong 
 to the orthodox Church, they are all strong believers in 
 Shamanism. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 
 
 Day and Night behind Reindeer — Glories of the Aurora — Summer Wander- 
 ings of the Dolgans — The Wild Reindeer — Subjects of the "Great 
 White Sun " — A Wandering Polish Noble — The most Northern Forest 
 in the World — Arrival at Katangskoie. 
 
 The following morning we parted with the chief Androssoff, 
 and started with eight sledges and eighteen reindeer in a north- 
 westerly direction over an undulating tundra intersected 
 with numerous ravines. Having travelled about 44 miles, 
 we crossed the river Saloma, after which the tundras become 
 more level. In two places we passed a zimovie or 
 winter hut, erected of driftwood brought from the sea, 
 and serving as shelter for the natives travelling over the 
 tundra in winter-time. Thus we continued from camp to 
 camp, night and day, getting fresh reindeer at every camp 
 and thus keeping up a high average speed. Near Balskoie 
 Osero — "the great lake" — not very far from the mouth 
 of Katanga Bay, we came to a populous camp composed 
 of several families, mostly Dolgans — a mixed race between 
 Yakuts and Tunguses. Being extremely fatigued from the 
 journeying night and day, which exerts a constant strain 
 on eyes, nerves, and muscles to balance the sledge and 
 
FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 215 
 
 avoid the crevasses, we stopped over the night with these 
 good natives. They had never heard of Andree or seen 
 any traces of him. Our story of Andree's flight to the 
 far north was too wonderful to be true, but when Mr. Fraenkel, 
 in the clear night, sent up a toy-balloon to illustrate his 
 story, their doubts were changed into wonder and fear, 
 believing that we were some kind of great Shamans, who 
 are held by them to be capable of flying through the air. 
 The astonished natives were talking all night about that 
 wonderful "flying through the air", and in the middle of 
 the night they awoke our interpreter, Mr. Torgersen, and 
 asked him: "What did those young men do up there in 
 heaven, whither they flew with their balloon.? Did they 
 want to visit the great Tangara (the highest god)? Or 
 were they going to see the northern Hghts" (which in the 
 picturesque Yakut language are called "the sea-fishes 
 playing")? Mr. Torgersen explained to them that the three 
 young men wanted to come to a remarkable country 
 somewhere far away to the north. Many people having 
 made unsuccessful attempts to get there in ships, with 
 dog-sledges, or on foot, these young men wanted to fly 
 there, etc., etc. "Wonderful! wonderful 1" mumbled the 
 natives, as we dropped off again to sleep. 
 
 From this camp, situated about Lat. 73° SS' N., near the 
 mouth of Katanga Bay, we took a south-westerly direction 
 over a flat tundra with many lakes and marshes. The 
 reindeer which we got here were unusually fine and strong, 
 and our caravan sped along over the desert of ice hke a 
 
2i6 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 whirlwind. The temperature had fallen to about 40° below 
 zero, the sky was clear, and the flames of the magnificent 
 northern lights spread their wavering glow over the desolate 
 waste of snow. Stretching myself at full length on the sledge, 
 I watched the flaming draperies and coronas in the sky, 
 while the impressive silence was broken only by the crack- 
 ling sound from the hoofs of the reindeer on the frozen 
 snow, the light slither of the sledge-runners, and now and 
 then the boom, as of a heavy cannonade, of the rending 
 of the frozen earth under the strain of the intense cold. 
 These were solemn occasions on the tundra, during which 
 we were absorbed, — as indeed the least impressionable 
 of individuals must have been — in beholding the splendor 
 of the display, whose brilliancy was reflected in the sea of 
 glittering silver over which we sped. As we gazed we 
 hardly knew whether we were still on this earth of darkness 
 and impurity, or whether perchance we had been translated 
 to some more glorious sphere of light and purity, where 
 the great Tangara is enthroned in eternal glory. From 
 this lofty dream, however, I was suddenly aroused by an 
 only too emphatic reminder of the earthliness both of myself 
 and our journey, when my equipage— driver, sledge, reindeer 
 and all— pitched headlong into a ravine, out of which I was 
 only too happy to escape with my limbs unbroken, albeit 
 with an ample share of bruises. 
 
 Near the mouth of the river Popigai we met with the 
 Dolgan chief, Michail Antonoff, and his people, camping 
 on the eastern shore of Katanga Bay. He had never heard 
 
FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 217 
 
 of Andree, but he showed great interest in his wonderful 
 flight to the north when it was sufficiently explained to 
 him. He told us that his people and other Dolgans during 
 the past summer had, as usual, been wandering on the 
 Taimyr peninsula, having followed the western coast of 
 Katanga Bay in search of mammoth-tusks, "so far north 
 that the earth became black [i.e. void of all vegetation) and 
 the wild reindeer ceased." In some places they had seen 
 open water, but from the high mountains towards the west 
 "immense icebergs extended into the sea." The chief had 
 been told that his ancestors long ago had travelled "for 
 several days northwards from Katanga Bay, until they 
 had come to a large bay (Thaddeus Bay?) which was filled 
 with ice." His people had, during the last summer, met with 
 Samoyedes, who, with their herds of reindeer, had been 
 roaming about in the regions between the river Balakna 
 and the Taimyr Lake, but they had not heard of any of 
 these having had any knowledge of the Andree expedition, 
 or that they had observed anything unusual indicating 
 traces of it. 
 
 These Dolgans live mostly by trapping and by hunting 
 the wild reindeer, immense herds of which in autumn return 
 eastwards from the Taimyr, where they spend the summer. 
 In crossing the mountains east of the lower Katanga, these 
 are caught in traps or shot by the Dolgans. 
 
 The chief showed much interest in our expedition, and 
 in that of Andree and his companions, which was the most 
 wonderful thing he had ever heard of. 
 
2i8 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 He asked the interpreter what kind of men we were. 
 "They do not make the sign of the Cross, they do not 
 swear or beat the natives, and they pay well for all services. 
 Who are they?" 
 
 " They belong to a foreign country," said our interpreter ; 
 "they are Christians, but they do not make the sign of 
 the Cross." 
 
 " But do not all men belong to the Great White Sun far 
 away (the Tsar).?" 
 
 " No, their country belongs to another Great White Sun." 
 
 " How wonderful 1 " 
 
 We told the chief of the great interest our " Great White 
 Sun " had taken in the expedition of Andree, but this was 
 misunderstood by him to mean that our king had "sent 
 away those young men." 
 
 "What terrible crime had those young men committed, 
 that your ' Great White Sun ' should send them away on 
 such a fearful journey?" 
 
 The chief believed that our king had exiled Andree 
 and his comrades as criminals, and a long explanation was 
 necessary to make him understand that they were not 
 criminals "exiled to the far north." 
 
 As we were ready to start, the chief delivered the 
 following speech to his men: — 
 
 "You have heard what these strangers have told us, 
 who have started on such a long and dangerous journey 
 to search for their lost brethren; and now listen to what 
 I say and command you to do. If you find their brethren 
 
FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 219 
 
 alive, you shall not kill them, but help them, because they 
 are baptised Christians although they do not make the sign 
 of the Cross. ' If you find them ill, you shall give them 
 warm reindeer-milk, boiled meat, and broth, and wrap 
 them in warm fur clothes and bring them to the nearest 
 camp. If you find them dead, you shall hide their bodies 
 well from wild beasts, until they can be brought to the 
 nearest official. Have you heard?" 
 
 "We have heard," replied the men standing around him. 
 
 On the tundra between the rivers Popigai and Bludnoie, 
 near the mouth of Katanga river, we met with natives 
 who were afraid of "travelling gentlemen." They were 
 very poor and their reindeer too, and had suffered much 
 at the hands of the merchants, who pay them next to 
 nothing for their fox-skins. 
 
 In a camp on the tundra we came across a Polish 
 nobleman, J. A. Tschernjak, who had been banished to 
 Siberia during the revolt in the sixties, and had spent fifteen 
 years on the tundra 1000 miles east of the Yenisei, leading 
 the life of the natives and trading a little with them. He 
 had now, in his old age, married a young Dolgan woman 
 of 19, for whom, according to the custom of the country, 
 he had paid a certain sum of money (45 roubles, it was 
 said), and with her we found him living in a sledge, 
 covered with a kind of tarpaulin and reindeer-skin, some- 
 what resembling an omnibus on runners. 
 
 I This chief, with his people, belonged to the orthodox Church. 
 
220 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 With the exception of the occasional visits — perhaps 
 once or twice a year — of merchants and officials, Mr. 
 Tschernjak had during all these years lived entirely separ- 
 ated from all contact with civilisation, having adopted the 
 manners and language of the natives. In 1875 he had 
 met Dr. Nordenskjold on the lower Yenisei and was very 
 eager to learn the details about the voyage of the Vega 
 around Asia in 1878 — 80, of which he had received very 
 imperfect information. Talking with me, he spoke classical 
 Russian, using turns of expression and phrases current 
 only in high society, thus betraying the education and 
 refinement which lay beneath the "barbarised" surface. 
 He had become reconciled to his hard fate and wished to 
 end his days on the distant tundra, which for so many 
 years had been his home, and which at least had offered 
 him the joys of liberty. 
 
 Mr. Tschernjak gave me a great deal of information 
 about the manner of life among the natives, and the way 
 in which they are being reduced to starvation by the 
 merchants. He also told us that it would be very difificult 
 for us at this time of the year to find these nomads, who 
 were now scattered far and wide on the tundras. We soon 
 had plenty of occasion to verify his statement, finding it 
 most difficult to obtain reindeer from the poor natives on 
 the lower Katanga, in addition to which the animals were 
 very feeble from overwork. 
 
 A short distance south of Rybnoie, we came upon not 
 the least interesting feature of this part of our journey — 
 
THE MOST NORTHERN FOREST IN THE WORLD. 
 (Katanga River, Lat. 72° 4b' N.) 
 
FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 223 
 
 the most northern forest in the world. It consisted of 
 dwarf and stunted Siberian larch-trees, which here grow in 
 the valley of the Katanga as far as lat. 72° 50' N., thanks to 
 the comparatively warm summers in these regions, caused 
 by the protection of the great peninsula of Taimyr extending 
 towards the north-west, and also, perhaps, by the warm 
 waters of the Katanga flowing from the south. 
 
 We now followed the Katanga southwards for some 
 distance, but soon found that there were neither people 
 nor reindeer, so we had perforce to leave the river and make 
 for the tundra again in search of native camps. Sometimes, 
 not succeeding in our search, we were compelled to stop 
 and sleep in the open air in from 30° to 40° below zero, 
 the poor natives having no tent for us. 
 
 At one place, where we had to stop a couple of days 
 waiting for reindeer, there came a deputation, headed by 
 a native chief, in the belief that we were "ambassadors of 
 the Great White Sun," asking me to render them help and 
 protection against certain merchants who treated them 
 worse than slaves, forcing them to do transport service 
 for nothing, and compelling them to spend all their time 
 in trapping instead of tending their reindeer, though paying 
 them next to nothing for the fox-skins when they brought 
 them in. 
 
 At another miserable place, where a few poor people of 
 mixed race were living, we should have had to stop per- 
 haps for days, if a kindly Tungus had not chanced to arrive 
 with some reindeer, and consented to take us over the 
 
224 
 
 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 tundra to the next native camp, where he had a brother. 
 Arriving at midnight on the following day at thegplace 
 where he expected the camp to be, we found not a trace 
 either of people or animals. Our Tungus accordingly left 
 us alone on the tundra with a few reindeer, and immedi- 
 ately started with a couple of animals to hunt up the camp. 
 Finally, after several hours, he returned, having succeeded 
 
 KATANGSKOIE. 
 
 in his quest. In the meantime we slept on the open 
 tundra as best we could, in a temperature of 29° below 
 zero. Arriving at the camp, we found a couple of very 
 nice Tungus famiHes. They were heathens, and complained 
 of the way the "baptised people" treated them. As natives 
 had done^ before, they wondered who we were, that we 
 did not cross ourselves, or swear at them and beat them. 
 Eventually we arrived at Katangskoie, situated on a 
 
FROM THE ANABAR TO THE KATANGA. 225 
 
 high promontory on the eastern shore of the river. At 
 this settlement, where officials and merchants are in the 
 habit of meeting the natives once a year— usually in March 
 — there are a number of yurtas, an old chapel, and a few 
 storehouses. At the time of our arrival there were no 
 inhabitants whatever. In the grave-yard, among the tumble- 
 down wooden crosses, only the tracks of wolves and foxes 
 were to be seen. Selecting one of the largest yurtas for 
 our lodging, we made it as weatherproof as possible, and 
 shovelled up snow about it to protect us from the cold, 
 which was now so severe that the thermometer sometimes 
 sank below the freezing-point of mercury. 
 
 IS 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AMONG THE SHAMANS. 
 
 The Sign of the Cross — Confession and Fox-skins — Entry into the Shaman 
 Brotherhood — A Shaman Stance — Spirits of Ancestors — Shaman 
 Deities — Erlik Khan — A Shaman Triennial Gathering — Samoyedes 
 as Converts — The Good Samaritan of the Tundra. 
 
 Having sent one of the men we had with us on to the 
 tundra to find natives and reindeer to carry us on to the 
 next stage of our journey, we arranged ourselves as comfort- 
 ably as possible under the circumstances for a few days' 
 rest in Katangskoie after the fatigues of the constant tra- 
 velling to which we had been exposed. 
 
 Two of the natives stopping with us proved to be Shamans. 
 Shamanism being strictly forbidden by the authorities, its 
 adherents and "priests," the Shamans, are always very 
 suspicious of strangers, and sometimes in their presence 
 even make the sign of the Cross in order to hide their 
 pagan heresy. Seeing that we did not cross ourselves, and 
 one of the Shamans having been cured of fever by some 
 medicine 1 gave him, they believed that we were not 
 "orthodox", but, on the contrary, "some kind of Shamans" 
 ourselves. 
 
 The Shaman who had been cured, a man of forty or so. 
 
AMONG THE SHAMANS. 227 
 
 with a rather pleasant, sympathetic expression, now opened 
 his heart to me and confessed that he was a Shaman. 
 
 "The priest has told me that it is wrong to shamanise, 
 and perhaps it is, but I must do it both for my own sake 
 and that of my people. I confess once a year to the priest 
 and give him a blue fox-skin, and then he is satisfied, and 
 I can tranquilly go on shamanising for another year. May- 
 be that the god of the "baptised" is mightier than our 
 deities, but the orthodox priests are unable to subdue the 
 spirits (i.e. to cure diseases), as we Shamans do." 
 
 This man, no doubt, belonged to the "good Shamans," ' 
 being "possessed by a mighty spirit from above." "It is 
 no easy thing to become a real Shaman," he explained. 
 In the north of Siberia the office of the Shaman is not 
 hereditary, as is the case among their brethren in southern 
 Siberia. The Shaman of the north must go through a 
 personal crisis to be prepared to receive the "mighty spirit," 
 which alone will enable him to fill his office. The way 
 by which he becomes possessed of the spirit our Shaman 
 friend explained to me in the following manner: — "Some- 
 times," he said, " it may occur that a young native happens 
 to come too near the grave of a Shaman in the depths of 
 the forest or on the tundra, and is 'seized' by the spirit 
 of the buried Shaman, who is always hovering about his 
 master's grave; or maybe 'the mighty spirit' comes over 
 him while wandering alone in the wilderness — as was the 
 
 ' The natives distinguish between " good " and " bad " Sliamans, the latter 
 only practising for the sake of profit. 
 
