Qass / TENT-LIFE IN SIBERIA ADVENTURES AMONG THE KORAKS AND OTHER TRIBES IN KAMTCHATKA AND NORTHERN ASIA BY GEORGE KENNAN NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 & 2g WEST 23D STREET l88l Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1870 by G. P. PUTNAM'S & SONS In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington Press of G. P. Putnam s^Sons New York PREFACE The attempt which was made by the Western Union Telegraph Company, in 1865-6 and '7, to build an over- land line to Europe via Alaska, Behring's Straits, and Siberia, was in some respects the most remarkable un- dertaking of the present century. Bold in its conception, a^d important in the ends at which it aimed, it attracted I one time the attention of the whole civilized world, and was regarded as the greatest telegraphic enterprise which had ever engaged American capital. like all un- successful ventures, however, in this progressive age, it has been speedily forgotten, and the brilliant success of the Atlantic Cable has driven it entirely out of the public mind. Most readers are familiar with the principal facts in the history of this enterprise, from its organization to its ultimate abandonment ; but only a few, even of its original projectors, know anything about the work which it accomplished in British Columbia, Alaska, and Siberia ; the obstacles which were met and overcome by its explor- ing and working parties ; and the contributions which it made to our knowledge of an hitherto untravelled, un- visited region. Its employes, in the course of two years, explored nearly six thousand miles of unbroken wilderness, IV PREFACE. extending from Vancouver's Island on the American coast to Behring's Straits, and from Behring's Straits to the Chinese frontier in Asia. The traces of their deserted camps may be found in the wildest mountain fastnesses of Kamtchatka, on the vast desolate plains of Northeast- ern Siberia, and throughout the gloomy pine forests of Alaska and British Columbia. Mounted on reindeer, they traversed the most rugged passes of the north Asiatic mountains ; they floated in skin canoes down the great rivers of the north ; slept in the smoky pologs of the Sibe- rian Chookchees ; and camped out upon desolate northern plains in temperatures of 50 and 6o° below zero. The poles which they erected and the houses which they built now stand alone in an encircling wilderness, — the only re- sults of their three years' labor and suffering, and the only monuments of an abandoned enterprise. It is not my purpose to write a history of the Russo- American Telegraph. The success of its rival, the At- lantic Cable, has completely overshadowed its early impor- tance, and its own failure has deprived it of all its interest for American readers. Though its history, however, be unimportant, the surveys and explorations which were planned and executed under its auspices have a value and an interest of their own, aside from the object for which they were undertaken. The territory which they covered is little known to the reading world, and its nomadic in- habitants have been rarely visited by civilized man. Only a few adventurous traders and fur-hunters have ever pene- trated its almost unbroken solitudes, and it is not probable that civilized men will ever follow in their steps. The PREFACE. * country holds out to the ordinary traveller no inducement commensurate with the risk and hardship which its ex- ploration involves. Two of the employes of the Russo-American Tele- graph Company, Messrs. Whymper and Dall, have al- ready published accounts of their travels in various parts of British Columbia and Alaska ; and believing that a his- tory of the Company's explorations on the other side of Behring's Straits will possess equal interest, I have writ- ten the following narrative of two years' life in North- eastern Siberia. It makes no pretensions whatever to fulness of scientific information, nor to any very extraor- dinary researches of any kind. It is intended simply to convey as clear and accurate an idea as possible of the inhabitants, scenery, customs, and general external fea- tures of a new and comparatively unknown country. It is essentially a personal narrative of life in Siberia and Kamtchatka ; and its claim to attention lies rather in the freshness of the subject, than in any special devotion to science or skill of treatment CONTENTS CKA2TER JAG9 I. The Russo- American Telegraph — The "Olga"' sails from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the Amoor. s II. The Voyage across the North Pacific 10 IIL Voyage continued — Petropavlovski 22 IV. Petropavlovski 30 V. Russian Language — Departure of the Amoor River Party 40 VI. A Kamtchatkan Wedding— Start for the " Far North " 48 VII. Horseback Ride in Kamtchatka — The Mountains — Vege- tation — Animal Life — The Villages— The People.. 56 VIII. " Jerusalem " — The Dwellings — A Kamtchatka Supper — Indian Summer — A " Jehu " Prayer — Hard Riding 67 IX. Malqua — Fine Scenery — Genul — A Bear Hunt — Pooschin 78 X. Sherom — Boating — Milkova — Exciting Reception in the Character of " Emperor " 86 XI. The River, continued — Volcano Kloochay — A "Black Bath" 97 XII. Canoe Travel on the " Yolofka" — Volcanic Conversa- tion — " Oh, Susanna ! " — Talking " American " — Ride to Yolofka under Difficulties loq Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER p AO XIII. A Chilly Lodging — Grand Scenery — Another Bear Hunt — Steeple-chase — Floating to Tigil 12* XIV. Coast of the Okhotsk Sea — Lesnoi — Whale-boat and the Land Party — "Devil's Pass" — Samanka Moun- tains — Snow-storm — Wild Scene 133 XV. Gale continued — Famine imminent — Boating Party heard from — Return to Lesnoi 146 XVI. Kamtchadal Nights' Entertainments— The People— The Fish — Sables — Language — Music — Songs — Dog-sledges — Costume 154 XVII. Russian Doctoring — The Samanka Mountains — En- campment of Wandering Koraks — Dogs and Rein- deer — Personals — Burrowing — ' ' Pologs ' ' — Korak Delicacies 166 XVIII. Other Traits of Wandering Koraks — Independence — Hospitality — Lodging — Breakfast — Reindeer Travel ■ — Korak Notions of Distance — Mysterious Visitor. 181 XIX. Cheerless Travelling — Korak Marriage Ceremonies — Won't you take a Toadstool ? — Monotonous Exis- tence 195 XX. Korak Language — Religion — Customs, etc 206 XXI. River Penzhina — " 25 below zero " — Kamenoi — Korak " Yourt " — Journey to Geezhega — " Pavoskas " Meekina— The " Settled Koraks" 221 XXII. Dog-driving — Reindeer Episode — Geezhega — The Gov- ernor and his Hospitality — Telegraphic Plans— The Author's Party sent to Anadyrsk 235 XXIII. Arctic Rambling in Winter — Malmofka— Night Scenes — Shestakova. 250 CONTENTS. lX CHAPTER PAGII XXIV. Dismal Lodgings — News from Col. Bulkley— Search for Lost Party of Americans — Curious Tree — Siberian " Poorga " — Storm 261 XXV. Penzhina — Telegraph Poles — Arctic Temperature — Studying Astronomy — Arrival at Anadyrsk — A Priest's Hospitality 273 XXVI. Anadyrsk— The Northern Outpost of Russian Life- Russian Christmas — A Ball — A Feast — Siberian Politeness 285 XXVII. Adventures in search of our Comrades 300 XXVIII. Adventures continued — Discovery of the Party 308 XXIX. Siberian Tribes and their Peculiarities — Ideas of Read- ing and the Arts 320 XXX An Arctic Aurora — Further Explorations — Arrival of our Comrades — Journey to the Okhotsk Sea 33 * XXXI. Social Life at Geezhega — Major Abasa's Expedi- tion — Sudden Transformation from Winter to Summer — Customs of the People, etc. 343 XXXII. Weary Waiting — Mosquitoes — Arrival of a Russian Frigate 362 XXXIII. Arrival of Supply-Ships — Last Journey to the Arctic Circle — Korak Drivers — Famine at Anadyrsk. . . . 374 XXXIV. Bush Redivivus — Serious Dilemma — Starvation threatened — Eight Hundred Laborers hired — En- terprising American — A Wilderness 39c XXXV. Journey to Gamsk— Valley of the Viliga— A Storm— A perilous Pass 406 XXXVI. Return to Geezhega — Arrival of the Onward— Or- ders to " Close up" — Beaten by the Atlantic Cable — Summary — Start for St. Petersburg — A Trip of more than 5,000 miles. TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. CHAPTER I. The Russo-American Telegraph Company, or, as it was more properly called, the "Western Union Extension," was organized at New York in the summer of 1864. The idea of a line from America to Europe, by way of Behring's Straits, had existed for many years in the minds of several prominent telegraphers, and had been proposed by Perry McD. Collins, Esq., as early as 1857, when he made his trip across Northern Asia. It was never seriously con- sidered, however, until after the failure of the first Atlan- tic cable, when the expediency of an overland line between the two continents began to be earnestly discussed. The plan of Mr. Collins, which was submitted to the Western Union Telegraph Company of New York as early as 1863, seemed to be the most practicable of all the projects which were suggested for inter-continental communication. It proposed to unite the telegraphic systems of America and Russia by a line through British Columbia, Russian America, and North-eastern Siberia, meeting the Russian lines at the mouth of the Amoor River on the Asiatic coast, and forming one continuous girdle of wire nearly round the globe. 2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. This plan possessed many very obvious advantages. It called for no long cables. It provided for a line which would run everywhere overland, except for a shcrt dis- tance at Behring's Straits, and which could be easily re- paired when injured by accident or storm. It promised also to extend its line eventually down the Asiatic coast to Pekin, and to develop a large and profitable business with China. All these considerations recommended it strongly to the favor of capitalists and practical telegraph men, and it was finally adopted by the Western Union Telegraph Co. in 1863. It was, of course, foreseen that the next Atlantic cable might succeed, and that such suc- cess would prove very damaging, if not fatal, to the prospects of the proposed overland line. Such an event, however, did not seem probable, and in view of ail the circumstances, the company decided to assume the inevitable risk. A contract was entered into with the Russian Govern- ment, providing for the extension of the latter' s line through Siberia to the mouth of the Amoor River, and granting to the Company certain extraordinary privileges in Russian territory. Similar concessions were obtained in 1864 from the British Government ; assistance was promised by oui own Congress ; and the "Western Union Extension Com- pany " was immediately organized, with a nominal capital of $10,000,000. The stock was rapidly taken, principally by the stockholders of the original Western Union Com- pany, and an assessment of five per cent, was immediate- ly made to provide funds for the prosecution of the work. Such was the faith at this time in the ultimate success of the enterprise, that its stock sold in two months for seven TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 3 ty-five dollars per share, with only one assessment of five dollars paid in. In August, 1864, Col. Chas. S. Bulkley, formerly Super- intendent of Military Telegraphs in the Department of the Gulf, was appointed Engineer-in-chief of the proposed line, and in December he sailed from New York for San Francisco, to organize and fit out exploring parties, and begin active operations. Led by a desire of identifying myself with so novel and important an enterprise, as well as by a natural love of travel and adventure which I had never before been able to gratify, I offered my services as an explorer soon aftei the projection of the line. My application was favorably considered, and on the 13th of December I sailed from New York with the Engineer-in-chief, for the proposed headquarters of the company at San Francisco. Col. Bulkley, immediately after his arrival, opened an office in Montgomery street, and began organizing exploring par- ties to make a preliminary survey of the route of the line. No sooner did it become noised about the city that men were wanted to explore the unknown regions of British Columbia, Russian America, and Siberia, than the com- pany's office was thronged with eager applicants for posi- tions, in any and every capacity. Adventurous Micawliers, who had long been waiting for something of this kind to turn up ; broken down miners, who hoped to retrieve their fortunes in new gold fields yet to be discovered in the north ; and returned soldiers thirst- ing for fresh excitement, — all hastened to offer their services as pioneers in the great work. Trained and skilled engi- 4 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. neers were in active demand ; but the supply of only ordi- nary men, w'.io made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in experience, was unlimited. Month after month passed slowly away in the selection, organization, and equipment of parties, until at last, in June, 1865, the company's vessels were reported ready for sea. The plan of operations, as far as it had then been decided upon, was to land one party in British Columbia, near the mouth of the Frazer River ; one in Russian America, at Norton's Sound; and one on the Asiatic side of Behring's Straits, at the mouth of the Anadyr River. These