228 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 case with the narrator— or while speeding along behind 
 his reindeer over the tundra, the northern lights flaming 
 over his head." Then the young man "is seized with a 
 strange melancholy," which increases to "great anguish." 
 He "trembles from inward terror" and finally falls into a 
 state of ecstasy, "seeing what others do not see and 
 hearing what others do not hear." This crisis may be 
 repeated several times, until the youth finally "is delivered 
 from the power of the lower spirits and becomes possessed 
 by a higher and mightier spirit," by the power of which 
 he will be able to give such proofs of "subduing the 
 evil spirits" as shall give him the right of entry into the 
 brotherhood of the Shamans. 
 
 But this is only the beginning, our Shaman friend ex- 
 plained. "The great trials will come when the young 
 Shaman is called upon to drive out the evil spirits from 
 the sick, reveal secret things, or foretell future events." 
 
 Let us take a typical case, the healing of an emirjak, 
 i.e. a person suffering from a kind of severe hysterical 
 disease which is very common among the natives of nor- 
 thern Siberia. In the yurta of the patient are gathered 
 together his relatives and neighbours, sitting on the nares 
 or low benches serving as bedsteads along the walls. A few 
 burning embers spread a dim light from the fireplace in 
 the midst of the yurta. All are sitting in silent expecta- 
 tion. To them enters the Shaman, silent and solemn, carry- 
 ing the magic drum. His] task commences with "the 
 subduing of the lower spirits, which have their abode in 
 
AMONG THE SHAMANS. 229 
 
 objects surrounding us." In summoning these spirits the 
 Shaman imitates with wonderful cleverness the various^ sounds 
 of nature and of animals. You hear the low whispering 
 of the wind in the forest, its sighs and moans among the 
 tops of the trees, the howling and roaring of the storm on 
 the tundra, followed by a feeble tap of the drumstick, signi- 
 fying that the spirits of the winds are now captured in the 
 drum. After a short pause you hear the shriek of the 
 owl, the bleating of the snipe, the curious laughing note 
 of the ptarmigan, the growling of the bear, the howling 
 of the wolf, etc., followed by a fresh beat of the drum. 
 The "lower spirits" being thus captured, the Shaman now 
 goes to work to conquer the "stronger spirits." To this end 
 he puts on the "volshebnaya odjeshda,'^ the magic kaftan, 
 hung with numerous symbolical pieces of metal of different 
 shapes and sizes, and taking hold of the drum, repeats 
 some prayers and formulas of exorcism in an old language, 
 seldom understood but by the oldest Shamans. Then the 
 beat of the drum increases, until it culminates in loud claps 
 of thunder, accompanied by the pattering and beating 
 of rain and hail. At length the Shaman throws the drum 
 away and begins dancing and jumping, uttering the while 
 — half singing and half shrieking — various prayers and for- 
 mulas of exorcism. By this time the congregation, who 
 have hitherto been sitting awe-struck and silent, have become 
 excited too, and now loudly join in the chanting and 
 exorcisms, until together with the Shaman they fall into 
 a swoon of ecstasy. During this ecstasy the Shaman is 
 
230 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 "in a higher world, effecting the cure of the diseased man," 
 or perhaps finding out that the patient is incurable. 
 
 In the Shamanistic religion the spirits of ancestors 
 play a very prominent part as the connecting link between 
 mankind and the upper or lower deities, aiding the Shamans 
 to intercede with the good deities and to cheat or exorcise 
 the evil spirits. With the exception of the highest divinity, ' 
 who is exalted above all influences, good or evil, and 
 therefore cannot be moved either by sacrifices or prayers, 
 all the Shamanistic deities share the weakness of other 
 gods in being fond of praises and gifts of sacrifices. By 
 these means, and by the aid of the spirits of ancestors, 
 the Shamans move the beneficent gods to do their will and 
 drive out the evil spirits which torment mankind. 
 
 Throughout the whole life of man, these divinities and 
 spirits influence his destiny for good or evil. When a 
 human being is to be brought into existence, a deity of 
 the name of Bai-Ylgon notifies his son, Jajyk, of the event, 
 ordering him to take measures accordingly. This divinity 
 in his turn, on the intercession of the spirits of deceased 
 men (the Shamanistic saints), leaves the matter in the hands 
 of one of his servant deities, called Jajutschi, who fetches 
 vital power out of the milk-white sytak-kol and brings the 
 new human being into this world, accompanying it through 
 life as its counsellor and protecting genius. 
 
 ' The Shamanistic god, living "in the seventh heaven," is called 
 Tangara among the Shamanists of southern Siberia; in northern Siberia he 
 is called Ai-Toion. 
 
AMONG THE SHAMANS. 233 
 
 In the meantime the prince of evil, the fearful Erlik 
 Khan, ruling over the kingdom of darkness " in the seventh 
 stratum below the surface of the earth," does not remain 
 inactive. He sends out one of his servants, Kormoss, who 
 tries to hinder the birth of the human being. If he does 
 not succeed in this, he persecutes the "child of man" 
 throughout life. Man is thus, from the cradle to the grave, 
 accompanied both by an evil and a good genius. The 
 good genius registers all his good deeds, and the evil 
 genius his bad ones. When the man dies, the evil genius 
 Kormoss carries his soul down to the throne of Erlik 
 Khan to be judged- If the man has done more good 
 than evil in his lifetime, Erlik Khan has no power over 
 him, and he mounts upwards to higher regions. But if he 
 has done more evil than good he is sent down to the 
 Shamanistic hell, below the throne of Erlik Khan, where he 
 is boiled in kettles with burning tar, until he is purified 
 of his earthly sin, when he mounts upward little by 
 little into the higher strata of the spirit world. 
 
 Our friend at Katanskoie told us that the Shamans on 
 the Taimyr, besides smaller annual meetings, have a large 
 conference every third year in some secluded place on the 
 tundra, where the officials cannot reach them. At these 
 meetings, not only are spiritual exercises held, but also 
 consultations on the temporal affairs of the natives. Although 
 Shamanism is strictly forbidden, and Russian missionaries 
 have for many years, been doing mission- work in northern 
 Siberia, the fact remains that the great majority of the 
 
234 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 natives on the Taimyr are as yet not even nominally 
 Christians, and those that are supposed to belong to the 
 orthodox Church are still, at heart, Shamanists. The mis- • 
 sionaries, being desirous to report as many converts as 
 possible to the Holy Synod, give vodka, tobacco, etc. to 
 those natives that consent to be baptised. The consequence 
 is that many are baptised several times over in order to 
 get these presents. 
 
 The Samoyedes on the Taimyr are most faithful adherents 
 to the religion of their ancestors, and the great majority of 
 them are not, either by threats or gifts, persuaded to be bap- 
 tised. A somewhat rough people, they answer the admoni- 
 tions of the missionary in their language, whose accents 
 often remind the listener of the grunting of pigs and the 
 growling of bears: "Ughl Ughl Be baptised? And 
 why? The baptised people are the worst rascals on the 
 whole Taimyr? Ughl Ughl But give me a vedro of 
 vodka, and I will think about the matter. Ughl ha-ha-ha! " 
 
 This answer, literally translated by myself from the 
 diary of a missionary, contains only too much truth. The 
 baptised natives are, as a rule, the least reliable people, 
 and by breaking up the old tribal organisations of the 
 natives, grown out of the experience of thousands of 
 years and working very well in their way, the kind of 
 missionary work carried on in these regions often does 
 riiore harm than good. The genuine pagans of northern 
 Siberia are, as a rule, much more real Christians in 
 their lives than "the baptised people". This is some- 
 
AMONG THE SHAMANS. 235 
 
 times admitted even by orthodox people themselves. Thus 
 a Russian bishop has given the following significant story 
 in an official ecclesiastical paper. 
 
 "Among the natives on the Taimyr some had adopted 
 the orthodox faith and been baptised in order to get pre- 
 sents in the shape of vodka and tobacco. Others, on the 
 other hand, and among them an old Shaman, had stuck 
 to their pagan views. So it happened one winter that a 
 certain bishop and a priest were to travel to the Taimyr. 
 The old heathen Shaman drove the bishop, and the baptised 
 natives the priest. A terrible storm arose, the travellers 
 lost sight of one another, and the reindeer got loose and ran 
 away. The old Shaman wrapped the bishop in reindeer 
 skins, gave him a reindeer-tongue to eat, and disappeared. 
 The bishop, believing himself doomed to a horrible death 
 on the tundra, read his prayers and prepared for his end. 
 But on the following day the Shaman returned with reindeer 
 and food, and fetched the bishop to the next camp. The 
 priest, on the other hand, had been left by the baptised 
 natives to perish." 
 
 Thus the story of the good Samaritan holds good even 
 on the tundra to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ACROSS THE TAIMYR PENINSULA. 
 
 We leave the Katanga— Our Winter Dress— Fatigues of Sledge Travelling— 
 A Tungus Family — Across an Unkuown Land— The Nosovaya 
 Tundra — An Unexpected Forest — A Dolgan Deputation— Geographical 
 Distribution of the Nomad Races — We Reach the Yenisei. 
 
 Knowing that there were winter yurtas on the forest-Hne 
 all the way between Katangskoie and the Yenisei, we had 
 looked forward to this part of our journey as an easy 
 affair. In this, however, we were sadly disappointed. The 
 natives had not as yet come back from the tundra to these 
 yurtas, whither they return "when the sun disappears," 
 i.e. in the middle of November. 
 
 The natives told us that it would be very difficult to 
 find the camps on the immense Taimyr, because the people 
 were constantly moving about with their herds of reindeer, 
 and they therefore advised us to stay at Katangskoie 
 until they had got back to the forest-line, saying it would 
 be a very risky affair to try without their aid to cross the 
 tundra, where people had often perished in the snowstorms. 
 
 Being anxious, however, to get over this part of our jour- 
 ney before these dreaded November blizzards came upon 
 us, we decided to make the attempt, and accordingly started 
 
ACROSS THE TAIMYR PENINSULA. 237 
 
 from Katangskoie on the arrival of the people and reindeer 
 we had sent for. 
 
 It would be tempting to reproduce the contents of my 
 diary of our adventurous journey over the Taimyr tundra, 
 but I fear that the details might tire the reader and 
 swell this volume too much, and must accordingly limit 
 myself to a general description. Our winter costumes con- 
 sisted of the following garments : — stockings made of the 
 skins of reindeer calves, with the hair turned inward; high 
 boots made of the skins of the legs of the reindeer, and 
 very roomy, so as to afford plenty of space for hay, with 
 which they were well stuffed ; drawers, under-clothes, trousers 
 and waistcoat of heavy woollen cloth; an inner coat of 
 the skins of reindeer calves, and a large overcoat of wild 
 reindeer-skin. The coats were made in the native fashion, 
 and were put on over the head like shirts ; on the head we 
 wore a large hood, covering the whole face, leaving an 
 opening only for the eyes ; while our hands were protected 
 by large gloves of reindeer-skin. We had no sleeping 
 bags, but used only pelts and reindeer-skins as covering 
 for our beds at night. 
 
 We had been advised to procure covered sledges, like 
 the one I have described in which the Polish nobleman 
 lived, — a kind that is always used by merchants and 
 officials when travelling on the tundra, but I preferred to 
 use the lighter open sledges like the natives. 
 
 Thus equipped, we did not suffer so very much from 
 the intense cold, in spite of its touching 62° below zero. 
 
238 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 and of there being almost always more or less wind on 
 the tundra. It is true that when we had to sleep in the 
 open air we shivered with cold when we awoke, but we 
 never took cold, thanks to the pure air. 
 
 Travelling more or less night and day over these vast wastes 
 of snow for weeks together is a constant strain both on the 
 muscles and nerves, so that with a monotonous diet of 
 frozen fish, reindeer-meat, and mouldy rye-bread, it becomes 
 excessively fatiguing in the long run. But, on the other hand, 
 the night-travel behind good reindeer, beneath the flaming 
 northern lights, and with the indescribable spell of the far 
 north upon one, affords a unique delight unknown to 
 civilised life; and even the terrible storms, the chance of 
 wolves, and the various dangers of these far-off lands are 
 not without a certain peculiar attractiveness — especially 
 when they become a matter of retrospection. Then, again, 
 there is the pleasure of coming in contact here and 
 there with genuine good heathens, undefiled by civilisa- 
 tion, honest and excellent people, rendering you all the 
 services they can as a matter of honour and duty, never 
 bargaining, and expecting as a matter of course that you 
 will treat them in the same way. 
 
 On the Taimyr tundra, however, as we came further and 
 further westward, we more and more found that the influence 
 of so-called "civilisation" had affected the natives. We 
 were once more in a land where we had to bargain before- 
 hand with the people; not that this, however, caused us 
 any special difficulty, for our drivers, as we found out. 
 
ACROSS THE TAIMYR PENINSULA. 239 
 
 reported from place to place that we paid well for their 
 services. After travelling some 50 days over the tundras, 
 I knew by heart the stereotyped Yakut phrases used in 
 this bargaining. For the use of those who may feel 
 tempted to make a holiday trip in winter-time to northern 
 Siberia, I give at the end of this volume a few of the 
 most typical phrases— a "Manual of Conversation" with 
 which it is possible to get along all the way from the 
 lower Yenisei to the land of the Tschuktchis, a little trip 
 of some 3500 miles. 
 
 From Katangskoie we took a south-westerly direction, 
 which we followed for a distance of 75 miles. The tempera- 
 ture kept between 22° and 40° below zero, and a north- 
 westerly wind was almost constantly blowing. At one 
 camp we found an interesting Tungus family, consisting of 
 an 80-years-old widow with five sons. Roth the widow and 
 her sons were unsophisticated heathens, who did not, as many 
 Yakut Shamanists do when travellers come, make the sign 
 of the Cross. She wondered why we did not cross our- 
 selves, and believing that we too were some kind of heathens, 
 she commenced to tell us about her experiences in life. 
 She related that she had lost her husband long ago, and 
 had all the time of her widowhood been keeping her sons 
 and herds of reindeer as far as possible from all contact 
 with "the baptised people" (the merchants and the priests). 
 In this she had succeeded so well, that her healthy-looking 
 sons, of whom three were married, knew the taste neither 
 of tobacco nor vodka. 
 
240 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 Her sons told us that at the next two camps were " bad 
 people ", and that we should have great difficulty in getting 
 reindeer and people for continuing our journey. Al- 
 though it was difficult for them to be away from their 
 herds, they eventually promised to transport our party 
 to some place where we should find good people and rein- 
 deer. We found their statements with regard to the " bad 
 people " to be well founded. At the camps spoken of, 
 where we had to spend the night, there was unspeakable 
 poverty and dirt. 
 
 Having completed our 75 miles on a south-westerly course, 
 we turned once more north, and zigzagged from camp to 
 camp over an undulating tundra, intersected by labyrinths of 
 crevasses and ravines, which very much hindered our pro- 
 gress. Passing over the lake of Boganida, we came to the 
 Nosovaya tundra, in crossing which our course lay in a 
 more or less westerly direction, following the water-divide 
 between the Katanga to the south-east, the Taimyr river to 
 the north, and the Piasina to the west, and keeping about 
 125 miles north of the forest-line as marked on the maps. 
 With the exception perhaps of some stray merchant's agent, 
 no civilised people have ever travelled over this part of 
 the tundra, at all events not since the days of Middendorff. 
 His expedition, however, went from the Yenisei to the 
 Taimyr Lake, where he lost his boat and narrowly escaped 
 with his life. Merchants, officials, and other travellers follow 
 a more southerly route, through the forest-region. 
 
 This Nosovaya tundra, the highest tundra on the Taimyr, 
 
O 
 S 
 
 g 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 K 
 H 
 
ACROSS THE TAIMYR PENINSULA. 243 
 
 is flat, and abounds in marshes and lakes, making travelling 
 easy in good weather. In snowstorms, of which we had 
 some fair specimens, the crossing of it is a somewhat 
 risky affair. 
 
 At one place near a lake we found, to our great surprise, 
 a thin forest of small and stunted larch-trees, forming an 
 island in this boundless frozen "sea", as the natives in their 
 picturesque language call the tundra. In this same lake- 
 region we came upon a number of very poor native families 
 of various races, occupying themselves with fishing and 
 trapping foxes. A little later we arrived at the camp of 
 a hospitable Tungus chief, who treated us to some splendid 
 frozen fish, which he had caught in the Taimyr river. He 
 had met with several Samoyedes, " a people very commu- 
 nicative and fond of talking", but he had not heard of 
 the discovery of any trace of Andree's balloon or its 
 occupants. 
 
 The report that we were "ambassadors of the Great 
 White Sun" seems to have preceded us everywhere in our 
 travels in this part of the world, and at one of our camps, 
 as on a previous occasion to which I have alluded, we 
 were waited upon by a formal deputation, headed by a 
 Dolgan chief, complaining bitterly of the way they were 
 being fleeced and bullied by the merchants, especially by 
 a certain Sotnikoff, who had on one occasion beaten the 
 eyes out of a native, because he had sold a fox-skin to 
 another merchant, while other wretched people had been 
 treated in a similarly barbarous way. On two other occa- 
 
244 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 sions formal complaints of a like nature were made to us 
 by deputations, and there is no doubt, especially from what I 
 afterwards learnt from thoroughly reliable sources, that these 
 poor natives are infamously treated by some of the merchants, 
 and are often reduced to a state of misery and famine, 
 which at times has led to cannibalism, as indeed has been 
 officially proved — for example, among the Samoyedes and 
 the Ostiaks on the lower Yenisei, and the Dolgans and 
 other natives in the Taimyr region. 
 
 I could only promise these unfortunate people to try to 
 lay their case before some of the Russian authorities and 
 the general public. I also spoke to their Governor on the 
 subject as well as to a prominent person in St. Peters- 
 burg, a personal friend of the Tsar, and other persons in 
 authority. ' There is no doubt that these natives, now 
 fast dying out, will soon belong only to history, if radical 
 and speedy reforms are not undertaken to prevent it. 
 
 During our passage over the immense Taimyr peninsula 
 between the Katanga and the river Piasina, we gathered the 
 following information as to the annual wanderings of the 
 natives, who, with their herds of reindeer, keep within the 
 limits of certain districts. Dolgans and Yakuts nomadise 
 on the river Gorbita, which falls into the Taimyr, and on 
 the last-named river as far as the mouth of its tributary, 
 the Kerika; Samoyedes monopolise the Logatta, another 
 tributary of the Taimyr; and Dolgans the country north of 
 
 ' I have since been informed that the above-mentioned SotnikofF, the 
 most ruffianly tormentor of the natives, has been banished to Yakutsk. 
 
ACROSS THE TAIMYR PENINSULA, 
 
 245 
 
 its mouth. In the neighbourhood of the Taimyr river, north 
 of the lake of that name, where there is plenty of splendid 
 fishing, tribes of Tunguses and Samoyedes fish and trap 
 foxes ; while east of the lake, towards Balakna and Katanga 
 Bay, the country is mainly occupied by Dolgans, who hunt 
 the wild reindeer and gather mammoth-tusks. On the 
 Piasina and in the region east of it towards the Taimyr 
 
 SAMOYEDES NEAR THE PIASINA. 
 
 Lake, Dolgans and Samoyedes wander, reaching northwards 
 to the Arctic sea. Although the Samoyedes spend the 
 summer north of Lake Taimyr, they nowadays never go 
 as far north as the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 During our journey from the lake of Piasina to the 
 Yenisei, a distance of about 125 miles, we crossed the 
 Norilsky mountains and met with unpleasantly stormy 
 
246 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 weather. We finally reached Dudinskoie or Dudinka on the 
 lower Yenisei, after having spent 51 days on the journey 
 from the mouth of the Lena, a total distance of about 
 i860 miles. ' There now remained some 1300 miles of 
 travel up the Yenisei before we regained the railroad at 
 Krasnoyarsk. 
 
 • The distances actually travelled are here spoken of, not those in a 
 straight line between the places. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 UP THE YENISEI. 
 
 No News from Civilisation — We bid Adieu to Torgersen — Sledging up the 
 Yenisei ^Torosses — The Taiga once more — Turukanslt — The Ostiak — 
 "A Big Minister" — Society in Turukansk — Yeniseisk — Home. 
 
 On our arrival at Dudinskoie we learned, to our surprise, 
 that neither the expected trading steamers nor the Russian 
 expedition to Taimyr had visited the mouth of the Yenisei 
 during the summer. Only one English steamer had arrived. 
 We had hoped to receive comparatively fresh news of the 
 outer world in this place, as there was said to be a mail 
 between Dudinskoie and Yeneseisk, but in this too we were 
 disappointed. Among the few inhabitants of the settlement 
 — which consisted of some merchants, a few exiled stundists 
 etc., two priests, and a civil officer — there was not one single 
 newspaper to be found, and they did not know more than we 
 did about the events which had taken place in the civilised 
 wofld during the previous three months. We were, it is true, 
 told "news" about Andree, but this "news" wore the 
 wrinkles of old age. Thus, for instance, it was reported 
 that Andree had sent a carrier-pigeon "from the North 
 Pole" with the information that he and his companions 
 
248 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 were all right, and were on their way homewards. This 
 carrier-pigeon, however, had fallen a victim to ignorant 
 people, who had killed it. This Siberian edition of the 
 message which Andree's carrier-pigeon brought from the 
 "Eagle" two days after its start, seemed to be firmly 
 believed in by these good people, although a circular con- 
 taining the true message had been sent even to Dudinskoie 
 by the Russian government. 
 
 At this hospitable little place we stayed four days, and 
 here we parted with our friend and interpreter, Mr. Tor- 
 gersen, who started on his lonely journey back to Bulun 
 on the lower Lena. All the way to Dudinskoie the natives 
 spoke the Yakut language. On the Yenisei, the natives 
 and the rest of the population all speaking Russian, we 
 stood in no need of an interpreter. 
 
 From Dudinskoie up river to Turukansk, which is situated 
 near the Arctic circle, the distance is about 430 miles, and 
 this we had to travel by reindeer-sledge. This part of our 
 journey, contrary to expectation, proved very difficult on 
 account of torosses, snowstorms, and water collected under- 
 neath the deep snow. In addition to these drawbacks the 
 poor people at the stations had few and weak reindeer, 
 often kept several miles from the stations, thus causing 
 much delay. To this was added some unpleasant experi- 
 ences of the worst class of criminals exiled to these 
 distant regions ; men who, in many cases, have both morally 
 and physically ruined the people. In one place, where 
 the host and the hostess were away, having left an old 
 
UP THE YENISEI. 249 
 
 exiled criminal, together with a number of other criminals, 
 alone with the children, we found it advisable to have the 
 candle burning all night, with the revolver handy, closely- 
 watching the rascals, who tried several times to get into 
 our room with the evident design of robbing us. 
 
 On our way we had to sift a number of carrier-pigeon 
 stories, which all resolved themselves, as we expected, into 
 more or less clumsy fiction. 
 
 In certain places travelling on the river was decidedly 
 dangerous on account of the quantity of water which had 
 become dammed up by the torosses. Twice the animals 
 went through the ice into the water, in a temperature of 
 some 20° below zero, in a blinding storm, and we narrowly 
 escaped drowning. Often, too, the sledges came to grief 
 among the torosses, which caused us much trouble and 
 delay. When some accident happened, the drivers would 
 cry out: " Propal! Propal!" a word very common among 
 Siberians, meaning: "Lost! Lostl" and at the sound of 
 this word of ill-omen I knew there was trouble in store. 
 
 There was little in our surroundings to compensate us 
 for the irksomeness of our journey. The endless monotony 
 of the torosses on the river, the low shores on each side 
 of us crowned by stunted trees, and a "station" with 
 poor dwellings and miserable people at distances of from 
 12 to 30 miles apart, combined to make it wearisome to 
 a degree. For the last thirty miles north of Turukansk 
 we travelled through the taiga, which, in spite of the deep 
 snow and the narrowness of the path cut through the 
 
250 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 virgin forest, afforded a very pleasant change. Covered 
 with snow, the taiga stood solemn and quiet, the silence 
 broken only by the sound of the bells on the necks of the 
 reindeer and the light friction of the sledge against the 
 soft snow. 
 
 No sign of life, except the tracks of wild animals, is 
 to be seen. Here we come upon the trail of a hare, pursued, 
 as is evident by the tracks that soon become mingled 
 with it, by a fox ; a little further on two foxes have 
 been walking quietly side by side. I look around me on 
 these traces of social life in the taiga, I look upwards on 
 the grey sky; my eyelids become heavy, and close. The 
 impressions of present sights and sounds become merged 
 together in my thoughts, and from them arise new com- 
 binations of images — of the horse-bells of my native land, 
 of Christmas-trees, of joyous laughter — when again the 
 horrible word: " Propal! /y(?/i2/.' " reverberates through the 
 forest, startling me out of my half-waking dream, and the 
 next moment I am sailing through the air with my sledge, 
 to land on the surface of a little ice-bound stream with a 
 crash I 
 
 Late in the evening we arrived at Turukansk in a 
 temperature of — 40° Fahr., and got lodging at the house 
 of the acting chief of police, where we slept on the floor. 
 
 This most northern "city" of Siberia was founded by 
 official command in 1672. It has been the central point 
 of commercial and official connection with the natives over 
 an immense region, but has long ago lost its Import- 
 
2; 
 < 
 
 D 
 
 h 
 
UP THE YENISEI. 253 
 
 ance. It is situated in a marshy and unhealthy region, 
 and is soon to be moved to the village of Monastyrskaya, 
 20 miles further to the south. 
 
 A Russian author has given an interesting description of 
 this "city" in a Russian periodical, from which I make 
 the following quotation: — 
 
 "It might be a matter of controversy," says he, "whether 
 a small place with 22 little wooden huts really con- 
 stitutes a city ; but I will not only state the fact that it is 
 really a city, but will even call it a capital, for it is the 
 administrative, ecclesiastical, and economic centre of a 
 country as large as France, and rules over various peoples, 
 such as Ostiaks, Yuraks, Dolgans, and Tunguses. Moreover, 
 it has everything that a city requires to justify its right 
 to the title. Here is the highest official of the whole 
 region — I do not know what to call him : king or president — 
 who within the town bears the humble title of local chief 
 of police, and who every year makes a round through his 
 tundra-kingdom in order to collect the taxes and uphold 
 the prestige of the Government. Here also is a postmaster, 
 who regularly once a month, excepting for two or three 
 months in spring-time and in autumn, when all communi- 
 cation with the rest of the world is cut off, forwards inform- 
 ation to the local officials. Here, too, is a missionary priest, 
 who, like the chief of police, makes a trip over the tundra 
 once a year, to educate the savage natives in the orthodox 
 faith, baptising and marrying those whom the tundra during 
 the past year has been able to give birth to or bring 
 
254 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 together in matrimony, and burying those that have perished. 
 Here, moreover, is a doctor, a church, and a prison. 
 
 " The chief of police is a jolly fellow, who likes to joke 
 with arriving travellers. When they ask him where to get 
 lodging, he replies curtly : 'In the prison 1 ' If the reply 
 is taken seriously, and the visitor looks astonished at him, 
 he replies, laughing : ' I was only joking. There is no 
 hotel in the city, and travellers lodge in the prison, which 
 is seldom used for other purposes. I have for six years 
 been chief of poHce here, and there has been only one 
 case, when a famishing native ate up his sister — you may 
 have read about it in the newspapers.? — and I sent him 
 alive to the capital of the province.' 
 
 "The central figure of life in the city, for the sake of 
 whom indeed the very city itself with all its ruling author- 
 ities exists, is the Ostiak. But the people of the city have 
 of late become dissatisfied with the Ostiak. 
 
 "'What times we now live in, Barin!' complains old 
 Madame Kopylicha, who has a small store of colonial 
 goods in the city, and secretly trades in intoxicating liquors. 
 'Why, it is no longer possible to Hve on the Ostiak — 
 such a cunning animal the savage has become, you can't 
 conceive I For instance, there comes an Ostiak and says 
 he, " Give me a pound of tea, little mother, and I will give 
 thee this white fox-skin." Well, I weigh out three-quarters 
 of a pound of tea to him, and say, " Here thou hast 
 a pound ; " and he weighs it in his hand and says : " No, 
 little mother, this is not a pound." And — would you be- 
 
UP THE YENISEI. 255 
 
 lieve it 1 — the wretch goes to my neighbour and weighs it 1 
 In former years I gave him half-a-pound and said : " There 
 thou hast thy pound," and he beheved . . . What a cun- 
 ning beast he has become I ' 
 
 " ' Yes, these wretched people have become altogether 
 spoilt 1 ' declares the chief of police in an authoritative tone. 
 If he happens to be in a happy after-dinner mood, then he 
 will expatiate on the virtues of the formerly good-hearted 
 Ostiak. 
 
 "'In the good old times,' he will tell you, 'things were 
 arranged in a simple way. Now, for instance, my prede- 
 cessor, Stepan Flegantovich — you perhaps know him — he 
 used to do a good bit of business here! He would 
 announce to the Ostiak chiefs and their people that an 
 order from St. Petersburg had arrived to collect skins of 
 sables for a fur-coat for the Minister— the great Minister 
 who rules over the whole Russian tundra. 
 
 " ' Well, the Ostiaks bring skins of sables one year, two 
 years, as much as they are able to ' — the chief of police 
 becomes livelier — ' for this fur-coat of the Minister 1 ' Then 
 finally the Ostiaks come to Stepan and say: — 
 
 " ' " We have now brought skins of sables sufficient not 
 only for a fur-coat, but for a sleigh-cover, gloves, and cap." 
 
 "'"What do you mean?" roars Stepan. "Do you believe, 
 you villains, that the Minister is such a miserable worm as 
 you? Why, such a big one is he!" — pointing to the church 
 steeple. And the Ostiak chiefs look at one another and 
 return home. And after six months they returned again 
 
256 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 with still more sables, and finally there was enough for the 
 ministerial fur-coat . . . That is the way things were done 
 in those days; but now it is impossible to make anything 
 out of the Ostiak ! ' 
 
 " But after all the Ostiak is not even now ' such a villain ' 
 and 'such a cunning beast' as the chief of the police and 
 Madame Kopylicha pretend. Even now the Ostiak procures 
 — and that on any order from the minister — enough sables 
 not only for the fur-coat and cap of the chief of police, 
 but also for those of his wife, his children, his relations and 
 his friends. The Ostiak gives sables to the missionary 
 priest, and to the merchant, who rules as an autocrat over 
 the tundra." 
 