parties, under the direction respectively of Messrs. Pope, Kenni- cott, and Macrae, were directed to push back into the in- terior, following as far as practicable the courses of the rivers upon which they were landed; to obtain all possible information with regard to the climate, soil, timber, and inhabitants of the regions traversed ; and to locate, in a general way, a route for the proposed line. The two American parties would have comparatively advantageous bases of operations at Victoria and Fort St. Michael ; but the Siberian party, if left on the Asiatic coast at all, must be landed near Behring's Straits, on the edge of a barren, desolate region, nearly a thousand miles from any known settlement. Thrown thus upon its own re- sources, in an unknown country, and among nomadic tribes of hostile natives, without any means of interior transpor- tation except canoes, the safety and success of this party were by no means assured. It was even asserted by many friends of the enterprise, that to leave men in such a situation, and under such circumstances, was to abandon TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 5 them to almost certain death ; and the Russian Consul at San Francisco wrote a letter to Colonel Bulkley, advising him strongly not to land a party on the Asiatic coast oi the North Pacific, but to send it instead to one of the Russian ports of the Okhotsk Sea, where it could establish a base of supplies, obtain information with regard to the interior, and procure horses or dog-sledges for overland explorations in any desired direction. The wisdom and good sense of this advice were appa- rent to all ; but unfortunately the Engineer-in-chief had no vessel which he could send with a party into the Okhotsk Sea ; and if men were landed at all that summer on the Asiatic coast, they must be landed near Behring's Straits. Late in June, however, Col. Bulkley learned that a small Russian trading vessel, called the " Olga," was about to sail from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the south- west coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and he succeeded in pre- vailing upon the owners to take four men as passengers to the Russian settlement of Nikolas vsk, at the mouth of the Amoor River. This, although not as desirable a point for beginning operations as some others on the north coast of the sea, was still much better than any which could be se- lected on the Asiatic coast of the North Pacific ; and a party was soon organized to sail in the " Olga" for Kam- tchatka and the mouth of the Amoor. This party consist- ed of Major S. Abaza, a Russian gentleman who had been appointed superintendent of the work, and Generalissimo of the forces in Siberia ; James A. Mahood, a civil engineer of reputation in California ; R. J. Bush, who had just re« 6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. turned from three years' active service in the Carolinas ; and myself, — not a very formidable force in point of num- bers, nor a very remarkable one in point of experience, but strong in hope, self-reliance, and enthusiasm. On the 28th of June we were notified that " the brig Olga" had nearly all her cargo aboard, and would have " immediate dispatch" This marine metaphor, as we afterward learned, meant only that she would sail some time in the course of the summer ; but we, in our trustful inexperience, supposed that the brig must be all ready to cast off her moorings, and the announcement threw us into all the excitement and confusion of hasty preparation for a start. Dress coats, linen shirts, and fine boots were recklessly thrown or given away; blankets, heavy shoes, and over-shuts of flannel were purchased in large quantities ; Ballard & Sharpes' rifles, revolvers, and bowie-knives of formidable dimensions gave our room the appearance of a disorganized arsenal ; pots of arsenic, jars of alcohol, butterfly-nets, snake-bags, pill- boxes, and a dozen other implements and appliances of sci- ence about which we knew nothing, were given to us by our enthusiastic naturalists and packed away in big boxes ; Vrangell's Travels, Gray's Botany, and a few scientific works were added to our small library ; and before night we were able to report ourselves ready — armed and equip ped for any adventure, from the capture of a new species of bug, to the conquest of Kamtchatka ! As it was against all precedent to go to sea without looking at the ship, Bush and I appointed ourselves au examining committee for the party, and walked down to TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 7 the wharf where she lay. The Captain, a bluff Americanized German, met us at the gangway and guided us through the little brig from stem to stern. Our limited marine experience wouldn't have qualified us to pass an ex cathedrd judgment upon the sea-worthiness of a mud scow; but Bush, with char- acteristic impudence and versatility of talent, discoursed learnedly to the Captain upon the beauty of his vessel's "lines" (whatever those were), her spread of canvas and build generally, — discussed the comparative merits of single and double topsails, and new patent yard-slings, and reef- ing-tackle, and altogether displayed such an amount of nautical learning that it completely crushed me and stag- gered even the Captain. f-I strongly suspected that Bush had acquired most of his knowledge of sea terms from a cursory perusal of " Bow- ditch's Navigator," which I had seen lying on the office table, and I privately resolved to procure a compact edi- tion of Marryat's sea tales as soon as I should go ashore, and just overwhelm him next time with such accumulated stores of nautical erudition that he would hide his dimin- ished head. I had a dim recollection of reading some- thing in Cooper's novels about a ship's dead heads and cat's eyes, or cat heads and dead eyes, I couldn't remember which, and, determined not to be ignored as an inexperi- enced landlubber, I gazed in a vague sort of way into the rigging, and made a few very general observations upcn the nature of dead-eyes and spanker-booms. The Captain, however, promptly annihilated me by demanding categorically whether I had ever seen the spanker-boom jammed with the fore tops' 1-yard, with the wind abeam. J 8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. replied meekly that I believed such a catastiophe had never occurred under my immediate observation, and as he turned to Bush with a smile of commiseration for my igno- rance I ground my teeth and went below to inspect I he pantry. Here I felt more at home. The long rows of canned provisions, beef stock, concentrated milk, pie fruits, and a small keg, bearing the quaint inscription, " Zante cur.," soon soothed my perturbed spirit and convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt that the " Olga" was stanch and sea-worthy, and built in the latest and most improved style of marine architecture. I therefore went up to tell Bush that I had made a care- ful and critical examination of the vessel below, and that she would undoubtedly do. I omitted to state the nature of the observations upon which this conclusion was founded, but he asked no troublesome questions, and we returned to the office with a favorable report of the ship's build, capa- city, and outfit. On Saturday, July ist, the "Olga" took in the last of her cargo, and was hauled out into the stream. Our farewell letters were hastily written home, our final preparations made, and at nine o'clock on Monday morn- ing we assembled s t the Howard street wharf, where the steam-tug lay which was to tow us out to sea. A large party of friends had gathered to bid us good- by ; and the pier, covered with bright dresses and blue uniforms, presented quite a holiday appearance in the warm clear sunshine of a California morning Our last instructions were delivered to us by Colonel Bulkley, with many hearty wishes for our health and sue- TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 9 cess ; laughing invitations to " come and see us " were ex- tended to our less fortunate comrades who were left be- hind ; requests to send back specimens of the North Pole and the Aurora Borealis were intermingled with direction? for preserving birds and collecting bugs ; and amid a gen- eral confusion of congratulations, good wishes, cautions, bantering challenges, and tearful farewells, the steamer's bell rang. Dall, ever alive to the interests of his beloved science, grasped me cordially by the hand, saying, " Good- bv, George. God bless you ! Keep your eye out for land snails and skulls of the wild animals !" Miss B said pleadingly, "Take care of my dear brother ; " and as I promised to care for him as if he were my own, I thought of another sister far away, who, could she be present, would echo the request, " Take care of my dear brother." With waving handkerchiefs and repeated good-byes, we moved slowly from the wharf, and, steaming round in a great semicircle to where the "Olga" was ly- ing, we were transferred to the little brig, which, for the next two months, was to be our home. The steamer towed us outside the "heads" of the Golden Gate, and then cast off; and as she passed us on her way back, our friends gathered in a little group on the forward deck, with the Colonel at their head, and gave three generous cheers for the " First Siberian exploring party." We replied with three more, — our last farewell to civilization, — and silently watched the lessening figure of the steamer, until the white handkerchief which Arnold had tied to the backstays could no longer be seen, and we were rocking alone on the long swells of the Pacific. CHAPTER II. '* lie tcok great .ontent and exceeding delight in his voyage, as who doth 1108 US shall attempt thi like." — Burton. At Sea, 700 Miles N. W. of San Francisco. Wednesday, Jtily 12th, 1 865. Ten days ago, on the eve of our departure for the Asiatic coast, full of high hopes and joyful anticipations of pleas- ure, I wrote in a fair round hand on this opening page of my journal, the above sentence from Burton ; never once doubting, in my enthusiasm, the complete realization of those "future joys," which to "fancy's eye" lay in such " bright uncertainty," or suspecting that " a life on the ocean wave " was not a state of the highest felicity at- tainable on earth. The quotation seemed to me an ex- tremely happy one, and I mentally blessed the quaint old Anatomist of Melancholy for providing me with a motto at once so simple and so appropriate. Of course "he took great content and exceeding delight in his voyage; " and the wholly unwarranted assumption that because "he" did. every one else necessarily must, did not strike me as being in the least absurd. On the contrary, it carried all the weight of the severest logical demonstration, and I would have treated with con- tempt any suggestion of possible disappointment. Mj TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. II | ideas of sea life had been derived principally from glow- ing descriptions of poetical marine sunsets, of " summei isles of Eden, lying in dark purple spheres of sea," and of those " moonlight nights on lonely waters " with which poets have for ages beguiled ignorant landsmen into ocean voyages. Fogs, storms, and sea-sickness did not enter at all into my conceptions of marine phenomena ; or if I did admit the possibility of a storm, it was only as a picturesque, highly poetical manifestation of wind and water in action, without any of the disagreeable features which attend those elements under more prosaic circum- stances. I had, it is true, experienced a little rough weather on my voyage to California, but my memory had long since idealized it into something grand and poetical ; and I looked forward even to a storm on the Pacific as an experience not only pleasant, but highly desirable. The illusion was very pleasant while it lasted; but— it is over. Ten days of real sea life have converted the "bright uncertainty of future joys " into a dark and de- cided certainty of future misery, and left me to mourn the incompatibility of poetry and truth. Burton is a hum- bug, Tennyson a fraud, I'm a victim, and Byron and Procter are accessaries before the fact. Never again will I pin my faith to poets. They may tell the truth nearly enough for poetical consistency, but their judg- ment is hopelessly perverted and their imagination is too luxuriantly vivid for a truthful realistic delineation of sea life. Byron's " London Packet" is a trilliant exception, but I remember no other in the whole range of poetical literature. 