 We spent three days in Turukansk. The long winter- 
 night had set in, and the "society" of the place had 
 commenced the winter season, having their parties by turn in 
 different houses almost every night, drinking vodka and 
 playing cards — both men and women — until 3 o'clock in the 
 morning. One morning one of the ladies said to me, her 
 face beaming, that she had won 7 roubles during the night. 
 
 While the haute sociite were drinking and playing one 
 night, I slipped off to the political exiles — a doctor of 
 philosophy, and a few working-men, who had been exiled 
 on account of their socialistic views. The doctor lived in 
 a small hut, which he heated in the day-time with a 
 miserable stove ; but in the night the temperature would 
 sink to 14° Fahr., and the poor man suffered much from 
 

 17 
 
UP THE YENISEI. 259 
 
 rheumatism. One of the exiled working-men had his 
 young wife and baby with him. Another of the exiles 
 kept aloof from all company, and showed signs of insanity, 
 to which malady these unhappy people often fall victims. 
 
 A few miles outside the city were colonies of exiled 
 sectarians, such as Stundists, Duchobortsi, Skoptsi, and 
 others. 
 
 From. Turukansk to Krasnoyarsk, a distance of about 
 870 miles, we travelled with horses. The snowstorms 
 continued, and the torosses on the river together with 
 dammed up masses of water made the journey very difficult 
 and tedious. - 
 
 On reaching the mouth of the Podkamennaya Tunguska, 
 where the gigantic river has made its way through a chain 
 of mountains, the scenery becomes less monotonous, and 
 at certain places is even grand. The trees are majestic, 
 and the numerous islands in the river are highly picturesque. 
 The villages now grow more and more in size, and part 
 of the population seems to be well off. 
 
 On our arrival in Yeniseisk we learned, to our regret, 
 that no news of Andree had been received. I had some 
 thought of spending the rest of the winter in this town, 
 and making an expedition in the spring to the western 
 part of the Taimyr peninsula, but on our arrival at Krasno- 
 yarsk I received news from home which made it necessary 
 for me to give up this plan. Here I also learned that the 
 third member of our expedition, our botanist Mr. Nilson, 
 with whom we parted on the lower Lena, had been 
 
26o THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 detained for several weeks in the city of Yakutsk, having 
 failed to catch the last steamer from that place. 
 
 On our way home I had to investigate the truth of the 
 last report of the Andree expedition which came to my 
 knowledge in Siberia — namely, the story of " a letter from 
 Andree," said to have been found in a bottle near Slatoust. 
 It proved, like most of its predecessors, to be only a 
 hoax. The story of Ljalin was started after my return 
 home. It made a good deal of fuss, and much money was 
 spent in telegrams and special investigations on the spot, 
 although it was evident from the reports of reliable persons 
 in Siberia that the story was only an invention, like so 
 many others. 
 
 After having spent a few days at Yasnaya Polyana, the 
 estate of Count Leo Tolstoy, whither I was invited by one 
 of the Count's sons — a visit of which I entertain the most 
 pleasant memories— we arrived in Stockholm at the end of 
 the year 1898, having travelled in all about 15,500 miles 
 since we left that capital a little more than eight months 
 before. 
 
 The results of our search after Andree were only negative, 
 it is true, but we would not at the time consider this in 
 any way affected the hope we cherished of the return of our 
 courageous countrymen. Unfortunately, this hope has since 
 diminished. 
 
 However, we may now, I believe, take it for granted 
 that Andree and his companions did not land on the 
 
UP THE YENISEI. 261 
 
 Siberian coast east of the peninsula of Taimyr ; while it is 
 equally improbable that they reached the most northern 
 parts of this peninsula. Moreover, in the latter case, if 
 Andree and his companions still had their rifles and 
 ammunition, they should have been able to preserve their 
 lives until they reached some native camp, for northern 
 Taimyr abounds in game. If, on the other hand, the 
 expedition has perished somewhere on the northern coast 
 of Siberia, it is certainly of advantage that we should have 
 been able to put ourselves in contact with natives over 
 an immense extent of this country and by promises of 
 reward to stimulate them to be on the look-out for any kind 
 of trace of our unfortunate fellow-countrymen. 
 
 And, though our expedition resulted, in one sense, in 
 failure, we have at least tried to do our best to fulfil what 
 was considered to be a national duty. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE EXILE SYSTEM. 
 
 The Ukase of Abolition — Early History of the Exile System — An optimistic 
 View — The " Cooking " of Official Documents — The Early Reformers — 
 Statistics — An Unacknowledged Corvee — The Brodyagi — -Cannibalism 
 — Increase of Crime — Demoralisation of the Authorities. 
 
 Regularly every year during the last decade the im- 
 pending abolition of the exile system has been announced 
 through the Russian press, and last year an imperial ukase 
 was issued decreeing that deportation to Siberia shall in 
 future be replaced by imprisonment after the pattern of 
 western Europe. The growing discontent among the Sibe- 
 rians has thus been soothed down by this imperial promise 
 to abolish the hated system. But, as a matter of fact, 
 after the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the 
 system became clearly no longer possible. 
 
 It requires, however, something more than press-notices 
 and ukases to create a penal system with necessary 
 institutions capable of receiving the stream of real criminals 
 or innocent victims of Russian justice — amounting to some 
 20,000 every year — which is flowing into Siberia, not to 
 speak of the thousands which are being exiled to other 
 distant parts of the immense empire, such as Trans- Caucasia, 
 
THE EXILE SYSTEM. 263 
 
 Archangel, the Murman Coast, etc. It will therefore no 
 doubt be long yet before the ukases will be carried into effect. 
 
 At any rate, it will be of interest, on the eve of a new 
 century and the opening up of Siberia, to take a short 
 glance at this Siberian exile system, about which so many 
 strange ideas seem even to this day to prevail. 
 
 Deportation to Siberia began at the close of the i6th 
 century — the murderers of the Tsarevitch Demetrius were, in 
 the year 1593, probably the first criminals exiled to Sibe- 
 ria. At first it was practised only exceptionally, but soon 
 it became a general method of punishment. Before 1800 
 there are no reliable statistics as to the exiles, and only 
 during the last few decades has a regular account been 
 kept of the number of people who have crossed the border. 
 According to an official report, 2035 were sent to Siberia 
 in 1807, but in the year 1823, the annual number had 
 grown to 6667. During the period from 1824 to 1827 it 
 averaged 11,000, and from 1870 up to the present time 
 about 20,000. 
 
 For a long time there was great enthusiasm in Russian 
 circles about the supposed blessings of the exile system. 
 By this method, it was said, the mother-country gets rid 
 of dangerous persons, who, under the influence of new sur- 
 roundings in a new country, should eventually become 
 most useful in the cultivation and development of the rich 
 but untilled soil of Siberia. Nothing could be more simple 
 and at the same time more satisfactory! They had no 
 other facts, it is true, to rest their hopeful theory on than 
 
264 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 the accounts of the "Prikas" (the Bureau of Deportation) 
 as to the number of exiles who had crossed the border 
 into this promised land. But what more was needed to 
 construe brilliant results? It was shown that up to 1850 
 about half-a-million of exiles — of more or less dangerous sub- 
 jects in other words — had been expatriated. According to 
 the laws of natural increase, the system would thus have 
 added more than a million to the population of Siberia — 
 truly a great and important reinforcement for so thinly 
 peopled a country 1 
 
 In Russia it was naively believed that the exiles on the 
 other side of the Urals were all living in the places whither 
 they had been sent, cultivating the soil, building homes, 
 increasing and multiplying, and generally behaving them- 
 selves in a most satisfactory and model fashion. If the 
 subject were not so hopelessly melancholy, the rose-coloured 
 effusions published in Moscow and St. Petersburg in early 
 days about the great blessings and success of this ingenious 
 system — which satisfied alike the criminalists, the represen- 
 tatives of the reform-principle, and the humanitarians — -would 
 form amusing reading. Such highly laudatory opinions 
 from such differing and irreconcilable sources ought, it is 
 true, to have aroused suspicion in the minds of thinking 
 people, but on the contrary, they contributed to strengthen 
 the faith in the infallibility of the system. Now and then 
 a voice crying in the wilderness of the awful misery pre- 
 vailing reached the ears of the authorities, but these voices 
 were soon silenced for ever, or overpowered by the pan- 
 
THE EXILE SYSTEM. 265 
 
 egyrics emanating from the officials in Siberia. Thus, not 
 only Russia, but the learned of Europe were astounded at the 
 phenomenal longevity among the exiles: in their credulity 
 they did not suspect that the almost patriarchally long lives 
 recorded existed only in the "cooked" official Usts of the 
 Siberian authorities, who prolonged the lives of thousands 
 of exiles for tens of years after their death or disappearance, 
 in order to put the money received from the government 
 for their support into their own pockets! 
 
 Now and again complaints were made of the enormous 
 expenses of the system, but even these were disproved 
 by the fictitious reports issued by the Siberian officials, 
 who sent in elaborate statements of expenses incurred in 
 the construction of roads, bridges, prisons, etc., which 
 it is needless to say were never built. It was not until 
 such men as Dostoievsky, Lvov, Savalichin, Maximov, 
 Rovinsky, Yadrintseff and others had drawn aside the veil, 
 that light began to spread on the real facts of the exile 
 system and the untold misery of the victims of it. By and 
 by the imperative necessity of radical reforms was recognised. 
 
 But first of all it was necessary to know what and how 
 to reform. Unfortunately, trustworthy accounts and figures 
 were wanting. The reformers were thus compelled to make 
 thorough statistical researches for themselves. But this 
 gigantic task, which has been going on up to this day, 
 has been one of almost insuperable difficulty, because the 
 primary accounts have either been wanting or worthless. 
 The only reliable data concerning the exiles relate to the 
 
266 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 number passing the borders of Siberia, Even the figures 
 obtained by the general census have in many cases proved 
 untrustworthy, on account of the great difficulty experienced 
 in getting satisfactory returns in the distant parts of the 
 country. 
 
 Let us glance for a moment at a few of the facts obtained 
 by recent investigations. According to these, the entire num- 
 ber of prisoners sent to Siberia from the beginning of the 
 exile system until now amounts, in round numbers, to one 
 million — the relatives of prisoners who have accompanied 
 them into exile included. Even if great allowances be made, 
 this million ought to have increased somewhat, or the 
 number ought at least to have been kept up. But what 
 are the facts? 
 
 The general director of prisons, A. P. Salomon, having 
 spent several months in Siberia investigating the system, 
 has recently published a report, from which I may quote 
 the following figures. According to his estimate, the num- 
 ber of exiles and their relatives living at the present 
 moment in Siberia amounts, in round figures, to some 
 300,000, of whom about 100,000 are " brodyagi" (run- 
 away prisoners), 100,000 "proletarians," 70,000 labourers 
 without land, 30,000 settled labourers, and "only 4500 
 giving reason for hoping that they will become assimilated 
 with the older population." These figures speak for them- 
 selves as to the result of the exile system through its three 
 centuries of existence. A detailed description of the con- 
 ditions which have brought them about need not be given 
 
THE EXILE SYSTEM. 
 
 267 
 
 here. It would involve not merely a history of the exile 
 system, but a history of Russian civilisation itself. 
 
 The truth is that the exile system has worked in a vicious 
 circle, spreading its curse, directly and indirectly, through 
 every department of life, and to all classes of people — the 
 
 EXILES ON THE LENA. 
 
 exiles themselves, the people with whom they live, and 
 the authorities who have charge of them. 
 
 The relations between the Russian Siberians proper and 
 the "varnaks",'^ as the exiles are called, are anything 
 
 ' The word " Varnak" is derived from the Russian initials V. Ji. N. K., 
 denoting the words: " Vor, razboinyik, nakazanny knuiom" (=:: thief, robber, 
 punished with the knout), and with these initials the exiles were formerly 
 branded. 
 
268 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 but friendly. The animosity of the former against the 
 exiles (from which the politicals and the sectarians must 
 of course be excepted in this connection) is founded, not 
 only on the natural antipathy to criminals which is common 
 everywhere, but on the heavy burdens which this system 
 lays on the shoulders of the real inhabitants of the land. 
 Besides the indirect losses to the Siberian population 
 caused by the 100,000 brodyagi, who live by begging and 
 stealing ; the expensive police-establishments in the villages 
 which these bands of loafers and robbers necessitate; and 
 the numerous sick and poor exiles, which the communities 
 have to support; ' the Siberian peasants are compelled 
 to perform an immense amount of unpaid work in the 
 shape of transport, escorting prisoners, hunting up and 
 watching runaway prisoners, paying the arrears of taxes 
 of the exile-colonists, etc. In cities the cost of maintaining 
 the prisons puts a heavy burden on the inhabitants. 
 
 In their turn the Siberians try as much as possible to 
 exploit the exiles, and in other ways to make up for their 
 losses. Life is thus made insupportable even to the better 
 classes of the exiles, who are trying to make a living by 
 honest work. The exiles are really and in fact outside the 
 protection of the law. They have often to do manual labour 
 for nothing — " varnak-wages " are a byword, meaning star- 
 vation-wages — their hay, their building-material and cattle 
 
 ' The sum of 19 roubles 13 kopeks per annum provided by the govern- 
 ment for the support of each invalid exile is altogether insufficient. 
 
THE EXILE SYSTEM. 269 
 
 are sometimes taken from them, and it is useless going 
 to law over the matter — the exile will never obtain justice. 
 He is "only a varnakl " 
 
 This state of things together with the nameless misery 
 existing in the transport-prisons has contributed to swell 
 the stream of runaway prisoners. These "unhappy ones," 
 as they are called, will rather risk being shot in a dash 
 for liberty than stay under insupportable conditions. Depriv- 
 ed as they often are during the greater part of their lives 
 of every decent human influence, these " brodyagi" finally 
 lose all trace of human feelings, and are capable not only 
 of killing their fellow-man in cold blood in order to rob 
 him, but also, as sometimes happens, of killing and eating 
 one another! Such are the fruits produced by the exile 
 system on the exiles themselves! 
 
 It is but natural that the moral infection should spread 
 to the population at large, who, alike from motives of self- 
 defence or hatred, will hunt and kill the " brodyagi" just 
 as they would a wild beast. 
 
 The large number of crimes which occur in Siberia has 
 already been pointed out in an earlier portion of this volume. 
 A few more facts may not unfittingly be added in this 
 connection. From the official statistics it appears that in 
 many places more than half the number of crimes are 
 committed by exiles, though their number is only about 
 6 per cent of the entire population. From the local cri- 
 minal statistics it further appears that in Siberia the number 
 of crimes is far greater than those occurring in all other 
 
270 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 parts of the Russian empire ; that the worst crimes, such as 
 murder, occupy the first place on the Hst; that coining, a 
 speciality introduced by the runaway prisoners, has spread 
 immensely among the Siberian peasantry, the labouring classes, 
 and others ; and that the increase of crime is far in advance 
 of the increase of the population, and is accelerating from 
 year to year at a frightful rate. 
 
 Not only is crime in Siberia distinguished by its frequent 
 occurrence, but also by its shockingly cynical character. 
 Illustrations of this it is unnecessary to give here, but it 
 is an undoubted fact that the moral sensibilities of the 
 people at large have become so blunted that hardly more 
 attention is paid to a shocking murder than to the killing 
 of a calf. The people have become so used to crimes 
 that they do not pay much attention to them. Only now 
 and then are complaints made of the lack of vigilance on 
 the part of the police. In the city of Tomsk complaints 
 of this kind once led to an incident which is characteristic 
 of the Russian regime and of Siberian life generally. The 
 Duma or city council of Tomsk formally requested the 
 police-authorities, on account of the growing number of 
 thefts, robberies, and murders vvithin the city, to increase 
 their vigilance and look after the night watchmen. The 
 police-authorities, considering this as an insult to themselves, 
 summoned the city council in corpore before the police- 
 court. The following figures, however, will show that the 
 city council had good reason for their action. According 
 to the "Police Gazette," there had occurred in the city of 
 
THE EXILE SYSTEM. 271 
 
 Tomsk at the time of which I speak, from July ist to 
 October 7th, no less than 30 cases of murder and robbery, 
 and during another period of three months 5 8 crimes of the 
 same kind had been committed 1 
 
 I have already alluded to the spread of demoralisation 
 in Siberia caused by the exile system. Another feature of 
 this is the existence of organised bands of thieves and robbers 
 under the direction of head-men. Thus there are special 
 organisations for coining, stealing, and robbing. Sometimes 
 the police themselves have been found to have a hand in 
 the matter. The brodyagi are employed by these organi- 
 sations, and receive part of the booty as wages for their 
 work. Thus security to life and property becomes so small 
 that merchants hardly dare to visit certain regions without 
 an armed escort. How can commercial progress and indus- 
 try thrive under such conditions? 
 
 The general state of barbarism and brutality which reigns 
 in consequence of the exile system has also extended to 
 the authorities, which, after all, is only what might be ex- 
 pected. One instance of this I may here quote on the 
 authority of Yadrintseff. The director of the imperial gold 
 mines at Kara, one Demidofif, in order to elicit the details 
 of a case of murder, once tortured the wife of the murderer, 
 who had voluntarily accompanied her husband into exile, 
 and on whom the director therefore had no right to inflict 
 any kind of punishment. Then he also tortured the daughter 
 of the murderer, a child of 1 1 years old. Pinioned and sus- 
 pended in the air, the poor little girl was flogged from 
 
272 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 head to foot. The child, having received a large number 
 of lashes, asked for something to drink, when they offered 
 her some salted salmon instead I She would have been 
 flogged still more, if the jailer had not refused to continue 
 his inhuman task. 
 
 Such are some of the features of the exile system, the 
 intended abolition of which has finally been announced by 
 imperial ukase. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD AND MARITIME COMMUNI- 
 CATION WITH NORTHERN SIBERIA. 
 
 Raison d'etre of the Railway — ^Its Uselessness for the Transport of Cereals — 
 The Perm-Archangel Line — Price of Wheat on the Yenisei — The 
 great Waterways of Siberia — Maritime Communication — Capt. Wiggins 
 and the Yenisei Trade — The Difficulties in the Way — The Policy of 
 the Closed Door — The best Ice-brealcer. 
 
 The Trans-Siberian Railway will no doubt exert great 
 influence both politically, economically, and culturally upon 
 Siberia and its inhabitants : it will indeed create a new era 
 in the history of the country. 
 
 Military and political reasons were probably the strongest 
 motives in planning and constructing the line, and there is 
 no doubt that this first railroad between the Baltic and the 
 Pacific, between Europe and the populous countries of the far 
 East — will be of the greatest importance in this respect. It is 
 not my intention to discuss the political significance of this 
 great undertaking, but it is very evident that the develop- 
 ment of Siberia and the increase of its population must 
 enter into the plan of the extension of Russian dominion 
 in the far East, because a populous and strong Siberia 
 will be one of the most important factors in the struggle 
 
 with other Powers for supremacy in the East. 
 
 i8 
 
274 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The reasons why Siberia has remained up to the present 
 in a state of semi-barbarism are many. One of them is 
 no doubt her lack of suitable communication with the 
 civilised world. That the new railroad alone will not be 
 able to fill this need is evident to all who have any per- 
 sonal knowledge of the country. Long before the line was 
 seriously planned, Baron Nordenskjold pointed out this fact 
 in his well-known "Voyage of the Vega." 
 
 " Many," he says, " may believe that the present want 
 of suitable communications for commerce will be filled by 
 building a railroad through Russia and southern Siberia. 
 But this is by no means the case. On the contrary, 
 maritime communication is a necessary condition to make 
 such a railroad pay ; because it will be impossible to export 
 the products of agriculture and of forests by rail over the 
 distance of from 3000 to 5000 kilometres, which separates 
 the fertile regions of the Ob — Irtisch river-systems from the 
 nearest port in Europe." 
 
 "It will not pay to transport cereal products by the 
 railroad over a distance of 3000 versts," says Tschukmallin, » 
 "because this will cost about 50 kopeks a pood, i.e. 300 
 per cent of the price of rye and 170 per cent of the price 
 of wheat at the places where they are grown. The freight 
 is a very heavy burden even on other more valuable 
 products. For the exportation of cereals, which are the 
 principal products of Siberia, it is therefore absolutely 
 
 " " Sibirskaja Zchisn." 1898. No. 255. 
 
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD. 277 
 
 necessary to bring about cheaper means of communication 
 than the railroad, if it is really intended to develop the 
 agriculture of Siberia." 
 
 Yadrintseff holds a similar opinion. "One must be a 
 very great optimist," he thinks, " to believe that the Trans- 
 Siberian Railway will remove all the great difficulties which 
 are caused by the immense distances." 
 
 Another author considers that "The direct influence 
 of the railway will only extend over a belt of some 250 
 miles along the line (120 miles or so on either side); but 
 the extension of Siberia from north to south amounts to 
 thousands of miles ; and the railway does not run through 
 the central parts, but on the southern limits of Siberia." 
 
 In order to avoid flooding the market of European Russia 
 with cheap Siberian cereals, a meeting of Siberian and Russian 
 merchants petitioned the government in 1890 to connect 
 Perm and Archangel by railroad, and it was calculated 
 that the freight on such a railroad from the upper Ob to 
 Archangel would amount to 40 kopeks a pood. '■ But 
 later and more careful calculations have demonstrated that 
 the freight would amount to from 70 kopeks to one rouble, 
 or say roughly twice as much, so that it would prove im- 
 possible to export agricultural products even on that line, 
 which, it must be remembered, would touch only a part of 
 western Siberia. 
 
 In a word, railroad communication alone will not make 
 
 " About IS. 7d. per cwt. 
 
278 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 exportation of cereals and other cheap products from Siberia 
 possible. Only manufactured products could be profitably 
 exported by this means. But the development of Siberian 
 industries under present circumstances is hindered by the 
 necessity of procuring machines and tools from abroad, 
 which makes them so enormously expensive that only a 
 few capitalists can afford to buy them. If to this be added 
 the ignorance of the people (who are quite unfit to handle 
 modern machines) the ubiquitous monopolism, and the Asiatic 
 regime in general, it is evident that it must be long before 
 Siberia will be able to develop into an industrial country. 
 
 But cheaper means of communication are needed not 
 only for the industrial development of the country, but also 
 for providing its inhabitants with the necessities of life. In 
 a former chapter I have drawn attention to the fact that 
 the natives of northern Siberia are dying out from chronic 
 starvation. Wheat, which in Minusinsk on the upper Yenisei 
 may often be bought at lo kopeks a pood — say 5d. per 
 cwt. — costs in Yeniseisk 80 kopeks to one rouble a pood, 
 at Turukansk 2 roubles, in the taiga or on the tundra 
 from 4 to 7 roubles a pood — and this on the same river 1 
 And yet the great waterways of northern Siberia — the Ob, 
 the Yenisei, and the Lena— are teeming with the most 
 splendid fish, the country abounds in valuable minerals, and 
 to the forests there are no Hmitsl 
 
 The necessity of cheaper communications therefore is 
 evident. And Siberia possesses these, or at all events the 
 potentialities for them, in her great rivers, making maritime 
 
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD. 279 
 
 connection between Europe and the very heart of the coun- 
 try possible. "In Siberia," says one of the most able men 
 of that country, ^ " exist the greatest possibilities for com- 
 munication in its wonderful waterways, the like of which 
 are not to be found anywhere on our globe. Here we have 
 the gigantic rivers of Ob, Yenisei, and Lena, which are 
 accessible to ocean-going steamers over distances of more 
 than 1400 miles from their estuaries. Thus steamers may go 
 straight from London to the city of Yeniseisk. These 
 rivers intersect Siberia from the borders of China to the 
 shores of the Arctic Ocean; into them tributaries larger 
 than the Volga empty themselves, such as the Aldan, Vilui, 
 Angara, Irtish, Podkamennaya- and Nischnaya-Tunguska ; 
 and into these tributaries in their turn flow other large 
 streams, almost all of them navigable for great distances." 
 During the last 26 years, from the first passage over 
 the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Yenisei, the possibility 
 of maritime communication between Europe and northern 
 Siberia has been fully demonstrated. Many of the first 
 experiments, it is true, failed. Of the 27 ships which 
 started for the Yenisei during the period between 1877 and 
 1886, only 12 reached their destination. The other 15 were 
 either lost in the ice or compelled to return. But it is 
 evident that most of these failures depended on lack of 
 knowledge and experience with regard to the peculiar con- 
 ditions of the weather and the ice in the Kara Sea. The 
 
 " Vide Sjmerny Morskoi Putj, p. 6. 
 
28o THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 ventures made during the following decade proved more 
 successful, thanks to the skill and experience of the well- 
 known Arctic explorer, Captain Wiggins, who conducted 
 most of the commercial expeditions to the mouth of the 
 Yenisei up to 1896. Nearly all of the 22 steamers which 
 sailed for the river during that period reached their destination. 
 
 During the summers of 1896 and 1897 the condition of 
 the ice in the Kara Sea was very favorable, and the six 
 steamers which sailed in the former year encountered no ice. 
 In 1 898 only one steamer reached the mouth of the Yenisei, 
 and the mercantile fleet of five steamers which started from 
 London for the river in 1899, had to return on account of 
 the ice, and lost one steamer. 
 
 There is no doubt that the difficulties in the way of 
 maritime communication with northern Siberia could be 
 overcome by modern methods, and a fairly regular trade 
 established between the great Siberian rivers and Europe. 
 But at the same time nothing has been done to overcome 
 these difficulties. There are as yet no correct charts of 
 the sea-coast between the White Sea and the Yenisei, 
 and there are but few soundings; there are no proper 
 sailing directions, no depots or stations of refuge along 
 the shores, no meteorological stations at the mouths of 
 the rivers, or at the southern point of Novaya Zemlia, and 
 no telegraphic communication with the last-named places. 
 If these elementary measures were taken for observing and 
 reporting on the conditions of the ice, etc., and for security 
 in navigation and salvage in case of accidents, there is no 
 
THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD. 281 
 
 doubt that, with specially constructed steamers, and collective 
 experience and skill in Arctic navigation, the difficulties that 
 have hitherto stood in the way would certainly be overcome. 
 
 But even under the present unfavourable conditions the 
 greatest obstacles have been not those of nature, but of 
 man. They have been due rather to the attitude of the 
 authorities, which seems to have been determined by the 
 interests of a few Russian manufacturers and monopolists 
 at the cost of the welfare and development of Siberia. 
 
 The story of the endeavours of various English firms 
 to establish sea trade between northern Siberia and Europe, 
 of their sacrifices and losses, not only on account of the 
 natural difficulties in the way, but also of this attitude of 
 the Russian authorities, is too well known to English 
 readers to need repeating here. 
 
 The authorities have evidently resolved to practise the 
 policy of the closed door. 
 
 The question is: Will this poHcy be successful and 
 beneficial to Siberia and to the mother-country? It would 
 be invidious to review the history of the opening-up of 
 northern Siberia and compare how much has been done 
 to this end by foreigners and how much by Russians. It 
 would be alike uncourteous for a stranger to try and find 
 the answer to the above question in the history and pre- 
 sent internal condition of Russia and Siberia. But it can 
 hardly be considered unfair to quote the views of a well- 
 known Siberian, who represents the unanimous opinion of 
 the more thoughtful of his countrymen. 
 
282 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 The endeavour to promote commercial traffic over great 
 distances by means of subsidies from government have 
 always proved, and must always prove, a failure, as on the 
 Amur and elsewhere. The Siberians must import their 
 machines and tools from abroad, and must export their 
 cereals. How can this be effected without joint foreign 
 and Siberian enterprise in establishing regular trade in 
 northern Siberia, for which freedom from duty on goods 
 imported over the Kara Sea is an absolute necessity? If 
 we know, as we do, that even to-day the peasants in 
 European Russia can compete with the railroads in the 
 transport of goods by horses along the railway lines, and 
 that peasants in the province of Tula are pondering over 
 the problem of avoiding all kinds of metal in their carts, and 
 thus reverting to a species of latter-day Stone Age because 
 of the enormous prices of iron and steel, is it then possible 
 for the Siberians to hope that their raw material will find 
 its way three or four thousand miles from Yeneseisk and 
 Irkutsk to Russia, and that the necessary machines and 
 tools, etc. will be brought from Russia to Siberia at prices 
 accessible to the average Siberian or even to the capitalist .? ' 
 
 As for the ice-breaker of Admiral Makarofif, with which 
 he hoped to establish regular communication over the Kara 
 Sea to Siberia, the Siberians say, 
 
 " Free admission of foreign goods at the mouths of our 
 great rivers is the best ice-breaker I" 
 
 ' Condensed from " Sjevsrny Morshai Putj" 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 
 
 The America of the Old World — The Tercentenary of Siberia — Her Needs 
 formulated — A System of reckless Plunder — Illiteracy of the Russian 
 Conquerors — Persecutions of the Colonists — The "Gold-Barons" and 
 " Vodka-Kings" — Stagnation of Industry — Education — Influence of the 
 Swedish Prisoners of War — Pioneers of Culture in Siberia — Yadrintseff 
 on the Future of the Country. 
 
 It is only natural to make comparisons between Siberia 
 and North America. Siberia, taken as a whole, possesses 
 natural riches comparable to those of America, and has, 
 as a colony, the advantage of not being separated from 
 the mother-country by any sea. 
 
 "Siberia is not a country suitable only as a place of exile," 
 says the Novoye Vremya in an article on the country at its 
 tercentenary jubilee in 1883. " Siberia possesses an immense 
 extent of land for colonisation by the surplus population 
 in Russia which must be created by the present agrarian 
 system. Here we have our United States, and there is 
 no country so happily situated as ours, which does not 
 need to send its emigrants across the sea, but settles them 
 in its immediate neighbourhood." 
 
 But it is only with regard to natural resources and 
 possibilities of development that the parallel holds good 
 
284 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 between Siberia and the United States; the realisation of 
 these possibiUties in the past history of the two countries 
 forms the sharpest imaginable contrast. 
 