12 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. Our life since we left port has certainly been anything but poetical. For nearly a week we suffered all the indescribable miseries of sea-sickness, without any alleviating circum- stances whatever. Day after day we lay in our narrow berths, too sick to read, too unhappy to talk, watching the cabin lamp as it swung uneasily in its well-oiled gim- bals, and listening to the gurgle and swash of the water around the after dead-lights, and the regular clank, clank of the blocks of the trisail sheet as the rolling of the vessel swung the heavy boom from side to side. We all professed to be enthusiastic supporters of the Tapleyan philosophy — jollity under all circumstances; but we failed most lamentably in reconciling our practice with our principles. There was not the faintest suggestion of jollity in the appearance of the four motionless, pros- trate figures against the wall. Sea-sickness had triumphed over philosophy ! Prospective and retrospective revery of a decidedly gloomy character was our only occupation. I remember speculating curiously upon the probability of Noah's having ever been sea-sick ; wondering how the sea- going qualities of the ark would compare with those of our brig, and whether she had our brig's uncomfortable way of pitching about in a heavy swell. If she had — and I almost smiled at the idea — what an unhappy experience it must have been for the pooi animals ! I wondered also if Jason and Ulysses were born with " sea legs," or whether they had to go through the same unpleasant process that we did to get them on. TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I J Concluded finally that " sea legs," like some diseases must be a diabolical invention of modern times, and that the ancients got along in some way without them. Then, looking intently at the fly-specks upon the painted boaids ten inches from my eyes, I would recall all the bright an- ticipations with which I had sailed from San Francisco, and turn over, with a groan of disgust, to the wall. I wonder if any one has ever written down on paper / his sea-sick reveries. There are " Evening Reveries " " Reveries of a Bachelor," and " Sea-side Reveries " in abundance ; but no one, so far as I know, has ever even attempted to do his Sea-sick Reveries literary justice. It is a strange oversight, and I would respectfully suggest to any aspiring writer who has the revery faculty, that there is here an unworked field of boundless extent. One trip across the North Pacific in a small brig will furnish an in- exhaustible supply of material. Our life thus far has been too monotonous to afford a single noticeable incident. The weather has been cold, damp, and foggy, with light head winds and a heavy swell ; we have been confined closely to our seven by nine after- cabin ; and its close stifling atmosphere, redolent of bilge- water, lamp-oil, and tobacco-smoke, has had a most de- pressing influence upon our spirits. I am glad to see, however, that all our party are up to-day, and that there is a faint interest manifested in the prospect of dinner ; but even the inspiriting strains of the Faust march which the Captain is playing upon a wheezy old accordion, fail to put any expression of animation into the woe-begone faces around the cabin table. Mahood pretends that he is all T4 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. right, and plays checkers with the captain with an air of assumed tranquillity which approaches heroism, but he is observed at irregular intervals to go suddenly and unex- pectedly on deck, and to return every time with a more ghastly and rueful countenance. When asked the object of these periodical visits to the quarter-deck, he replies, with a transparent affectation of cheerfulness, that he only goes up " to look at the compass and see how she's head- ing." I am surprised to find that " looking at the com- pass" is attended with such painful and melancholy emo- tions as those expressed inMahood's face when he comes back ; but he performs the self-imposed duty with unshrink- ing faithfulness, and relieves us of a great deal of a.nxiety about the safety of the ship. The Captain seems a little neg- ligent, and sometimes does not observe the compass once a day ; but Mahood watches it with unsleeping vigilance. Brig Olga, 800 Miles N. W. of San Francisco. Sunday, yuly 16th, 1865. .The monotony of our lives was relieved night before last, and our sea-sickness aggravated, by a severe gale of wind from the north-west, which compelled us to lie to for twenty hours under one close-reefed maintopsail. The storm began late in the afternoon, and by nine o'clock the wind was at its height and the sea rapidly rising. The waves pounded like Titanic sledge-hammers against the vessel's quivering timbers; the gale roared a deep diapa- son through the cordage ; and the regular thud, thud, thud of the pumps, and the long melancholy whis- tling of the wind through the blocks, filled our minds TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 5 with lismal forebodings, and banished all inclination fol sleep . M< >rning dawned gloomily and reluctantly, and its fust gray light, struggling through the film of water on the small rectangular deck-lights, revealed a comical scene of con- fusion and disorder. The ship was rolling and laboring heavily, and Mahood's trunk having in some way broken from its moorings, was sliding back and forth across the cabin floor. Bush's big meerschaum, in company with a corpulent sponge, had taker up temporary quarters in the tov.yi of niy best hat, and the Major's box of cigars revol- ved periodically from corner to corner in the close em- brace of a dirty shirt. Sliding and rolling over the car- pet in every direction were books, papers, cigars, brushes, dirty collars, stockings, empty wine-bottles, slippers, coats, and old boots ; and a large box of telegraph material threatened momentarily to break from its fastenings and demolish everything. The Major, who was the first to show any signs of animation, rose on one elbow in bed, gazed fixedly at the sliding and revolving articles, and shaking his head reflectively, said : " It is a c-u-r-ious thing ! It is a c-u r-ious thing ! " as if the migratory boots and cigar-boxes exhibited some new and perplexing pheno- mena not to be accounted for by any of the known laws of physics. A sudden roll in which the vessel indulged at that particular moment gave additional force to the sen- timent of the soliloquy ; and with renewed convictions, I have no doubt, of the original and innate depravity of mat- ter generally, and of the Pacific Ocean especially, he laid his head back upon the pillow. l6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. It required no inconsiderable degree of resolution to i turn out " under such unpromising circumstances ; bul Bush, after two or three groans and a yawn, made the at- tempt to get up and dress. Climbing hurriedly down when the ship rolled to windward, he caught his boots in one hand and pants in the other, and began hopping about the cabin with surprising agility, dodging or jumping over the sliding trunk and rolling bottles, and making frantic efforts to put both legs simultaneously into one boot. Sur- prised in the midst of this arduous task by an unexpected lurch, he made an impetuous charge upon an 17 inoffensive washstand, stepped on an erratic bottle, fell on his head, and finally brought up a total wreck in the corner of the room. Convulsed with laughter, the Major could only ejaculate disconnectedly, " I tell you — it is a — curious thing how she — rolls!" "Yes," rejoined Bush savagely, as he rub- bed one knee, " I should think it was ! Just get up and try it !" But the Major was entirely satisfied to see Bush try it, and did nothing but laugh at his misfortunes. The latter finally succeeded in getting dressed, and after some hesitation I concluded to follow his example. By dint of falling twice over the trunk, kneeling upon my heels, sitting on my elbows, and executing several other equally impracticable feats, I got my vest on inside out, both feet in the wrong boots respectively, and staggered up the companion-way on deck. The wind was still blow- ing a gale, and we showed no canvas but one close-reefed maintopsail. Great massive mounds of blue water piled themselves up in the concealment of the low hanging rain- clouds, rushed out upon us with white foaming crests ten TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 7 feet above the quarter-deck, and broke into clouds of blinding, strangling spray over the forecastle and galley, careening the ship until die bell on the quarter-deck struck and water run in over the lee gunwale. It did not exact- ly correspond with my preconceived ideas of a storm, but I was obliged to confess that it had many of the charac- teristic features of the real phenomenon. The wind had the orthodox howl through the rigging, the sea was fully up to the prescribed standard, and the vessel pitched and rolled in a way to satisfy the most critical taste. The impression of sublimity, however, which I had anticipated was almost entirely lost in the sense of personal discomfort. A man who has just been pitched over a skylight by one of the ship's eccentric movements, or drenched to the skin by a burst of spray, is not in a state of mind to contemplate sublimity ; and after going through a varied and exhaus- tive course of such treatment, any romantic notions which he may previously have entertained with regard to the ocean's beauty and sublimity are pretty much knocked and drowned out of him. Rough weather makes short work of poetry and sentiment. The " wet sheet " and " flowing sea" of the poet have a significance quite the reverse of poetical when one discovers the "wet sheet" in his bed and the " flowing sea " all over the cabin floor, and om experience illustrates not so much the sublimity as the unpleasantness and discomfort of a storm at sea. Brig Olga, at Sea, July 27th, 1865. I used often to wonder, while living in San Francisco, where the chilling fogs that toward night used to drift in l8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. over I ,one Mountain and through the Golden Gate, came from. I have discovered the laboratory. For the past two weeks we have been sailing continually in a dense wet gray cloud of mist, so thick at times as almost to hide the top-gallant yards, and so penetrating as to find its way even into our little after-cabin, and condense in mi- nute drops upon our clothes. It rises, I presume, from the warm water of the great Pacific "Gulf Stream" across which we are passing, and whose vapor is condensed into fog by the cold north-west winds from Siberia. It is the most disagreeable feature of our voyage. Our life has finally settled down into a quiet mono- tonous routine of eating, smoking, watching the baro- meter, and sleeping twelve hours a day. The gale with which we were favored two weeks ago afforded a pleas- ant thrill of temporary excitement and a valuable topic of conversation ; but we have all come to coincide in the opinion of the Major, that it was a " curious thing," and are anxiously awaiting the turning up of something else. One cold, rainy, foggy day succeeds another, with only an occasional variation in the way of a head wind or a flurry of snow. Time, of course, hangs heavily on our hands. We are waked about half-past seven in the morning by the second mate, a funny phlegmatic Dutchman, who is always shouting to us to " turn out " and see an imagi- nary whale, which he conjures up regularly before break- fast, and which invariably disappears before we can get on deck, as mysteriously as " Moby Dick." The whale, however, fails to " draw " after a time, and he resorts to e within an hour's sail — the lofty snowy peaks — the deep gorges and the bold headlands, had all " melted into thin air, Leaving not a rack behind." There was nothing to indicate the existence of land within a thousand miles, save the number and variety of the birds that wheeled curiously around our wake, and flew away with a splattering noise from under our bows Many were the theories which were suggested to account for the sudden disappearance of the high bold land. The Captain attempted to explain it by the supposition that a strong current, sweeping off shore, had during the night carried us away to the south-east. Bush accused the mate of being asleep on his watch, and letting the ship run over the land, while the mate declared solemnly that he didn't believe that there had been any land there at all ; that it was only a mirage. The Major said it was " paganni," and " a curious thing," but did not volunteer any solution of the problem. So there we were. We had a fine leading wind from the S. E., and were. now going through the water at the rate of seven knots. Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock, and still no ap- pearance of land, although we had made since daylight more than thirty miles. At eleven o'clock, however, the horizon gradually darkened, and all at once a bold head- land, terminating in a precipitous cliff, loomed up out of & thin mist at a distance of only four miles. All was at TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2") once excitement. The top-gallant sails were clewed up to reduce the vessel's speed, and her course was changed so that we swept round in a curve broadside to the coast, about three miles distant. The mountain peaks, by which we might have ascertained our position, were hidden by the clouds and fog, and it was no easy matter to ascertain exactly where we were. Away to the left, dimly defined in the mist, were two or three more high blue headlands, but what they were or where the harbor of Petropavlovski might be, were ques- tions which no one could answer. The Captain brought his charts, compass, and drawing instruments on deck, laid them on the cabin skylight, and began taking the bearings of the different headlands, while we eagerly scanned the shore with glasses, and gave free expressions to our several opinions as to our situation. The Russian chart which the Captain had of the coast, was fortunately a good one, and he soon determined our position, and the names of the headlands first seen. We were just north of Cape Pavorotni, about nine miles south of the entrance of Avatcha Bay. The yards were now squared, and we went off on the new tack before a steady breeze from the south-east. In less than an hour we sighted the high iso- lated rocks known as the "Three Brothers," passed a rocky precipitous island, surrounded by clouds of shrieking gulls and parrot-billed ducks, and by two o'clock were off "the heads" of Avatcha Bay, on which is situated the village of Petropavlovski. The scenery at the entrance more than equalled our highest anticipations. Green grassy valleys stretched away from openings in the rocky 28 TENT LIFE IN SIBERH. coast until they were lost in the distant mountains ; the rounded bluffs were covered with clumps of yellow birch ; and thickets of dark green chaparral, patches of flowers, oould be seen on the warm sheltered slopes of the hills ; and as we passed close under lighthouse bluff, Bush shout- ed joyously, " Hurrah, there's clover ! " " Clover ! " cxk claimed the Captain contemptuously, "There ain't any clover in the Ar'tic regions!" "How do you know, you've never been there," retorted Bush caustically ; " it looks like clover, and" — looking through a glass — "it is clover;" and his face lighted up as if the discovery of clover had relieved his mind of a great deal of anxiety as to the severity of the Kamtchatkan climate. It was a sort of vegetable exponent of temperature, and out of a little patch of clover, Bush's imagination " developed," in a style undreamt of by Darwin, the whole luxuriant Flora of the temperate zone. The very name of Kamtchatka had always been asso- ciated in our minds with everything barren and inhospita- ble, and we did not entertain for a moment the thought that such a country could afford beautiful scenery and luxuriant vegetation. In fact, with us all it was a mooted question whether anything more than mosses, lichens, and perhaps a little grass maintained the unequal struggle for existence in that frozen clime. It may be imagined with what delight and surprise we looked upon green hills covered with trees and verdant thickets ; upon valleys white with clover and diversified with little groves of silver- barked birch ; and even the rocks nodding with wild roses and columbine, which had taken root in their clefts as if TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 29 Nature strove to hide with a garment of flowers the evi- dences of past convulsions. Just before three o'clock we came in sight of the vil- lage of Petropavlovki — a little cluster of red-roofed and bark-thatched log houses ; a Greek church of curious architecture, with a green painted dome ; a strip of beach, a half-ruined wharf, two whale-boats, and the dismantled wreck of a half-sunken vessel. High green hills swept in a great semicircle of foliage around the little village, and almost shut in the quiet pond-like harbor — an inlet of Avatcha Bay — on which it was situated. Under fore- sail and main-topsail we glided silently under the shadow of the encircling hills into this land-locked mill pond, and within a stone's throw of the nearest house the sails were suddenly clewed up, and with a quivering of the ship and a rattle of chain-cable our anchor dropped into the soil of Asia. CHAPTER IV. It has been well observed by Irving, thai to one about (o visit foreign countries a long sea voyage is an ex- cellent preparative. To quote his own words, "The temporary absence of worldly scenes and employments produces a state of mind peculiarly fitted to receive new and vivid impressions." And he might have added with equal truth — favorable impressions. The tiresome monotony f>f sea life predisposes the traveller to regard favorably anything that will quicken his stagnating faculties and perceptions, and furnish new matter for thought, and the most commonplace scenery and circumstances afford him gratification and delight. For this reason one is apt, upon arriving after a long voyage in a strange country, to form a more favorable opinion of its people and scenery than his subsequent experience will sustain. But it seems to me particularly fortunate that our first impressions of a new country, which are most clear and vivid, and therefore most lasting, are also most pleasant, so that in future years a retrospective glance over our past wanderings will show the most cheerful pictures drawn in the brightest and most enduring colors. I am sure that the recollection of my first view of the mountains of Kamtchatka, the delight with which my eye drank in their "bright aerial tints," and til? romance with which my ardent fancy invested them, TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 31 will long outlive the memory of the hardships I have en- dured among them, the snow-storms that have pelted me on their summits, and the rains that have drenched me in their valleys. Fanciful perhaps, but I believe true. The longing for land which one feels after having been five or six weeks at sea is sometimes so strong as to be almost a passion. I verily believe that if the first land we saw had been one of those immense barren moss steppes which I afterward came to hold in such detesta- tion, I should have considered it as nothing less than the original site of the Garden of Eden. Not all the charms which Nature has lavished upon the Vale of Tempe could have given me more pleasure than did the little green valley in which nestled the red-roofed and bark-covered log-houses of Petropavlovski. The arrival of a ship in that remote and unfrequented part of the world is an event of no little importance ; and the rattling of our chain-cable through the hawse-hole? created a very perceptible sensation in the quiet village. Little children ran bareheaded out of doors, looked at us for a moment, and then ran hastily back to call the rest of the household ; dark-haired natives and Russian pea- sants, in blue shirts and leather pants, gathered in a group at the landing; and seventy-five or a hundred half-wild dogs broke out suddenly into a terrific chorus of howls in honor of our arrival. It was already late in the afternoon, but we could not restrain our impatience to step once more upon dry land; and as soon as the Captain's boat could be low- ered, Bush, Mahood, and I went ashore to look at the town, J2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. Petropavlovski is laid out in a style which is very irregular, without being at all picturesque. The idea of a street never seems to have suggested itself either to the original settlers or to their descendants; and the paths, such as they are, wander around aimlessly among the scattered houses, like erratic sheep-walks. It is impos- sible to go for a hundred yards in a straight line, in any direction, without either bringing up against the side of a house or trespassing upon somebody's back-yard; and in the night one falls over a slumbering cow, upon a fail average, once every fifty feet. In other respects it is rather a pretty village, surrounded as it is by high green hills, and affording a fine view of the beautiful snowy peak of Avatcha, which rises to a height of 11,000 feet directly behind the town. Mr. Fluger, a German merchant of Petropavlovski who had boarded us in a small boat outside the harbor, now constituted himself our guide ; and after a short walk around the village, invited us to his house, where we sat in a cloud of fragrant cigar-smoke, talking over American war news, and the latest "on dit" of Kamtchatkan so- ciety, until it finally began to grow dark. I noticed, among other books lying upon Mr. F.'s table, " Life Thoughts," by Beecher, and "The Schonberg-Cotta Family," and wondered that the latter had already found it? way to the far distant shores of Kamtchatka. As new-comers, it was our first duty to pay our respects to the Russian authorities ; and, accompanied by Mr. Finger and Mr. Bollman, we called upon Captain Sutko- voi, the resident "Captain of the port." His house, TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. $$ with its bright red tin roof, was almost hid by a largf grove of thrifty oaks, through which tumbled, in a succes sion of little cascades, a clear, cold mountain stream We entered the gate, walked up a broad gravelled path, under the shade of the interlocking branches, and, without knocking, entered the house. Captain S. welcomed us cordially, and notwithstanding our inability to speak any language but our own, soon made us feel quite at home. Conversation however languished, as every remark had to be translated through two languages before it could be understood by the person to whom it was addressed ; and brilliant as it might have been in the first place, it lost its freshness in being passed around through Russian, Ger- man, and English to us. I was surprised to see so many evidences of cultivated and refined taste in this remote corner of the world, where I had expected barely the absolute necessaries of life, or at best a few of the most common comforts. A large piano of Russian manufacture occupied one corner of the room, and a choice assortment of Russian, German, and American music testified to the musical taste of its owner. A few choice paintings and lithographs adorned the walls, and on the centre-table rested a handsome stereoscope with a large collection of photographic views, and an un- finished game of chess, from which Capt. and Madame Sutkovoi had risen at our entrance. After a pleasant visit of an hour we took our leave, re- ceiving an invitation to dinner on the following day. It was not yet decided whether we should continue our voyage to the Amoor River or remain in Petropavlovski 34 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. and begin our northern journey from there, so we still re* garded the brig as our home and returned every night to our little cabin. The first night in port was strangely calm, peaceful, and quiet, accustomed as we had become to the rolling, pitching, and creaking of the vessel, the swash of water and the whistling of the wind. There was not a zephyr abroad, and the surface of the miniature bay lay like a dark mirror, in which were obscurely reflected the high hills which formed its setting. A few scattered lights from the village threw long streams of radiance across the dark water, and from the black hillside on our right was heard at intervals the faint lonely tinkle of a cow- bell or the long melancholy howl c f a wolf-like dog. 1 tried hard to sleep ; but the novelty of our surroundings, the thought that we were now in Asia, and hundreds of conjectures and forecastings as to our future prospects and adventures, put sleep for a long time at defiance. The village of Petropavlovski which, although not the largest, is one of the most important settlements in the Kamtchatkan peninsula, has a population of perhaps two or three hundred natives and Russian peasants, together with a few German and American merchants, drawn thither by the trade in sables. It is not fairly a representative Kamtchadal town, for it has felt in no inconsiderable de- gree the civilizing influences of foreign intercourse, and shows in its manners and modes of life and thought some evidences of modern enterprise and enlightenment. It has existed as a settlement since the early part of the eighteenth century, and is old enough to have acquired some civiliza- tion of its own ; but age in a Siberian town is no criterion TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 35 of development, and Petropavlovski either has not at- tained the enlightenment of maturity, or has passed into its second childhood, for it is still in a benighted condition. Why it was and is called Petropavlovski — the village of St. Peter and St. Paul — I failed, after diligent inquiry, to learn. The sacred canon does not contain any epistle to the Kamtchatkans, much as they need it, nor is there any other evidence to show that the ground on which the vil- lage stands was ever visited b) either of the eminent saints whose names it bears. The conclusion to which we are driven therefore is, that its inhabitants, not being distin- guished for apostolic virtues, and feeling their need of saintly intercession, called the settlement after St. Peter and St. Paul, with the hope that those Apostles would feel a sort of proprietary interest in the place, and secure its final salvation without any unnecessary inquiries into its merits. Whether that was the idea of its original founders or not I cannot say ; but such a plan would be eminently •adapted to the state of society in most of the Siberian settlements where faith is strong, but where works are few in number and questionable in tendency. The sights of Petropavlovski, speaking after the man- ner of tourists, are few and uninteresting. It has two monuments erected to the memory of the distinguished navigators Behring and La Perouse, and there are traces on its hills of the fortifications built during the Crimean war to repel the attack of the allied French and English squadrons ; but aside from these, the town can boast of no objects or places of historical interest. To us, however, who had been shut up nearly two months in a close dark $6 TENT LIFE IN 'SIBERIA. cabin, the village was attractive enough of itself, and early on the