 The following passage occurs in one of the resolutions 
 passed at the tercentenary jubilee of Siberia: — "America 
 has in one century reached a degree of development of 
 which we never dared even to dream. . . . Australia has 
 likewise during this century progressed with gigantic strides 
 and can now rejoice in a material and spiritual develop- 
 ment the like of which we in Siberia have perhaps never 
 even heard. ... And Siberia. . .?" 
 
 At the above jubilee the city council of Yeniseisk passed 
 a resolution and sent it to the government. It is an in- 
 teresting document and I think this paragraph of it will 
 bear quotation: — 
 
 "With this year (1883) Siberia completes her 300th year 
 under Russian rule, a space of time which ought to have 
 been sufficient for her development up to the point of 
 standing alone; but on looking back, one's heart cannot 
 but become oppressed because there is nothing satisfactory, 
 nothing sohd to be seen. Only a few feeble seeds and 
 scions struggle here and there, but how pale and stunted 
 they appear 1 One sees full well that something is lacking 
 in order to make development possible. ... Is it not time 
 to awake, to real earnestness, to a thorough realisation of 
 the actual state of things and the needs of the present 
 day — now that we are at the end of our three centuries 
 of existence?" And then they go on to formulate these needs 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 285 
 
 as follows: — (i) The introduction of the Zemstvo institution 
 (a kind of local board); (2) a public judiciary system; ' 
 (3) personal liberty and the inviolability of personal property; 
 {4) liberty to move from one place to another, and (5) the 
 abolition of the exile system. 
 
 These very modest demands, in which the De profundis 
 cry of the Siberians on their day of jubilee breaks out, 
 are significant enough of the state of things in that unhappy 
 country, and point out some of the fundamental causes of 
 its lack of progress. 
 
 In studying the history of Siberia two epochs are dis- 
 tinguishable : that of the conquest of the country, and that 
 of the beginning of colonisation and social organisation. 
 Through both of these epochs there runs as a red line the 
 system of reckless plunder, which, unmitigated by any 
 redeeming feature whatever, and without the modifying 
 influence of a budding and growing spiritual culture, 
 continues to this day. Says Yadrintseff, one of the men 
 most thoroughly acquainted with Siberia: — 
 
 "Even to this day we look in vain for an epoch of in- 
 tellectual and spiritual awakening among the population. 
 One of the greatest historical missions for us to accomplish 
 is to infuse the spirit of life into this colossal body." 
 
 The conquerors of Siberia — the trappers and the Kqs- 
 sacks — and those that followed in their footsteps, were all 
 
 " A couple of years ago the system of Justices of the Peace was introduced 
 in Siberia, by which the old Asiatic methods of justice were somewhat 
 ameliorated. 
 
286 
 
 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 bands of robbers, consisting of fugitive criminals and slaves, 
 and various adventurers who were actuated by no other 
 motives than those of extorting from the natives as much 
 as possible of their precious furs, and of plundering the 
 prehistoric graves of their treasures of silver and gold. 
 The victories obtained over the natives did not depend on 
 
 NATIVE FOX-TRAP. 
 
 any higher degree of civilisation on the part of the in- 
 vaders—on the contrary, the natives almost invariably 
 stood on a higher level both morally and otherwise than 
 their conquerors — but on the fact that the Russians pos- 
 sessed firearms, and were animated by an insatiable rapa- 
 city, which urged them onwards, not only through the 
 wildernesses of Siberia, but over the northern Pacific to 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 287 
 
 America, as far south as California. " One needs only to 
 recall the state of civilisation in Russia during the i6th 
 and 17th centuries," says Yadrintseff, "to understand how 
 entirely void of all culture and scientific interest was the 
 conquest of Siberia. The later discoveries and annexations 
 were, almost without exception, also actuated exclusively 
 by rapacity. The trappers, hunters, and traders who 
 went to Siberia during the 17th and i8th centuries were 
 just as ignorant and not less uncivilised than the first 
 founders of the Siberian colonies. Even those at the head 
 of great undertakings were uncivilised and rough men. 
 The cultural level of the native Siberian population corre- 
 sponded to that of the inhabitants of European Russia. The 
 Russians brought with them agriculture. ' That was all." ^ 
 
 Not only the common people among the Russian colonists, 
 but also the priests were illiterate. I have elsewhere 
 pointed out the fact that even to-day illiteracy — e.g. among 
 the Buriats — is much less than among the peasantry in 
 European Russia. It is therefore no wonder that the 
 Russian colonists easily forget their native tongue and 
 adopt the language, manners, and superstitions of the natives, 
 — become, in short, "Buriatised" and "Yakutised". 
 
 In order to escape from extortion and oppression on the 
 
 • Agriculture, however, was practised by many of the aborigines before 
 the arrival of the Russians, though the methods of the latter were sometimes, 
 it is true, rather better. On the other hand, even at the present day, many 
 of the natives of the far east (Transbaikalia) cultivate the soil much better 
 than do the Siberian colonists. 
 
 » Vide Sibir kak Colonija, N. Yadrintseff. 
 
288 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 part of the officials a great many immigrants fled far away 
 into the wilderness and established colonies, which sometimes 
 existed for several decades before they were discovered. 
 "This dispersal of the Siberian colonists," says Yadrintseff,' 
 "evoked fresh persecution of the fugitives about the 
 middle of the i8th century." But these persecutions only 
 increased the number of those who fled to escape them 
 into the depths of the endless forests, the valleys of the 
 Altai mountains, and the borders of Mongolia. They were 
 especially directed against the Raskolniki (sectarians). The 
 historian Islowtzoff" states that 3000 of these people were 
 massacred in the Ural mountains, and in the year 1760 
 several thousands more burned themselves alive in order 
 to escape their persecutors. ^ 
 
 Even up to quite late times there have been occasions 
 when large numbers of colonists have suddenly disappeared. 
 "In 1874," says Yadrintseff, ^ "1700 emigrants from 
 Viatka were staying in the province of Tomsk. They 
 had spent a long time in trying to obtain the right of 
 settling as colonists ; but after having encountered number- 
 less difficulties, they finally all suddenly disappeared, except 
 200 individuals, who went to the province of Yeniseisk." 
 
 ' Siberien, N. Yadrintseff, p. 157. 
 
 » Through this "baptism of fire" these sectarians, driven to fanaticism 
 by relentless persecution, believed that they would not only "escape the 
 rule of Antichrist," but also gain entrance into paradise. Shutting themselves 
 up in large buildings, they set them on fire, and thus hundreds of them 
 perished at a time. 
 
 ' Siberien, p. 168. 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 289 
 
 In 187s no less than 1345 families in Tomsk disappeared 
 in the same way. 
 
 Such independent flourishing colonies, as I have 
 stated, have from time to time been discovered in various 
 parts of Siberia, especially in the forest-regions of Tomsk 
 and on the borders of Mongolia, and sometimes even 
 beyond the Russian boundaries. On their discovery the 
 runaways have often been severely punished, but on 
 account of their large number they have of late years 
 escaped without any further penalty than that of being placed 
 under official rule. ' 
 
 The gold-fields and the distilleries have created the first 
 beginnings of modern industry in Siberia. The "gold- 
 Barons " Sibiriakoff, Basilevsky, Njemtchin and others, and 
 the Siberian "vodka-king", Kosiello Poklevsky, have led 
 the way. Immense quantities of vodka are consumed in 
 Siberia. Vodka plays the principal part in the trade with 
 the natives; the working-men pour their small earnings 
 down their throats in the shape of vodka during the 
 many obligatory saints '-days and "saint-Mondays"; and 
 the peasants do likewise. Thus the peasants of Minusinsk, 
 for example, consumed vodka to the value of no less 
 than one million roubles during the year 1896. ^ The first 
 
 ' Count Leo Tolstoy in a conversation with me once said that he intended 
 to write a story about such a colony in the wilds of Siberia, established by 
 Russian peasants who had fled from " civilisation " and led a happy life, 
 until they were discovered and reduced to the same state of misery as before. 
 
 ^ In 1894 there were in Western Siberia 18 distilleries and 22 breweries, 
 in Eastern Siberia 16 distilleries and 9 breweries, and in the Amur district 
 
 19 
 
290 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 steamer was brought to Siberia by the "vodka-king" 
 Poklevsky in 1843 for the transport of vodka and grain 
 to and from the Irtish. At present there are in Siberia about 
 100 steamers large and small, and about 200 other craft. 
 A considerable number of these steamers are chartered or 
 owned by the well-known M. Sibiriakoff, who of all the 
 capitalists of Siberia has done most towards the economical 
 and spiritual development of his country. 
 
 Characteristic of the primitive economical conditions of 
 this part of the world is the flourishing system of usury. 
 According to official statistics, the average interest on loans 
 in Irkutsk, for example, is 5 per cent per month, while it is 
 occasionally as much as 200 per cent per annum. 
 
 Under such economic conditions industries cannot flourish, 
 and Siberia is for these entirely dependent on European 
 Russia, the products of which— often of inferior quahty — 
 fetch fabulous prices. The principal commercial transactions 
 between Siberia and European Russia have hitherto taken 
 place at the annual fair of Irbit (ist of February to the 1st 
 of March). During the period from 1 890— 1 896 the Siberians 
 on an average bought six times as much from Russia as 
 they sold to her, and a great part of the raw material 
 which they exported to the mother-country, such as tallow, 
 hides, flax, etc., they again imported in the shape of manu- 
 factured articles. 
 
 one distillery and 16 breweries. Yet these do not satisfy the demand, and 
 considerable quantities of strong liquors and wines are imported from Russia 
 both by land and sea (from Odessa to Vladivostok) and also from abroad. 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 291 
 
 The feeble industrial development of Siberia is abundantly 
 evident in the fact that the houses even in the largest cities 
 are at the present day still built from planks sawn by 
 hand, and the primitive river-craft are innocent of a single 
 nail in their construction. In the whole of Siberia there 
 are only 3 iron-foundries, which annually produce less than 
 I per cent of the entire produce of the empire. Iron ore 
 has as yet not been discovered anywhere along the Trans- 
 Siberian Railway, and the rich mine found in Yakutsk 
 cannot be worked because of its great distance from the 
 railroad. Thus the ironworks of the Ural should find a 
 good market in Siberia. 
 
 In 1895 the total number of industrial establishments in 
 Siberia amounted to 650, of which 280 were tanneries and 
 establishments for making overcoats of sheep-skins, 16 candle- 
 factories, 8 woollen-factories, and 1 1 dairies. Most of these 
 establishments are small and insignificant ; by far the greatest 
 percentage of the produce of the country is exported as 
 raw material. Besides the 40,000 workmen occupied in the 
 goldfields during the summer, 15,000 to 20,000 are engaged 
 at the factories. 
 
 The general system of plunder is also appUed to the 
 industries of the country. A labourer in the damp and 
 cold felt-factories, for instance, whose working day lasts 
 from 3 — 4 a.m. to 10 — 1 1 p.m., receives for all his work 
 during the eight winter months about 60 roubles, and as a 
 rule dies a premature death! Those working at the so- 
 called "peasant-industries" (making furniture, carts, sledges 
 
292 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 etc.), make about 30 to 40 roubles during the winter and 
 60 to 70 roubles during the whole year. The system of 
 flogging the working people is still practised; the truck- 
 system is general, and work in the Siberian industries has 
 often the character of forced labour. 
 
 The Trans-Siberian railway will no doubt cause great 
 changes. It has already given the death-blow to the fair 
 at Irbit and to several other centres of commerce, which 
 will be supplanted by others or simply disappear; and in 
 addition to the immense influx of immigrants of which I 
 have written in other chapters, it has attracted a large 
 number of adventurers and some foreign capital, mostly 
 Belgian. These are some of its principal results up to date. 
 
 Educational and spiritual development in Siberia is still 
 less marked. According to Yadrintseff, only 0.38 per cent 
 of the entire population visit any school, ' and the quality 
 of this microscopic amount of popular instruction is, as a 
 rule, very inferior. The first attempt at the spread of 
 higher education — namely, the establishment of the University 
 of Tomsk, was effected by private energy and generosity, 
 and it still has to fight with numberless obstacles intention- 
 ally placed in the way of the light which shows signs of 
 gHmmering in the general darkness. 
 
 Reviewing the history of Siberia we invariably find 
 that most of the little progress which has been made towards 
 a happier state of things in this "most distressful country", 
 
 • The corresponding figures for European Russia are about 1.29 per cent. 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 293 
 
 over which the curse of the exile-system has rested like a 
 nightmare for nearly 300 years, has from first to last been 
 due to the exertions of exiled prisoners of war, sectarians, 
 and politicals. 
 
 In 1657 200 Polish prisoners of war were sent to the 
 Amur country, and the Russian author Pypin tells us that, 
 as late as the last century, travellers in Siberia found entire 
 Polish villages, which were distinguished by their higher 
 enlightenment and morals. Similar opinions have repeatedly 
 been expressed by travellers and others on the colonies of 
 exiled sectarians. 
 
 It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that the first impulse 
 to civilisation in Siberia was given by the Swedish officers 
 of Charles XII., who after his defeat at Pultawa in July 
 1709, were sent to Tobolsk and other places in Siberia. 
 Standing on an immeasurably higher level of general culture 
 and knowledge than even the highest military and civil 
 officers in Siberia, and animated by strong religious feeling, 
 these brave warriors of Charles XII., deprived of their 
 carnal weapons, now seized the arms of the spirit and with 
 the same energy devoted themselves to warfare against the 
 powers of darkness and ignorance. They established schools 
 to which the better-class Siberians sent their sons from 
 distant quarters to be instructed in Latin, modern languages, 
 mathematics, geography and history, etc. In Tobolsk they 
 built a church, where Lutheran services were held in the 
 Swedish language. Both the prudent Tsar, Peter I.^ and 
 his cunning governor of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, who at 
 
294 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 that time was conspiring against his royal master in order 
 to make himself Tsar over Siberia, were desirous of turning 
 the high qualities of the Swedish officers to good account 
 for their own purposes. Thus, while the common Swedish 
 soldiers were made into Kossacks or put to forced labour, 
 their officers not engaged in school-teaching were employed 
 in discovering minerals and in establishing the first iron- 
 works in the Ural mountains, while others engaged in the 
 work of exploration in the most distant parts of the country. 
 Thus expeditions under the command of Swedish officers 
 traversed both the southern and northern parts of Siberia 
 to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and the Swedes were 
 the first who sailed (in open boats made of birch) over 
 the sea of Okhotsk to Kamschatka. It is probable indeed, 
 that some of them got as far as Alaska. After a captivity 
 of about twenty years most of these officers returned to 
 Sweden, but some of them remained in the country. 
 
 A new impulse towards enlightenment and culture was 
 given a century later by the Decabrists, some of the most 
 intellectual men of Russian society, who after the unsuccessful 
 revolt of 1825 were banished to Siberia. A great many 
 of these people, it is true, perished from exposure and 
 privations in horrible prisons, or on the desolate tundras 
 of the north, but a number survived and exerted a 
 civilising influence whose effects could not be entirely 
 effaced by the prevalent obscurantism or the Asiatic regime. 
 Ere the good done by these men had perished, the great 
 influx of intelligent political exiles after the Polish revolt 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 295 
 
 in the sixties, and the Nihilist movement in Russia later 
 on, came once more to aid in the country's advance. 
 
 In spite of the greatest privation and sufifering these 
 martyrs of light and liberty have accomplished, and are 
 
 yUKAGIR AND CHILD. 
 
 continually accomplishing, a cultural mission in Siberia, the 
 significance of which only a nearer or remoter future will 
 fully demonstrate. A large number of these men and 
 women have perished by the way, victims to the terrible 
 hardships to which they have been exposed, or have 
 
296 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 disappeared without leaving a trace. But the survivors have 
 not lived in vain. 
 
 As to the outlook for the future, I shall not venture on 
 any prophecies of my own, especially as the views with 
 regard to this subject are very much divided even among 
 men possessing the most thorough knowledge of the country 
 and its people. I shall therefore limit myself to some 
 quotations from one of the most able and reliable author- 
 ities — namely, N. Yadrintseff: 
 
 " Our colonies still suffer from want of the most neces- 
 sary social rights. In this respect we have sinned much. 
 Without social progress our colonies, instead of ripening 
 into a flourishing dependence which would be of the 
 greatest importance to the mother-country, will continually 
 remain the same barbarous, hopeless, and forgotten regions 
 as hitherto. 
 
 "It is not improbable that Siberia, by an increased 
 export combined with a continued neglect of its own inner 
 wants, will get into a still more hopeless condition than 
 that prevailing in modern European Russia. The export 
 of the grain of European Russia, which has been so much 
 talked of, exceeds its present — not, under better conditions, 
 its possible — producing power, whereby the producers, the 
 peasants, even in the very richest grain-growing provinces 
 are ruined; and this export, which through the lack of 
 capital in the interior of the country is carried to the 
 utmost limits, by no means ameliorates the lot of the people. 
 Under these specifically Russian conditions — namely, lack 
 
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE IN SIBERIA. 297 
 
 of working capital, suitable labour, systematic enterprise, 
 and thriftiness — the opening up of Siberia by new means 
 of communication does not at all mean the abolishment of 
 the Siberian system of plunder and pillage in all economic 
 departments." 
 
 On the other hand, Yadrintseff owns that "there can 
 be no doubt that improved communications, even under 
 the most unfavorable conditions, will finally be of great 
 and lasting benefit to Siberia. These new communications 
 will arouse new life and competition, of which Siberia sadly 
 stands in need." 
 
 "We know," he continues, "the great struggle going on 
 between old and new Siberia. We know the typical old 
 Siberian, we know the friend of the old, effete formulas, 
 the enemy of all novelties and progress, the favourer of a 
 corrupt administration and of the scoundrels which the 
 exile-system sends to Siberia, the representative of monopo- 
 lism and of a system of pillage and plunder which has 
 flourished for centuries. But with ever-growing strength 
 a new force is rising against the old - Young Siberia, re- 
 presenting the independent, youthful, and active generation, 
 capable of opposition and prepared to take up the work 
 of colonisation, and possessing a thorough knowledge of 
 the manifold wants of the country." 
 
 It is not for a traveller and a stranger in the land to 
 contradict such an authority as Yadrintseff, and I will 
 consequently limit myself to the expression of a sincere 
 wish that his expectations may be fulfilled. But it will 
 
298 THROUGH SIBERIA. 
 
 require an unusual degree of energy on the part of " Young 
 Siberia" to overcome monopolism and corruption, and the 
 hopeless ignorance and barbarism of the masses, and to 
 push the development of the country forward to the point 
 of being able to compete with other nations, or at least to 
 stand alone. That Mr. Yadrintseff was fully conscious of 
 the great difficulty of the task is evident from the following 
 words of his: — 
 
 " Siberia is not North America. There it is only 
 necessary to build a railroad through the wilderness in 
 order to call into being a flourishing cultural development. 
 Siberia, on the other hand, with its lack of enterprise and 
 competent labour must stick to the old methods, and its 
 new means of communication are to be considered, not as 
 the commencement of a new civilisation, but rather as 
 aids to a half-effete and sterile cultural system already 
 existing." ' 
 
 ' N. Yadrintseff. '■Sibirien; Geographtsche, ethnographische und hisiorische 
 Studien" pp. 494 — 7. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 YAKUT TRAVEL PHRASES. 
 
 In order to know a people thoroughly you must learn 
 their language. Unfortunately I had not time to learn 
 Yakut enough to be able to converse easily with the 
 natives. But in a mixed gibberish of Yakut-Russian I was 
 able from the beginning to exchange ideas with some of 
 them, and later on I began to understand their conversation, 
 which usually turned on the work of their daily Ufe — namely, 
 fish and fishing. Without pretending to compete with 
 Baedeker by producing a Guide to the Yakut Language, I 
 may perhaps venture to give a few specimens of the 
 language. 
 
 On first coming among the Yakuts the ear of the traveller 
 constantly catches, nolens volens, the word: "A-d!" ^ 
 Wherever there are Yakuts, the air vibrates with "A-al" 
 And this is a very useful word, by means of which you 
 can get far. It is difficult to translate, but corresponds 
 somewhat to the English words: "Yes,'' "Just so," "You 
 know I" 
 
 If, for example, a Yakut asks you: " Sakali bildn do?" 
 (Can you speak Yakut?), and, instead of answering: " Sokk, 
 toion!" (No, sir) or " Sakali bilbeppin" (I do not know 
 the Yakut language), you simply say: " ^-« .'" he will give 
 
 ' yi pronounced as a in "an", A as in the word "father", as "e" in 
 "her". 
 
300 APPENDIX. 
 
 you a whole lecture in Yakut on fishing, hunting etc., 
 wound up with a humble petition for a little tobacco and 
 vodka. You reply again with: "A-ci!", or another word 
 which soon fastens itself in your memory, namely : " C/id/>, 
 ckdj>!" (Good, good I). 
 
 You arrive at a Yakut camp or yurta. The host comes 
 tottering out to meet you in his costume of hairless rein- 
 deer-skin (it is summer), black with smoke and dirt, cap 
 in hand, and his lank hair hanging down his shoulders, 
 bowing and saluting in mixed Yakut-Russian : " Darova, 
 darovaV (Hail, haill), or in classical Yakut: "■ Kapsd 
 dagor!" [Tell (news), friend]. You answer: "Darova, 
 darovaV If you want to show off in genuine Yakut, 
 you reply: " Kapseka tdktahokk!" (Nothing to tell !); while 
 if you wish to be polite, you ask: " Kaita ollerogei?" 
 (How do you dwell ?). The Yakut replies : " Oshugoi du 
 ollerobytt" (We dwell well), asking you to step into his 
 hut, where you squat down on your heels to the right of 
 the fireplace. 
 
 The following conversation with perhaps a few variations 
 then takes place between you and your host. 
 
 " Togo bolty bin?" What do you catch? you ask. 
 
 He replies : — 
 
 " Bult bar," We have catch, or, 
 
 " Bult ubutt" We have good catch. 
 
 " Tok bult bars'" What kind of catch do you have? 
 
 " Balik bult bar" Fish-catch we have, or, 
 
 " Kiirsia bult bar," Fox-catch we have. 
 
 " Kas illim ndkken?" How many nets have you? 
 
 " Ilim soppen." I have no nets. 
 
 " Kaita sokk?" Why none? 
 
 " Oldavolo aggajak bar. Bes—alta ilimnappen." Yes, 
 some I have. Five or six nets. 
 
n 
 
 H 
 
 P 
 < 
 
 H 
 < 
 
APPENDIX. 303 
 
 ^"■Tin khstuballik tuitdr ilimgaF' How many fish do 
 you catch in each net in the night? 
 
 " Ilimga ounak balik bar." About ten or so in 
 each net. 
 
 " Oshugoi bult. Turdr balik do ? " Good catch. Is it 
 standing fish? 
 
 " Baigal-balik boholak Hi kimbildr aiam balik.'' It may 
 be sea-fish or, who knows, travelling fish. 
 
 "Balik dakken do?'' Have you any fish? 
 
 " Balik dakbin." We have fish. 
 
 " Balikken dtteliggefi do .^ " Do you sell fish ? 
 
 '• AUelibben." I sell. 
 
 " Kastiberan tchurtsiska berebin sisbalik." I give 4 rou- 
 bles for 100 fish. 
 
 " Sopshdki." It is cheap. 
 
 Monotonous conversation, you will say. Yes, but it was 
 almost the only kind which I heard among the fishing- 
 natives on the lower Lena. If you want to end the inter- 
 view, you use the corrupt Russian: "Prostee!" Good-bye I 
 
 The following may be regarded as a typical conversation 
 on the subject of hiring reindeer. The traveller probably 
 begins the bargaining about the reindeer-driving (tabba-aien) 
 thus : — 
 
 "■ Tabba lakken do?" Have you reindeer? 
 
 " Tabba lakkbin." We have reindeer. 
 
 " Tabba nada do?" Do you need reindeer? 
 
 " Nado" We do need (reindeer). 
 
 " T'dh'd tabba nado?" How many reindeer do you need? 
 
 " Meheka surbd bes tabba nado sergalin lompalin shum- 
 min bblin." I need 25 reindeer with sledges and covering 
 (over the luggage) and ropes (6 fathoms to make fast the 
 luggage). 
 
 " Kielakkin do?" Have you people? 
 
304 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Kiekoster do kostebetto anno min an bilbeppin." (If) people 
 are to be found or not, I cannot say for certain. 
 
 "An bilb'dkken kem billdk tustdki?" You do not know 1 
 who will then know? 
 
 " Onok. Oldavollar kie kostdga." So it is. But people 
 will be had. 
 
 "■ Kanno barddng y' Where do you want to go? 
 
 " Katangskoie-ga barobin." To Katangskoie I will go. 
 
 " Rak sir, dagor! Botdlga bofdmni bokaranga surddksol." 
 A long way, friend I In this storm, in this cold a very 
 difficult journey 1 
 
 " Surddk sol billilak oldavollar bdrekka nado." A difficult 
 journey no doubt, but I must go. 
 
 "Kapsd! Tabba bireng do tokto f" Speak 1 Will you 
 let me have reindeer or not? 
 
 " Kinibilldr tabba takser do kaita do, beddng tabba 
 kostokok." I do not know, if there are any reindeer or 
 not — large reindeer there are probably not many. 
 
 " Tab ban kastihinnen Katangskoie ga ?" How much do 
 you ask for each reindeer to Katangskoie? 
 
 " Birdi sirgalak tabba besti sus." Reindeer to one 
 sledge 5 roubles. 
 
 "Chop! chop!" Good! goodl 
 
 " Md sadakta-ol ma bes istappen dlldttd orduksok." Here 
 you have as earnest money 5 roubles, not more nor less, 
 it is all I possess. 
 
 " Toibn tuUdggn." The gentleman (you) is jesting. 
 
 " Agall katchebin!" Give me the money I 
 
 "Hd! albiniggin do digin?" Whatl do you believe I 
 will cheat you ? 
 
 " Sokk toi'dn." Meheka sakald urut kordotchobit. No, 
 sir. We Yakuts always ask to get payment beforehand. 
 
 "Ana, kapsd!" Now speak I 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 305 
 
 " Tabbaliir kaita kapsd tidkput!'" How shall we speak 
 (bargain) about the reindeer? 
 
 " Olbit sippitt borroschir kimiend moyo bologo!'" (If) the 
 reindeer dies, on whose neck will that hang? 
 
 " Tabba olien oiler min beyem illebin. Tabba sippitt 
 borroschir bdget moyolugit." (If) the reindeer dies from some 
 disease, it hangs on my neck; (if) the reindeer be lost, be 
 killed by wolf, that hangs on your neck. 
 
 " Sobboligget doi'" Will you have it that way? 
 
 "Chop! Oshugoi tabba emiss tabba berenkdrV Good! 
 (But) good reindeer, fat reindeer, please let us havel 
 
 "Chop! chop!" Good! good! 
 
 " llligan agal!" Give me (your) handl 
 
 "■ Bittebitt, dj'dng istdng!" The agreement is made, the 
 people present be witnesses thereofl 
 
 "A-d! dj'dng istdng!" Yes, yes 1 The people present 
 have heard it! 
 
 " Istobuppit! TangarA oshugoi sol birden!" We have 
 heard it! God give them a good journey! 
 
 "A-d! Chop, chop!" 
 
 The numerals are as follow : — 
 
 1. Bir. 
 
 2. Ikke. 
 3- Us. 
 
 4. Tschort. 
 
 5. B6s. 
 
 6. Alta 
 
 7. Setta. 
 
 8. Aguss. 
 
 9. Togguss. 
 
 10. Onn. 
 
 11. Onordo-bir. 
 
 12. Onordo-ikke. 
 
 13. Onordo-iis, etc. 
 
 20. Siirba. 
 
 30. Ottutt. 
 
 40. Tschordon. 
 
 50. Behon. 
 
 60. Alton. 
 
 70. Setta-on. 
 
 80. Agga-on. 
 
 90. Tagga-on. 
 
 100. Siis. 
 
 200. Ikke-siis. 
 
 300. Us-siis, etc. 
 
 1,000. Tiisatch. ■ 
 
 2,000. Ikke-tiisatch, etc. 
 
 ' Borrowed from the Russian. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Akmolinsk Steppe, 15 note. 
 
 Russian colonisation of, 21. 
 Aldan River, 61, 62, 128. 
 
 Gold and silver found on, 
 86. 
 Amga River, 62. 
 Amur region conquered by Khaba- 
 
 roff, 65. 
 Anabar River: — 
 
 Condition of population, 212. 
 
 Expedition reaches, 210. 
 Andrde Expedition: — 
 
 Carrier-pigeon stories, 247, 249. 
 
 No traces of, 217, 243, 259. 
 
 Reports, 28, 107, 260; Explan- 
 ation of, 28. 
 Andreieff discovers Bear Islands, 
 
 119. 
 Androssoff, Chief: — 
 
 Saves lives of Noros and Nin- 
 
 demann, 154, 157. 
 Visits author, 203. 
 Antonoff, Michail, Dolgan Chief,2i6. 
 
 Speech to his men, 218. 
 Archangel, Exiles to, 263. 
 Arctic Sea, Expedition starts over, 
 
 190, 194. 
 Aurora borealis, 215. 
 
 Bachak-Irban, a "Batyr," 52. 
 
 Bachoff, 119- 
 
 Baikal Lake, 51. 
 
 Balagan Syr, Expedition arrives at, 
 
 177. 
 Balskoie Osero, "the Great Lake," 
 
 214. 
 Bantsaroff, Dorschi, learned Buriat, 
 
 S6. 
 Baratinsky Steppe, 15. 
 Barga-Buriats, 52. 
 Basilevsky, "gold-Baron," 289. 
 
 Beresovka Valley, 37. 
 Bering's Strait discovered, 119. 
 Bludnoie River, 219. 
 Boganida Lake, 240. 
 Bogeras, his linguistic and ethno- 
 graphic researches, 121. 
 Boskaya Island, 178. 
 Buddhist monastery at Goose Lake, 
 
 54- 
 Buddhist missionaries in Mongolia, 
 
 54- 
 
3o8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bulkur, 158. 
 Bulun, 138, 141. 
 
 "King" of, 142. 
 Buriatic Steppe, 51, 57. 
 Burials:— 
 
 Character, 56. 
 