following morning we went ashore for a ramble on I he wooded peninsula which separates the small harbor from Avatcha Bay. The sky was cloudless, but a dense fog drifted low over the hill tops and veiled the surround- ing mountains from sight. The whole landscape was green as emerald and dripping with moisture, but the sun- shine struggled occasionally through the gray cloud of vapor, and patches of light swept swiftly across the wet hillsides, like sunny smiles upon a tearful face. The ground everywhere was covered with flowers. Marsh vio- lets dotted the grass here and there with blue ; columbine swung its purple-hooded bells over the gray mossy rocks ; and wild roses appeared everywhere in dense thickets, with their delicate pink petals strewn over the ground beneath them like a colored shadow. Climbing up the slope of the steep hill between the harbor and the bay, shaking down little showers of water from every bush we touched, and treading under foot hun- dreds of dewy flowers, we came suddenly upon the monu- ment of La Perouse. I hope his countrymen, the French, have erected to his memory some more tasteful and en- during token of their esteem than this. It is simply a wooden frame, covered with sheet iron, and painted black. It bears no date or inscription whatever* and looks more like the tombstone over the grave of a criminal, than a monument to keep fresh the memory of a distinguished navigator. Bush sat down on a little grassy knoll to make a sketch of the scene, while Mahood and I wandered on up the hill TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 37 towaid the old Russian batteries. They are several in number, situated along the crest of the ridge which divides the inner from the outer bay, and command the approaches to the town from the west. They are now almost over- grown with grass and flowers, and only the form of the embrasures distinguishes them from shapeless mounds of eaith. It would be thought that the remote situation and inhospitable climate of Kamtchatka would have secured tf its inhabitants an immunity from the desolating ravages ot war. But even this country has its ruined forts and grass- grown battle-fields ; and its now silent hills echoed not long ago to the thunder of opposing cannon. Leaving Mahood to make a critical survey of the entrenchments — ■ an occupation which his tastes and pursuits rendered more interesting to him than to me — I strolled on up the hill to the edge of the cliff from which the storming party of the Allies was thrown by the Russian gunners. No traces now remain of the bloody struggle which took place upon the brink of this precipice. Moss covers with its green carpet the ground which was torn up in the death-grap- ple ; and the nodding bluebell, as it bends to the fresh sea- breeze, tells no story of the last desperate rally, the hand to hand conflict, and the shrieks of the overpowered as they were thrown from the Russian bayonets upon the rocky beach a hundred feet below. It seems to me that it was little better than wanton cruelty in the Allies to attack this unimportant and isola- ted post, so far from the real centre of conflict. Could its capture have lessened in any way the power or re- sources of the Russian Government, or, by creating a diver- 38 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. sion, have attracted attention from the decisive struggle in the Crimea, it would perhaps have been justifiable ; but it could not possibly have any direct or indirect in- lluence upon the ultimate result, and only brought misery upon a few inoffensive Kamtchadals who had never heard of Turkey or the "Eastern Question," and whose first in- timation of a war probably was the thunder of the enemy's cannon and the bursting of shells at their very doors. The attack of the Allied fleet, however, was signally re- pulsed, and its Admiral, stung with mortification at being foiled by a mere handful of Cossacks and peasants, com- mitted suicide. On the anniversary of the battle it is still customary for all the inhabitants, headed by the priests, to march in solemn procession round the town and over the hill from which the storming party was thrown, chant- ing hymns of joy and praise for the victory. After botanizing a while upon the battle-field, I was joined by Bush, who had completed his sketch, and we all returned, tired and wet, to the village. Our appear- ance anywhere on shore always created a sensation among the inhabitants. The Russian peasants and native pea- sants whom we met removed their caps, and held them respectfully in their hands while we passed; the win- dows of the houses were crowded with heads intent upon getting a sight of the " Amerikanski Chinovnikee ;" and even the dogs broke into furious barks and howls at our approach. Bush declared that he could not remem- ber a time in his history when he had been of so much consequence, and attracted such general attention as now; and he attributed it all to the discrimination and TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 39 intelligence of Kamtchatkan society. Prompt and in- stinctive recognition of superior genius he affirmed to be a characteristic of that people, and he expressed deep regret that it was not equally so of some other people whom he could mention. " No reference to an allusion intended !" CHAPTER V. One of the first things which the traveller notices iu any foreign land is the language, and it is especially no- ticeable in Kamtchatka, Siberia, or any part of the great Russian Empire. What the Russians did a.t the Tower of Babel to have been afflicted with such a complicated, contorted, mixed up, utterly incomprehensible language, I can hardly conjecture. I have thought sometimes that they must have built their side of the tower higher than any of the other tribes, and have been punished for their sinful industry by this jargon of unintelligible sounds, which no man could possibly hope to understand before he became so old and infirm that he could never work on another tower. However they came by it, it is certainly a thorn in the flesh to all travellers in the Russian Em- pire. Some weeks before we reached Kamtchatka I de- termined to learn, if possible, a few common expressions, which would be most useful in our first intercourse with the natives, and 'among them the simple declarative sentence, "I want something to eat." I thought that this would probably be the first observation which I should have to address to any of the inhabitants, and I determined to learn it so thoroughly that I should never be in danger of starvation from ignorance. I accordingly asked the Major one day what the equivalent expression was in Russian. He coolly replied that whenever I wanted any- TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 41 thing to eat, all that I had to do was to say, " Vashavwe- sokeeblagarodiaee veeleekeeprevoskhodeetelstvoee takdal- shai." I believe I never felt such a sentiment of reveren- tial admiration for the acquired talents of any man as F did for those of the Major when I heard him pronounce, fluently and gracefully, this extraordinary sentence. My mind was hopelessly lost in attempting to imagine the number of years of patient toil which must have preceded his first request for food, and I contemplated with astonish- ment the indefatigable perseverance which has borne bim triumphant through the acquirement of such a language. If the simple request for something to eat presented such apparently insurmountable obstacles to pronunciation, what must the language be in its dealings with the more abstruse questions of theological and metaphysical sci- ence ? Imagination stood aghast at the thought. I frankly told the Major that he might print out this terrible sentence on a big placard and hang it around my neck ; but as for learning to pronounce it, I couldn't, and didn't propose to try. I found out afterward that he had taken advantage of my inexperience and confiding dispo- sition by giving me some of the longest and worst words in his barbarous language, and pretending that they meant something to eat. The real translation in Russian would have been bad enough, and it was wholly unneces- sary to select peculiarly hard words. The Russian language is, I believe, without exception, the most difficult of all modern languages to learn. Its difficulty does not lie, as would be supposed, in pronun- ciation. Its words are all spelled phonetically, and have 42 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. only a few sounds which are foreign to English ; but iri grammar is exceptionally involved and intricate. It has seven cases and three genders ; and as the latter are de- pendent upon no definite principle whatever, but are purely arbitrary, it is almost impossible for a foreigner to learn them so as to give nouns and adjectives their proper terminations. Its vocabulary is very copious ; and its idiom has a peculiarly racy individuality of its own, which can hardly be appreciated without a thorough ac- quaintance with the popular style of conversation among the Russian peasants. The Russian, like all the Indo-European languages, is closely related to the ancient Sanscrit, and seems to have preserved unchanged, in a greater degree than any of the others, the old Vedic words. The first ten numerals, as spoken by a Hindoo a thousand years before the Chris- tian era, would, with one or two exceptions, be understood by a modern Russian peasant. During our stay in Petropavlovski we succeeded in learning the Russian for " Yes," " No," and " How do you do ? " and we congratulated ourselves not a little upon even this slight progress in a language of such peculiar difficulty. While upon this subject, I wish to say a few words with regard to the method which has been generally adopted by travellers and geographers of spelling Russian proper names in English letters. It consists briefly in using the English letter/ indiscriminately to represent the Russian sounds zh and ya, the English w for the sounds of v and /*, and the English tch and stch for the simple sound of ch in " chair." TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 43 How so senseless a custom originated I cannot imagine. There is no such letter in the Russian language as W, and no such sound as that of w in " wood ; " and yet we hay 2 it used instead of Fin all such words as Wrangell, Woronsof, Wolga, Wladimir, Pultowa, and werst, as if the compilers of our geographies were all lineal descendants of the elder Mr. Weller, and couldn't pronounce /^other- wise than "we." What propriety is there in taking a Russian word which is pronounced Gee-zhee-ga and spel- ling it G-h-i-j-i-g-h-a, or in calling Kam-chat-ka Kam-skat- ka and spelling it K-a-m-s-t-c-h-a-t-k-a. The Russian sounds in those words are simple enough, and there is neither orthographical propriety nor common sense in the popular style of spelling and pronouncing them. I saw only a few days since the names of two prominent moun- tains in Kamtchatka spelled Klieutchiefskajia and Shieu- vailitschinskajia, and I ask, who, in the name of Noah Webster, could ever pronounce them without getting half a dozen supplementary organs of speech ? Had they been spelled as they should have been, Kloochefskia and Soo- vail-itch-in'-skia, there would have been some hope of an approximation to their sound. I hope, for the sake of the rising generation, that our next geographical reform will be the adoption of some simple but comprehensive system of spelling foreign names in English letters, and that the orthography of Russian proper names will not be left, as it has hitherto been, to chance or individual caprice. Our reception at Petropavlovski by both Russians and Americans was most cordial and enthusiastic, and the first three or four days after our arrival were spent in one con 44 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. tiriuotis round of visits and dinners. On Thursday we made an excursion on horseback to a little village called Avatcha, ten or fifteen versts distant across the bay, and came back perfectly charmed with the scenery, climate, and vegetation of this beautiful peninsula. The load wound around the slopes of grassy, wooded hills, above the clear blue water of the bay, commanding a view of the bold purple promontories which formed the gateway to the sea, and revealing now and then, between the clumps of silver birch, glimpses of long ranges of pic- turesque snow-covered mountains, stretching away along the west coast to the white solitary peak of Vill-vo-chin- ski, thirty or forty miles distant. The vegetation every- where was almost tropical in its rank luxuriance. We could pick handfuls of flowers almost without bending from our saddles, and the long wild grass through which we rode would in many places sweep our waists. De- lighted to find the climate of Italy where we had antici- pated the biting air of Labrador, and inspirited by the Deautiful scenery, we woke the echoes of the hills with American songs, shouted, hallooed, and ran races on our little Cossack ponies until the setting sun warned us that it was time to return. Upon the information which he obtained in Petropav- lovski, Major Abasa formed a plan of operations for the ensuing winter, which was briefly as follows : Mahood and Bush were to go on in the " Olga" to the mouth of the Amoor River, on the Chinese