 Communism, 53. 
 History of, 52 seqq. 
 Religion, 136. 
 Russians and, 55. 
 Tribes, 53. 
 Villages, 51, 56. 
 
 Cannibalism among Ostiaks and 
 
 Samoyedes, 144, 244. 
 Cereals in Yakutsk, 91. 
 Coal-beds, 131. 
 
 Colonisation of Siberia, 21, 29. 
 
 Old and new settlers, 32, 297. 
 Coregonus muksun, 144; C. autum- 
 nalis, 144 ■, C. lavaretus, 144. 
 
 D 
 
 De Long, Lieutenant G. W., 
 Commander of y(?a^««/2fif, 154, 164. 
 
 Decabrists banished to Siberia, 294. 
 
 Demidoff tortures wife and daugh- 
 ter of murderer, 271. 
 
 Djeschneff discovers Bering's 
 Straits, 119. 
 
 Dogs of Lena and Yana regions, 
 190. 
 
 Dolgans, 88, 214. 
 
 Deputation, 243. 
 
 Districts inhabited by, 244. 
 
 Wanderings, 217. 
 Driftwood discovered, 209. 
 Duchobortsi, in N. E. Yakutsk, 1 17 
 
 near Turukansk, 259. 
 Dudinskoie (Dudinka), 246, 247. 
 
 Emigrants, distress amongst, 23, 27. 
 "Emigration points," 24, 27. 
 English firms endeavour to establish 
 
 sea trade, 280, 281. 
 Exile System, 262 seqq., 294. 
 
 Abolition announced, 262, 272. 
 
 Brodyagi, 268, 269, 271. 
 
 "Cooking" official documents, 
 265. 
 
 Early reformers, 265. 
 
 History of, 263. 
 
 Organisations for crime, 27-1. 
 
 Statistics, 266. 
 
 "Varnaks," 267 and note. 
 Exiles on their way to Siberia, 74; 
 
 Sent to Yakutsk, 114, 120. 
 Expedition, Author's: — 
 
 Ice-bound, 148, 182. 
 
 Object of, I, 2, 147. 
 
 Results, 261. 
 
INDEX. 
 F 
 
 309 
 
 Famine, causes of, 143. 
 Fishing on lower Lena, 144, 146. 
 Fishing-Stations on Lena, 151. 
 Flogging labourers, 292. 
 Forest, the most northern, 223. 
 Foxes, white, 170, 210. 
 
 Freebooters in Yakutsk, in. 
 Fraenkel, H., member of expedition, 
 
 3, 46, 162, 184, 189. 
 Sends up toy-balloon, 215. 
 Fraenkel, Knut, accompanies 
 
 Andrde, 3. 
 
 Gagkrin, Prince, Governor of Sibe- 
 ria, 293. 
 
 "Gold-Barons," 289. 
 
 Gold-diggers at Olekminsk, 98; at 
 Vitim, 68. 
 
 Gold-fields, account of, 67. 
 
 Gold-production of Siberia, Statis- 
 tics, 68 note. 
 
 Goose Lake, Buddhist Monastery 
 
 at, 55- 
 Gorbita River, 244. 
 Graves, Shaman, 39, 41, 153. 
 Gromoff of Yakutsk, owners of 
 
 Lena, 128. 
 
 H 
 
 Haldan Khan in Mongolia, 53. 
 
 Harting, N,, 122. 
 
 Ichthyophagy among Tunguses, 134 
 
 and note. 
 Imperial Russian Geographical 
 
 Society, East Siberian branch, 
 
 121. 
 Irbit, annual fair at, 290, 292. 
 
 Irkutsk: — 
 
 Barga-Buriats at, 52. 
 
 Expedition leaves, 51. 
 
 Situation of, 48. 
 Iron and steel, enormous prices of, 
 
 282. 
 Irtish River, 24. 
 Ischim River, 24. 
 
 Jablonoff Mountains, 78. 
 
 Jeannette Expedition, account of, 
 iS4, 164. 
 Monument to crew of, 164. 
 
310 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 K 
 
 Kangelak Island, expedition ice- 
 bound on, 182, 184, 189. 
 Kara Sea, condition of ice in, 279,280. 
 Kara Ulak Mountains, 61, 154, 158, 
 
 161, 163. 
 Katanga Bay, 211. 
 
 Camp near, 215, 216. 
 Katangskoie Settlement, 224, 226. 
 
 236. 
 KatscMga, forest line at, 57. ■ 
 Kayuks, 59. 
 Khabaroff, Yevropei Pavlovitch, 
 
 conquers Amur region, 65. 
 Khansk, 37. 
 Kirenga River, 66. 
 Kirensk, 6i. 
 
 Account of, 66. 
 Kirgises, 15, 22. 
 
 Costume, 21. 
 
 System of land-ownership, 23, 
 
 Kolymsk, 74. 
 
 Kondakofif, interpreter and guide 
 
 to expedition, 128. 
 Kossack colonists in Akmolinsk, 22. 
 Kossack forts, 22. 
 Kossack payek, 118. 
 Kovalik, S., scientific observations, 
 
 121. 
 Krasnoyarsk, 34, 259. 
 Robberies in, 27. 
 Krestovsky Myss, "promontory of 
 
 the Cross," 199. 
 Kudiyakofif, ethnographical work 
 
 on Yakuts, 121. 
 Kumak-Surt, Tungus village, 154, 
 
 157- 
 Kurgan, 24. 
 Kusma, accompanies expedition, 
 
 177. 
 Experienced in travel, 175. 
 
 Lamuts, 88. 
 
 Fight for their liberty, 112. 
 Lapteff, 119. 
 Legras, Professor, on lying in 
 
 Siberia, 16. 
 Lena River: — 
 
 Configuration, 60. 
 
 Course, 61. 
 
 Discovered by Vasili Bugor, 65. 
 
 Fishing on Lower, 144, 146. 
 
 Inhabitants of delta^ 169. 
 
 Length, 57 note. 
 
 Navigation, 62, 63. 
 
 "Pillars," 77. 
 Scenery, 60, 72, 131. 
 Steamers on, 58, 148; fuel for 66. 
 Travelling through delta, 148, 
 
 seqq. 
 Tributaries, 61. 
 Lena: trips from Yakutsk to Lena 
 
 delta, 51, 58, 128, 162. 
 Liakofif discovers New Siberian 
 
 Islands, 119. 
 Lindstrom, Aug.j sketch of, 100. 
 Logatta River, 244. 
 
 M 
 
 Mainoff, researches on Buriats, 121. 
 Makarofif, Admiral, ice-breakers, 282. 
 Mammoth tusks, 86. 
 
 Marscha, Skoptsi colony, 99. 
 Maya River, 62. 
 MiddendorfFs expedition, 240. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3" 
 
 Minusinsk: — 
 
 Peasants of, 289. 
 
 Price of wheat in, 278. 
 Mongolian-Buriats, 52. 
 Mongols adhere to Buddism, 136. 
 
 Monument Cape, 163, 167. 
 Muksun (Coregonus muksun), 144. 
 Miiller, J. F., joins Tschekanovsky's 
 
 exploration, 126. 
 Murman Coast, exiles to, 263. 
 
 N 
 
 Nalthanoff, a Dolgan, visits author, 
 
 189. 
 Native graves, 152. 
 Native habits, 186. 
 Native labour on Lower Lena, 145. 
 Natives on Taimyr, story of, 235. 
 Nelma (Salmo leiuichthys), 144. 
 New Siberian Islands: — 
 
 Mammoth tusks on, 87. 
 
 Trappers visit, 108. 
 Night adventure, 46. 
 Nilson, N. H. :— 
 
 Accompanies Expedition, 3, 46. 
 
 Detained at Yakutsk, 259. 
 
 Returns with Lerm, 162. 
 Nishni Udinsk, 37. 
 Njemtchin, "gold-Baron," 289. 
 Nomad Races, distribution of, 244. 
 Nordenskjold, Baron, i, 3. 
 
 Gift to University of Tomsk, 33. 
 
 On Communications of Siberia, 
 274. 
 
 On fate of Prontchischtschev, 
 202. 
 
 Meets J. A. Tschernjak, 220. 
 Norilsky Mountains, 246. 
 Nosovaya Tundra, 240. 
 Novaya Zemlia, 280. 
 
 Ob River, bridge over, 28. 
 Olekma gold-field, 58, 67, 86. 
 Olekma, tributary of Lena, 62, 99. 
 Olekminsk, depot of gold-fields, 77. 
 
 Expedition arrives at, 97. 
 Olenek River: Natives, 201. 
 
 Omsk, 22, 24. 
 Omul fC. autumnalis), 144. 
 Ospa (small-pox), 132. 
 Ostiaks at Turukansk, 254. 
 Ostiaks, cannibalism among, 
 244. 
 
 144, 
 
 Pauski described, 59, 74. 
 
 Permiak, steamer, 71. 
 
 Peter I. and Swedish officers, 293. 
 
 Petropavlovsk, 22, 24. 
 
 Piasina River, 240, 244. 
 
 Pichtin, Mr., 128. 
 
 Podkamennaya Tunguska, mouth 
 
 of, 259. 
 Poklevsky, Kosiello, "vodka-king," 
 
 289, 290. 
 
 Polar expeditions of 1898, i. 
 Polish villages in Siberia, 293. 
 Popigai River, 216, 219. 
 Poskotina, 29. 
 Press in Siberia, 25. 
 Prontchischtschev, Lieutenant, 
 
 Grave of, 202. 
 Ptarmigan, 209. 
 Pultawa, battie of, 293. 
 Pypin, on Polish villages, 293. 
 
312 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Rabotnik, mail-steamer on Lena, 
 
 65, 71- 
 Reindeer, 205, 206, 215. 
 Migrations of, 170. 
 Wildj 210, 217. 
 Reindeer sledges, 206. 
 River-terraces, 158, 161. 
 "Rock-ice," 161, 209. 
 Russian colonisation of Siberia, 21, 
 29, 32. 
 
 Russian hunters on Lena, 64. 
 
 Russian Shamanists, 96. 
 
 Russian Siberians and "varnaks," 
 
 267. 
 Russians and Buriats, 55, 287. 
 Russians introduce cereals into 
 
 Yakutsk, 91. 
 Rybnoie, 220. 
 
 Sable partially exterminated, 89. 
 Salmo leucichthys, 144; S.fluvtatilis, 
 
 144. 
 Salmon of the Lena, 144. 
 Saloma River, 214. 
 Salomon, A. P., report on exile 
 
 system, 266. 
 Salt, expensiveness of^ 146. 
 Salt-works of Ust-Kutsk, 65. 
 Samoyedes : — 
 
 Cannibalism among, 144, 244. 
 
 Districts inhabited by, 244. 
 
 On Taimyr, 234. 
 Schaluroff, 119. 
 
 Scherebinsk, Lena River at, 61. 
 Schigklova, starting-point of navi- 
 gation down Lena, 57, 58. 
 Schigansk, 138. 
 
 Coal near, 131. 
 
 Climate, 141. 
 Schklovsky (Dioneo), Ethnograph- 
 ical studies of Yakutsk, 121. 
 Schmidt, Fr., visits Tschekanovsky, 
 
 126. 
 Shaman graves, 39, 41, 153. 
 Shaman Mountains, 54. 
 Shamanism, 96. 
 
 Account of, 136. 
 
 Conference, 233. 
 
 Deities, 230. 
 
 Entry into Brotherhood, 227. 
 Erlik Khan, 233. 
 Introduced into China, 54. 
 Sdance, 228. 
 
 Spirits of ancestors, 230. 
 Shamans and Ospa, 132. 
 Shamans at Katangskoie, 226. 
 Siberia :— 
 
 Colonists disappear, 288, 289. 
 Compared with N. America, 
 
 283, 298. 
 Conquerors of, 285. 
 Corpses found in, 28, 98. 
 Crime in, 27, 269. 
 Education in, 292. 
 Emigration to, 5; statistics, 6. 
 Forest-region described, 34^1?^?. 
 Gold-production statistics, 68 
 
 note. 
 History of, 285 seqq. 
 Industrial establishments in,29i. 
 Lack of communication, 274, 
 
 278. 
 Lying in, 16. 
 Maritime communication with, 
 
 279, 280. 
 Newspapers in, 26. 
 Park-region, 29. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 313 
 
 Russian colonists in, 21, 29, 
 32, III. 
 
 Scientific exiles, 120. 
 
 Soil, 23, 30. 
 
 Steppes of West, 12, 23. 
 
 Taxes in, 145. 
 
 Trade with Russia, 290. 
 
 Usury System, 290. 
 
 Villages, 43; inhabitants, 45. 
 
 Vodka trade in, 289. 
 
 Waterways for communication, 
 279. 
 
 (See also Exile System.) 
 SiberiakofF, "gold-Baron", 289, 290. 
 Sibiriakofif, M., capitalist of Siberia, 
 
 290. 
 Sik (C. lavaretus), 144. 
 Skoptsi, 91, 97. 
 
 Colonies, 97, 99, 259. 
 
 History, 104. 
 
 Library, 103. 
 
 Numbers, 104. 
 Slavery and famine, 143. 
 Sledge dogs, 193. 
 Small-pox, 132. 
 Sotnikoff oppresses natives, 243, 
 
 244 note. 
 Spaskoie, "Skoptsi" village, 97. 
 Staduschin, 119. 
 Stepnoye Krai, 25, 26. 
 Steppe-provinces, 15 and note. 
 
 Colonisation of, 21. 
 "Stolb" or Pillar-Mountain, 163. 
 Stundist Colony, 259. 
 Swedish officers in Siberia, 293. 
 Synok, expedition starts in, 59. 
 
 Taiga described, 38 seqq. 
 Taiga station, 32. 
 Taimen (S.Jluviatilis), 144. 
 Taimyr Lake, 240. 
 Taimyr Peninsula, 189. 
 
 Expedition crosses, 236 seqq. 
 Tarantass, 37. 
 Telegas (carts), 37, 48. 
 Tit-Ary, island of larch-trees, 163. 
 Tobol River, 24. 
 
 Tobolsk, Swedish officers in, 293. 
 Toll, Baron von, leaves supplies 
 for Andrde and Nansen, 2, 108. 
 Tolstoy, Count Leo:— 
 
 Estate, 260. 
 
 Followers exiled to Yakutsk, 
 
 74, 117- 
 Tomsk, 32: 
 
 Colonies in, 288, 289. 
 
 Crime in, 270. 
 Tomsk railway station, 33. 
 Tora, expedition reaches, 173. 
 
 Torgensen, Mr., interpreter to 
 expedition, 162, 175, 184, 189, 
 215. 
 
 Returns to Bulun, 248. 
 Trans-Caucasia, exiles to, 262. 
 Trans-Siberian Railroad, 4. 
 
 Carriages, 11. 
 
 Central section, 29. 
 
 Exile system and, 262. 
 
 Food at restaurants, 18. 
 
 Influence on Siberia, 273 seqq. 
 
 Life on, 15. 
 
 Stations, 17. 
 
 Traffic, 4. 
 
 Western portion, 12. 
 Tschekanovsky, A. L. : — 
 
 Explores Yakutsk, 126. 
 
 Sketch of career, 122. 
 Tschel^binsk railway station, 4. 
 
 Emigrants at, 6. 
 Tscheraschevsky, work on Yakuts,