frontier, and making that settlement their base of supplies, were to explore the rough mountainous region lying west of the Okhotsk Sea TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 45 and south of the Russian seaport of Okhotsk. The Majoi and I, in the meantime, were to travel northward with a party of natives through the peninsula of Kamtchatka, and strike the proposed route of the line about midway be- tween Okhotsk and Behring's Straits. Dividing again here, one of us would go westward to meet Mahood and Bus!? at Okhotsk, and one northward to a Russian trading sta- tion called Anadirsk, about four hundred miles west of the Straits. In this way we would cover the whole ground to be traversed by our line, with the exception of the bar- ren desolate region between Anadirsk and Behring's Straits, which our chief proposed to leave for the present unexplored. Taking into consideration our circumstances and the smallness of our force, this plan was probably the best which could possibly have been devised, but it made it necessary for the Major and me to travel throughout the whole winter without a single companion except our na- tive teamsters. As I did not speak Russian, it would be next to impossible for nie to do this without an interpre- ter, and the Major engaged in that capacity a young American fur trader, named Dodd, who had been living seven years in Petropavlovski, and who was familiar with the Russian language and the habits and customs of the natives. With this addition our whole force numbered five men, and was to be divided into three parties ; one for the west coast of the Okhotsk Sea, one for the north coast, and one for the country between the Sea and the Arctic Circle. All minor details, such as means of trans- portation and subsistence, were left to the discretion of the several parties. We were to live on the country, 46 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. tjavel with the natives, and avail ourselves of any and every means of transportation and subsistence which the country afforded. It was no pleasure excursion upon which we were about to enter. The Russian authorities at Petropavlovski gave us all the informatior and assist- ance in their power, but did not hesitate to express the opinion that five men would never succeed in exploring the eighteen hundred miles of barren, almost uninhabited country, between the Amoor River and Behring's Straits It was not probable, they said, that the Major could get through the peninsula of Kamtchatka at all that fall as he anticipated, but that if he did, he certainly could not pene- trate the great desolate steppes to the northward, which were only inhabited by wandering tribes of Chookchis and Koraks. The Major replied simply that he would show them what we could do, and went on with his preparations. On Saturday morning, August 26th, the " Olga" sailed with Mahood and Bush for the Amoor River, leaving the Major, Dodd, and me, at Petropavlovski, to make our way northward through Kamtchatka. As the morning was clear and sunny, I engaged a boat and a native crew, and accompanied Bush and Ma- hood out to sea. As we began to feel the fresh morning land-breeze, and to draw out slowly from under the cliffs of the west coast, I drank a farewell glass of wine to the success of the " Amoor River Exploring Party," shook hands with the Captain and complimented his Dutch History, and bade good-by to the mates and men. As I went over the side, the second mate seemed oveicome with emotion at TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 47 the thought of the perils which I was about to encountei in that heathen country, and cried out in funny, broken English, "Oh, Mr. Kinney!" (he couldn't say Kennanj "who's a g'un to cook for ye, and ye can't get no potatus- ses?" as if the absence of a cook and the lack of pot:i toes were the summing up of all earthly privations. 1 assured him cheerfully that we could cook for ourselves, and eat roots : but he shook his head mournfully, as if he saw in prophetic vision the state of misery to which Siberian roots and our own cooking must inevitably re- duce us. Bush told me afterward that on the voyage to the Amoor he frequently observed the second mate in deep and melancholy revery, and upon approaching him and asking him what he was thinking about, he answered, with a mournful shake of the head and an indescribable emphasis : " Poor Mr. Kinney ! Poor Mr. Kinney ! Poor Mr. Lemon ! " to use his own words. Notwithstanding the scepticism with which I treated his sea-serpent, he gave me a place in his rough affections, second only to " Tommy," his favorite cat, and the pigs. As the "Olga" sheeted home her top-gallant sails, changed her course more to the eastward, and swept slowly out between the heads, I caught a last glimpse tf Bush, standing on the quarter-deck by the wheel, and telegraphing some unintelligible words in the Morse al- phabet with his arm. I waved my hat in response, and turn- ing shoreward, with a lump in my throat, ordered the men to give way. The " Olga" was gone, and the kst tie which connected us with the civilized world seemed severed CHAPTER VI. Our time in Petropavlovski, after the departure of the " Olga," was almost wholly occupied in making prepara- tions for our northern journey through the Kamtchatkan peninsula. On Tuesday, however, Dodd told me that there was to be a wedding at , the church, and invited me to go over and witness the ceremony. It took place in the body of the church, immediately after some sort of morning service, which had nearly closed when we en- tered. I had no difficulty in singling out the happy indi- viduals whose fortunes were to be united in the holy bonds of matrimony. They betrayed their own secret by their assumed indifference and unconsciousness. The unlucky (lucky ?) man was a young, round-headed Cossack about twenty years of age, dressed in a dark frock coat trimmed with scarlet and gathered like a lady's dress above the waist, which, with a reckless dis- regard for his anatomy, was assumed to be six inches be- low his armpits. In honor of the extraordinary occasion he had donned a great white standing collar which pro- jected above his ears, as the mate of the " Olga" would say "like fore to' gallant studd'n' s'ls." Owing to a deplor- able lack of understanding between his cotton pants and his shoes they failed to meet by about six inches, and no provision had been made for the deficiency. The bride TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 40 was comparatively an old woman — at least twenty years the young man's senior, and a widow. I thought witn a sigh of the elder Mr. Weller's parting injunction to his son, " Bevare o' the vidders, Sammy — Bevare o' the vid- ders," and wondered what the old gentleman would say could he see this unconscious "wictim" walking up to the altar " and thinkin' in his 'art that it was all wery cap- ital." The bride wore a dress of that peculiar style of calico known as " furniture prints," without trimming or ornaments of any kind. Whether it was cut "bias" or with "gores," I'm sorry to say I don't know, dress-mak- ing being as much of an occult science to me as divina- tion. Her hair was tightly bound up in a scarlet silk handkerchief, fastened in front with a little gilt button. As soon as the church service was concluded the altar was removed to the middle of the room, and the priest, donning a black silk gown which, contrasted strangely with his heavy cowhide boots, summoned the couple be- fore him. After giving to each three lighted candles tied together with blue ribbon, he began to read in a loud sonorous voice what I supposed to be the marriage service, paying no attention whatever to stops, but catching his breath audibly in the midst of a sentence and hurrying on again with ten-fold rapidity. The candidates for matrimony were silent, but the deacon, who was looking abstractedly out of a window on the opposite side of the church, inter- rupted him occasionally with doleful chanted responses. At the conclusion of the reading they all crossed them- \ selves devoutly half a dozen times in succession, and after 50 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. asking them the decisive question the priest gave (hem each a silver ring. Then came more reading, at the end of which he administered to them a teaspoonful of wine out of a cup. Reading and chanting were again resumed and continued for a long time, the bridegroom and bride crossing and prostrating themselves continually, and the Deacon closing up his responses by repeating with the most astounding rapidity, fifteen times in five seconds, the words " Gaspodi pomeelui," " God have mercy upon us." He then brought in two large gilt crowns orna- mented with medallions, and blowing off the dust which had accumulated upon them since the last wedding, he placed them upon the heads of the bridegroom and bride. The young Cossack's crown was altogether too large, and slipped down over his head like a candle extinguisher until it rested upon his ears — eclipsing his eyes entirely. The bride's hair — or rather the peculiar manner in which it was "done up" — precluded the possibility of making a crown stay on her head, and an individual from among the spectators was detailed to hold it there. The priest then made the couple join hands, seized the groom's hand him- self, and they all began a hurried march around the altar — the priest first, dragging along the Cossack, who, blinded by the crown, was continually stepping on his leader's heels, the bride following the groom, and trying to keep the crown from pulling her hair down, and lastly, the supernumerary stepping on the bride's dress and holding the gilt emblem of royalty in its place. The whole per- formance was so indesciibably ludicrous, that I could not possibly keep my countenance in that sober frame which TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 5 1 befitted the solemnity of the occasion, and neai \y scan- dalized the whole assembly by laughing out aloud. Three times they marched in this way around the altar, and the ceremony was then ended. The bride and groom kissed the crowns reverently as they took them off, walked around the church, crossing themselves and bowing in succession before each of the pictures of saints which hung against the wall, and at last turned to receive the congratulations of their friends. It was expected of course that the distinguished American, of whose intelli- gence, politeness, and suavity, so much had been heard, would congratulate the bride upon this auspicious occa- sion ; but at least one distinguished but unfortunate American didn't know how to do it. My acquirements in Russian were limited to " Yes," " No," and " How do you do ? " and none of these expressions were fully equal to the emergency. Desirous, however, of sustaining the national reputation for politeness, as well as of showing my good-will to the bride, I selected the last of the phrases as probably the most appropriate, and walking solemnly, and I fear awkwardly up, I asked the bride with a very low bow, and in very bad Russian — how she did ; she graciously replied, " cherasvwechiano khorasho pakornashae blagadoroo," and the distinguished American retired with a proud consciousness of having done his duty. I was not very much enlightened as to the state of the bride's health"; but, judging from the facility with which she rattled off this tremendous sentence, we concluded that she must be well. Nothing but a robust constitution ar_d the most excellent health would have enabled her to do it 52 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. Convulsed with laughter, Dodd and I made our escape from the church and returned to our quarters. I have since been informed by the Major that the marriage cere- mony of the Greek Church, when properly performed, has a peculiar impressiveness and solemnity ; but I shall never be able to see it now without having my solemnity over come by the recollection of that poor Cossack, stumbling around the altar after the priest with his head extinguished in a crown ! From the moment when the Major decided upon the overland journey through Kamtchatka, he devoted all his time and energies to the work of preparation. Boxes covered with seal skin, and intended to be hung from pack- saddles, were prepared for the transportation of our stores ; tents, bear-skins, and camp equipage, were bought and packed away in ingeniously contrived bundles; and every- thing which native experience could suggest for lessening the hardships of out-door life was provided in quantities sufficient for two months' journey. Horses were then or- dered from all the adjacent villages, and a special courier was sent throughout the peninsula by the route which we intended to follow, with orders to apprise the natives everywhere of our coming, and to direct them to remain at home with all their horses until after our party should pass. Thus prepared, we set out on the 4th of September for the far north. The peninsula of Kamtchatka, through which we were about to travel, is a long irregular tongue of land lying east cf the Okhotsk Sea, between the fifty-first and sixty. TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 53 second degrees of North latitude, and measuring in ex- treme length about seven hundred miles. It is almost entirely of volcanic formation, and the great range of rug ged mountains by which it is longitudinally divided, com- prises even now five or six volcanoes in a state of almost uninterrupted activity. This immense chain of mountains, which has never even been named, stretches from the fifty- first to the sixtieth degree of latitude in one almost con- tinuous ridge, and at last breaks off abruptly into the Ok- hotsk Sea, leaving to the northward a high level steppe called the " dole " or desert, which is the wandering ground of the Reindeer Koraks. The central and southern parts of the peninsula are broken up by the spurs and foot hills of the great mountain range into deep sequestered valleys of the wildest and most picturesque character, and afford scen- ery which, for majestic and varied beauty, is not surpassed in all Northern Asia. The climate everywhere, except in the extreme north, is comparatively mild and equable, and the vegetation has an almost tropical freshness and lux- uriance totally at variance with all one's ideas of Kam- tchatka. The population of the peninsula I estimate from careful observation at about 5,000, and it is made up of three distinct classes — the Russians, the Kamchadals or settled natives, and the Wandering Koraks. The Kam- chadals, who compose the most numerous class, are set- tled in little log villages throughout the peninsula, near the mouths of small rivers which rise in the central range of mountains, and fall into the Okhotsk Sea and the Pa- cific. Their principal occupations are fishing, fur trap, ping, and the cultivation of rye, turnips, cabbages, and po« 54 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. tatoes, which grow thriftily as far north as lat. 5 8°. Theii largest settlements are in the fertile valley of the Kara- tchatka River, between Petropavlovski and Kluche. The Russians, who are comparatively few in number, are scat- tered here and there among the Kamtchadal villages, and are generally engaged in trading for furs with the Kam- chadals and the nomadic tribes to the northward. The Wandering Koraks, who are the wildest, most powerful, and most independent natives in the peninsula, seldom come south of the 58th parallel of latitude, except for the purpose of trade. Their chosen haunts are the great des- olate steppes lying east of Penjinsk Gulf, where they wander constantly from place to place in solitary bands, living in large fur tents and depending for subsistence up- on their vast herds of tamed and domesticated reindeer. The government under which all the inhabitants of Kam< tchatka nominally live is administered by a Russian officer called an " Ispravnik " or local governor, who is suppos- ed to settle all questions of law which may arise between individuals or tribes, and to collect the annual "yassak" or tax of furs, which is levied upon every male inhabitant in his province. He resides in Petropavlovski, and owing to the extent of country over which he has jurisdiction and the imperfect facilities which it affords for getting about, he is seldom seen outside of the village where he has his head-quarters. The only means of transportation be- tween the widely separated settlements of the Kamchadals are pack-horses, canoes, and dog-sledges, and there is not such a thing as a road in the whole peninsula. I may have occasion hereafter to speak of " roads," but I mean by TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 55 the word nothing more than the geometrician means by a "line" — simple longitudinal extension without any of the sensible qualities which are popularly associated with it. Through this wild, sparsely populated region, we pur- posed to travel by hiring the natives along our route to carry us with their horses from one settlement to another until we should reach the territory of the Wandering Koraks. North of that point we could not depend upon any regular means of transportation, but would be obliged to trust to " luck " and the tender mercies of the Arctic nomads. CHAPTER VII. I cannot remember any journey in my whole life which gave me more enjoyment at the time, or which is more pleasant in recollection, than our first horseback ride of ^275 versts over the flowery hills and through the green valleys of Southern Kamtchatka, surrounded as we con- tinually were by the wildest and most beautiful scenery in all Northern Asia, experiencing for the first time the novelty and adventurous excitement of camp life ; and rejoicing in a newly-found sense of freedom and perfect independence, we turned our backs gaily on civilization, and rode away with light hearts into the wilderness, mak- ing the hills ring to the music of our songs and halloos. Our party, aside from drivers and guides, consisted of four men. The Major Generalissimo of the forces and chief of Asiatic exploration, Dodd the young American, whom we had engaged in Petropavlovski, and myself! The biting sarcasm directed by Mithridates at the army of Lucullus — that if they came as ambassadors they were too many, if as soldiers too few — would have applied with equal force to our small party made up as it was of only four men ; but strength is not always to be measured by numbers, and we had no fears that we should not be able to cope with any obstacles which might lie in our. TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 57 vva} r . We could certainly subsist ourselves where a larger party would starve. On Sunday, September 3d, our horses were loaded and dispatched in advance to a small village on the opposite side of the bay, where we intended to meet them with a whale-boat. On Monday the 4th we made our farewell calls upon the Russian authorities, drank an inordinate quantity of (champagne) to our own health and success, and set out in two whale-boats for Avatcha, accompanied by the whole American population of Petropavlovski. Crossing the bay under sprit-sail and jib, with a slashing breeze from the south-west, we ran swiftly into the mouth of the Avatcha River, and landed at the village to refresh ourselves for the fifteenth time with " fifteen drops}' and take leave of our American friends, Pierce Hunter and Fronefield. Copious libations were poured out to the tutelary saint of Kamtchatkan explorers, and giving and receiving three hearty cheers, we pushed off and began to make our way slowly up the river with poles and paddles toward the Kamchadal settlement of Okoota. Our native crew, sharing in the universal dissipation which had attended our departure, and wholly unaccus- tomed to such reckless drinking, were reduced by this time to a comical state of happy imbecility, in which the> sang gurgling Kamchadal songs, blessed the Americans, and fell overboard alternately, without contributing in any marked degree to the successful navigation of our heavy whale-boat. Vushine, however, with characteristic energy hauled the drowning wretches in by their hair, rapped them over the head with a paddle to restore conscious- 3* 58 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. ness, pushed the boat off sand-bars, kept its head up stream, poled, rowed, jumped into the water, shouted, swore, and proved himself fully equal to any emer- gency. It was considerably after noon when we left Petropav- lovski, and, owing to the incompetency of our Kamtcha* dal crew, and the frequency of sand-bars, night overtook us on the river some distance below Okoota. Selecting a place where the bank was dry and accessible, we beached our whale-boat and prepared for our first bivouac in the open air. Beating down the high wet grass, Vushine pitched our little cotton tent, carpeted it with warm, dry bear-skins, improvised a table and a cloth out of an empty candle-box and a clean towel, built a fire, boiled tea, and in twenty minutes set before us a hot supper which would not have done discredit to the culinary skill of Soyer himself. After supper we sat by the fire smok- ing and talking until the long twilight died away in the west, and then rolling ourselves up in heavy blankets, we lay down on our bear- skins and listened to the low quack- ing of a half-awakened duck in the sedges, and the lonely cries of night-birds on the river, until at last we fell asleep. Day was just breaking in the east when I awoke. The mist, which for a week had hung in gray clouds around the mountains, had now vanished, and the first object which met my eyes through the open door of the tent was the great white cone of Villoo-chin-ski gleaming spectrally through the grayness of the dawn. As the red flush in the east deepened, all nature seemed tc TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 59 awake. Ducks and geese quacked from every bunch of reeds along the shore ; the strange wailing cries of sea-gulls could be heard from the neighboring coast ; and from the clear, blue sky came down the melodious trumpeting of wild swans, as they flew inland to their feeding-places. I washed my face in the clear, cold water of the river, and waked Dodd to see the moun- tains. Directly behind our tent, in one unbroken sheet of snow, rose the colossal peak of Ko-rat-skoi, ten thou- sand five hundred feet in height, its sharp white summit already crimsoning with the rays of the rising sun, while the morning star yet throbbed faintly over the cool purple of its eastern slope. A little to the right was the huge volcano of Avatcha, with a long banner of golden smoke hung out from its broken summit, and the Roselskoi volcano puffing out dark vapor from three craters. Far down the coast, thirty miles away, stood the sharp peak of Villoochinski, with the watch-fires of morning already burning upon its summit, and beyond it the hazy blue outlines of the coast range. Shreds of fleecy mist here and there floated up the mountain sides, and van- ished like the spirits of the night-dews rising from earth to heaven in bright resurrection. Steadily the warm, rosy flush of sunrise crept down the snowy slopes of the mountains, until at last, with a .quick sudden burst, it poured a flood of light into the valley, tinging our little white tent with a delicate pink, like that of a wild rose- leaf, turning every pendent dew-drop into a twinkling brilliant, and lighting up the still water of the river, until it became a quivering, flashing mass of liquid silver. 60 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. " I'm not romantic, but, upon my word, There are some moments when one can't help feeling As if his heart's chords were so strongly stirred By things around him, that 'tis vain concealing A little music in his soul still lingers, Whene'er the keys are touched by Nature's fingers." I was just delivering the above quotation in impas- sioned style, when Dodd, who never allowed his enthu- siasm for the beauties of Nature to interfere with a proper regard for the welfare of his stomach, emerged from the tent, and with a mock solemn apology for interrupting my soliloquy, said that if I could bring my mind down to the contemplation of material things, he would inform me that breakfast was ready, and begged to suggest that the little music in my soul be allowed to " linger," since it could do so with less detriment than the said breakfast. The force of this suggestion, seconded as it was by 2 savory odor from the interior of the tent, could not be denied. I went, but still continued between the spoon- fuls of hot soup to "rave," as Dodd expressed it, about the scenery. After breakfast the tent was struck, camp equipage packed up, and taking seats in the stern-sheets of our whale-boat, we pushed off and resumed our slow ascent of the river. The vegetation everywhere, untouched as yet by the autumn frosts, seemed to have an almost tropical luxuri- ance. High wild grass, mingled with varicolored flowers, extended to the very river's brink £ Alpine roses and cin- quefoil grew in dense thickets along the bank, and dropped their pink and yellow petals like fairy boats upon the sur Tent life in Siberia. 6i face of the clear still water ; yellow columbine drooped low over the river, to see its graceful image mirrored be- side that of the majestic volcano; and strange black Kamrchatkan lilies, with downcast looks, stood here and there in sad loneliness, mourning in funeral garb some un» known flowery bereavement. -JSJor was animal life wanting to complete the picture. [ Wild ducks, with long outstretched necks, shot past us con- tinually in their swift level flight, uttering hoarse " quacks " of curiosity and apprehension; the "honking" of geese came to us, softened by distance, from the higher slopes of the mountains ; and now and then a magnificent eagle, startled from his solitary watch on some jutting rock, ex- panded his broad-barred wings, launched himself into air, and soared upward in ever-widening circles until he be- came a mere moving speck against the white snowy crater of the Avatchinski volcano. Never had I seen a picture of such wild primitive loneliness as that presented by this beautiful fertile valley, encircled by smoking volcanoes and snow-covered mountains, yet green as the vale of Tempe, teeming with animal and vegetable life, yet soli- tary, uninhabited by man, and apparently unknown. About noon the barking of dogs announced our approach to a settlement, and turning an abrupt bend in the river, we came in sight of the Kamtchadal village of Okoota. A Kamtchadal village differs in some respects so widely from an American frontier settlement, that it is worthy, perhaps, of a brief description. It is situated generally on a little elevation near the bank of some river or stream, surrounded by scattered clumps of poplar and yellovr f 62 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. birch, and protected by high hills from the cold northern winds. Its houses, which are clustered irregularly togethei near the beach, are very low, and are made of logs squared and notched at the ends, and chinked with masses of dry moss. The roofs are covered with a rough thatch of long coarse grass, or with overlapping strips of tamarack bark, and project at the ends and sides into wide overhanging eaves. The window-frames, although occasionally glazed, are more frequently covered with an irregular patchwork of translucent fish-bladders, sewn together with thread made of the dried and pounded sinews of the reindeer. The doors are almost square, and the chimneys are nothing but long straight poles, arranged in a circle and plastered over thickly with clay. Here and there between the houses stand half a dozen curious architectural quadrupeds called "bologans," or fish storehouses. They are simply conical log-tents, elevated from the ground on four posts to secure their contents from the dogs, and resemble as much as anything small hay-stacks trying to walk away on four legs. High square frames of horizontal poles stand beside every house, filled with thousands of drying salmon ; and " an ancient and fish-like smell," which per- vades the whole atmosphere, betrays the nature of the Kamtchadals' occupation and of the food upon which they live. Half a dozen dug-out canoes lie bottom upward on the sandy shelving beach, covered with large neatly tied seines ; two or three long, narrow dog-sledges stand up on their ends against every house, and a hundred or more sharp-eared wolfish dogs, tied at intervals to long heavy poles, lie panting in the sun, snapping viciously at the flies TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 63 and mosquitoes which disturb their rest. In the centre ..of the village, facing the west, stands, in aH the glory of Kamtchatko-Byzantine aichitecture, red paint, and glitter- ing domes, the omnipresent Greek church, contrasting strangely with the rude log-houses and conical " bologans " over which it extends the spiritual protection of its re- splendent golden cross. It is built generally of carefully- hewn logs, painted a deep brick red, covered with a green sheet-iron roof, and surmounted by two onion-shaped domes of tin, which are sometimes colored a sky-blue and spangled with golden stars. Standing with all its glaring contrasts of color among a few unpainted log-houses in a primitive wilderness, it has a strange picturesque appear- ance not easily described. If you can imagine a rough American backwoods' settlement of low log-houses, clus- tered round a gaily-colored Turkish mosque, half a dozen small haystacks mounted on high vertical posts, fifteen or twenty Titanic wooden gridirons similarly elevated and hung full of drying fish, a few dog-sledges and canoes ly- ing carelessly around, and a hundred or more gray wolves tied here and there between the houses to long heavy poles, you will have a general but tolerably accurate idea of a Kamtchadal settlement of the better class. They differ somewhat in respect to their size and their churches ; but the gray log-houses, conical "bologans," drying fish, wolfish dogs, canoes, sledges, and fishy odors are all in- variable features. The inhabitants of these native settlements in Southern Kamtchatka are a dark swarthy race, considerably below the average stature of Siberian natives, and are very dif- 64 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. ferent in all their characteristics from the wandering tribes of Koraks and Chookchees who live farther north. The men average perhaps five feet three or four inches in height, have broad flat faces, prominent cheek bones, small and rather sunken eyes, no beards, long, lank, black hair, small hands and feet, very slender limbs, and a ten* dency to enlargement and protrusion of the abdomen. They are probably of Central Asiatic origin, but they cer- tainly have had no very recent connection with any other Siberian tribe with which I am acquainted, and are not at all like the Chookchees, Koraks, Gakoots, or Tungoos. From the fact of their living a settled instead of a wander- ing life, they were brought under Russian subjection much more easily than their nomadic neighbors, and have since experienced in a greater degree the civilizing influences of Russian intercourse. They have adopted almost univer- sally the religion, customs, and habits of their conquerors, and their own language, which is a very curious one, is already falling into disuse. It would be easy to describe their character by negatives. They are not independent, self-reliant, or of a combative disposition, like the northern Chookchees and Koraks ; they are not avaricious or dis- honest, except where those traits are the results of Rus- sian education ; they are not suspicious or distrustful, but rather the contrary; and for generosity, hospitality, sim pie good faith, and easy, equable good-nature under all circumstances, I have never met their equals. As a : ice they are undoubtedly becoming extinct. Since 1780 they have diminished in numbers more than one-half, and fre- quently recurring epidemics and famines w'll soon reduce TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 6g them to a comparatively weak and unimportant tribe, which will finally be absorbed in the growing Russian population of the peninsula. They have already lost most of their distinctive customs and superstitions, and only an occasional sacrifice of a dog to some malignant spirit of storm or disease enables the modern traveller to catch a glimpse of their original paganism. They depend mainly for subsistence upon the salmon, which every sum- mer run into these northern rivers in immense quantities to spawn, and are speared, caught in seines, and trapped in weirs by thousands. These fish, dried without salt in the open air, are the food of the Kamtchadals and of their dogs throughout the long, cold northern winter. During the summer, however, their bill of fare is more varied. The climate and soil of the river bottoms in Southern Kamtchatka admit of the cultivation of rye, potatoes, and turnips, and the whole peninsula abounds in animal life. Reindeer and black and brown bears roam everywhere over the mossy plains and through the grassy valleys ; wild sheep and a species of ibex are not un- frequently found in the mountains ; and millions upon mil- lions of ducks, geese, and swans, in almost endless variety, swarm about every river and little marshy lake through- out the country. These aquatic fowls are captured in great multitudes while moulting, by organized " drives * of fifty or seventy-five men in canoes, who chase the birds in one great flock up some narrow stream, at the end of which a huge net is arranged for their reception. They are then killed with clubs, cleaned and salted for winter use. Tea and sugar have been introduced by the Rus< 66 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. sians, and have been received with great favor, the annua] consumption now being more than 20,000 pounds of each in the Kamtchatkan peninsula alone. Bread is now made of rye, which the Kamtchadals raise and grind foi themselves; but previous to the settlement of the countiy by the Russians, the only native substitute for bread was a sort of baked paste, consisting chiefly of the grated tubers of the purple Kamtchatkan lily. The only fruits in the country are berries and a species of wild cherry. Of the berries, however, there are fifteen or twenty dif ferent kinds, of which the most important are blueberries, " maroshkas," or yellow-cloud berries, and dwarf cran- berries. These the natives pick late in the fall, and freeze for winter consumption. Cows are kept in nearl) all the Kamtchadal settlements, and milk is always plenty. A curious native dish of sour milk, baked curds, and sweet cream, covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon, is worthy of being placed upon a civilized table. It will thus be seen that life in a Kamtchatkan settle- ment, gastronomically considered, is not altogether so disagreeable as we have been led to believe. {I have seen natives in the valley of the Kamtchatka as pleasantly situated, and enjoying as much comfort and almost as many luxuries, as nine-tenths of the settlers upon the frontiers of our western States and Territories.'/ CHAPTER VIII. Ar Okoota we found our horses and men awaiting oui arrival ; and after eating a hasty lunch of bread, milk, and blueberries in a little native house, we clambered awk- wardly into our saddles, and filed away in a long irregulai line through the woods, Dodd and I taking the advance, singing "Bonnie Dundee."-?- We kept continually near the group of mountains which had presented so beautiful an appearance in the morning ; but owing to the forest of birch and mountain ash which clothed the foot-hills, we caught only occasional glimpses between the tree-tops of their white snowy summits. Just before sunset we rode into another little native village, whose ingeniously constructed name defied all my inexperienced attempts to pronounce it or write it down. Dodd was good-natured enough to repeat it to me fifteen or sixteen times ; but as it sounded worse and more unin- telligible every time, I finally called it Jerusalem, and let it go at that. For the sake of geographical accuracy I have so marked it down on my map ; but let no future commentator point to it triumphantly as a proof that the lost tribes of Israel emigrated to Kamtchatka; I don't believe that they did, and I know that this unfortunate settlement, before I took pity on it and called it Jerusalem, was distinguished by a name so utterly barbarous thai 68 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. neither the Hebrew alphabet nor any other known tG ancient literature could have begun to do it justice. Tired by the unusual exercise of horseback riding, I entered Jerusalem at a walk, and throwing my bridle to a Kamtchadal in blue nankeen shirt and buckskin pants, who saluted me with a reverential bow, I wearily dismounted and entered the house which Vushine indicated as the one which we were to occupy. The best room, which had been prepared for our recep- tion, was a low bare apartment about twelve feet square, whose walls, ceiling, and floor of unpainted birch planks were scoured to a smooth snowy purity which would have been creditable even to the neat housewives of the Dutch paradise of Broek. An immense clay oven, neatly painted red, occupied one side of the room ; a bench, three or four rude chairs, and a table, were arranged with severe pro- priety against the other. Two windows of glass, shaded by flowery calico curtains, admitted the warm sunshine; a few coarse American lithographs' hung here and there against the wall ; an air of perfect neatness, which prevailed everywhere, made us suddenly and painfully conscious of our own muddy boots and rough attire. No tools except axes and knives had been used in the construction of the house or of its furniture ; but the unplaned, unpainted boards had been diligently scrubbed with water and sand to a delicate creamy whiteness, which made amends for all rudeness of workmanship. There was not a plai.k in the floor from which the most fastidious need have hesitated to eat. The most noticeable peculiarity of this, as of all the other Kamtchadal houses which we saw in Southern TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 69 Kamtchalka, was the lowness of its doors. They seemed to have been designed for a race of beings whose only means of locomotion were hands and knees, and to entei them without making use of those means required a flexi- bility of spinal vertebrae only to be acquired by long and persevering practice. Vu shine and Dodd, who had travel- led in Kamtchatka before, experienced no difficulty in accommodating themselves to this peculiarity of native architecture ; but the Major and I, during the first two weeks of our journey, bore upon the fore parts of our heads, bumps whose extraordinary size and irregularity of development would have puzzled even Spurzheim and Gall. If the abnormal enlargement of the bumps had only been accompanied by a corresponding enlargement of the respective faculties, there would have been some compensation for this disfiguration of our heads ; but un- fortunately " perception " might be suddenly developed by the lintel of a door until it looked like a goose-egg, without enabling us to perceive the very next beam which came in our way until after we had struck our heads against it. The Cossack who had been sent through the peninsula as an avant-courier to notify the natives of our coining, had carried the most exaggerated reports of our power and importance, and elaborate preparations had been made by the Jerusalemites for our reception. The house which was to be honored by our presence had been care- fully scrubbed, swept, and garnished ; the women had put on their most flowery calico-dresses, and tied their hair up in their brightest silk handkerchiefs; most of the chil 7