v^ -i'.. <* \ y^v 7 "W" -Mil ^** °MSk r - W .* ^^. & .: » 1 1 «&.** fc°- ^ -^&-X .* .-sate. * Jp'i&S * » • ^ • »» ^d 1 °o V *- ,^ *v ^^ ^.^ * %5 T*o* IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE Washington B. Vanderlip After photograph taken in 1899, at Indian Point, Bering Sea IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE AS NARRATE^ BY WASHINGTON B^VANDERLIP THE CHIEF ACTOR AND HEREIN SET FORTH BY HOMER B. HULBERT ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHS *®&m&f£^&&i8i> NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1903 • > ' , i > • •. »*. > 2> THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copies Received OCT 7 1903 Copy ught Entry CUSS A» XXc No &> oin e 01 COPY B. Copyright, 1903, by The Century Co. Published, October, 1903 THE DE VINNE PRESS TO "THE LITTLE MOTHER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia— Plan to pros- pect through Kamchatka and north to Bering Strait — Steamer Cosmopolite— Russian law in the matter of liquor traffic— I make up my party and buy supplies — Korean habits of dress— Linguistic difficulties .... 3 II. SAGHALIEN AND THE CONVICT STATION AT KORSAKOVSK Departure of the expedition — Arrival at Korsakovsk— Condition of convict station — Freedom allowed prison- ers, most of whom are murderers — Wreck of the steamer and loss of outfit — Gold lace and life-preser- vers — Return to Korsakovsk — Russian table manners — The Russian's naive attitude toward bathing — Some results of the intermarriage of criminals — How Yankee shrewdness saved some confiscated photographs — Pleas- ant sensations on being shaved by a murderer — Pre- dominance of American goods 20 III. PETROPAULOVSK AND SOUTHERN KAM- CHATKA Volcanoes of Kamchatka and the superstitious natives — The first prospecting trip — Copper found, but no gold— Mosquitos cause an evacuation of the land — The typical Chinese peddler 43 IV. SALMON-FISHING IN THE FAR NORTH Tide that rises twenty-five feet — Wholesale suicide of salmon— Fish-eyes as a delicacy for sea-gulls— How vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE the natives store fish for the sledge-dogs —The three varieties of salmon — An Arcadian land for the birds . 51 V. THE TOWN OF GHIJIGA The sacred icon and the sewing-machine both in evi- dence — The native " process of getting married " — Mrs. Braggin's piano — American pack-saddles and Russian obstinacy — Theodosia Chrisoffsky and his sixty descen- dants 64 VI. OFF FOR THE TUNDRA— A NATIVE FAMILY Hard traveling — The native women — A mongrel race — Chrisoffsky's home and family and their ideas of domestic economy — Boiled fish-eyes a native delicacy — Prospecting along the Ghijiga 79 VII. TUNGUSE AND KORAK HOSPITALITY My Korak host—'' Bear !" — I shoot my first arctic fox — My Tunguse guide — Twenty-two persons sleep in a twelve-foot tent — Tunguse family prayers— The advent of Howka— Chrisoffsky once more 92 VIII. DOG-SLEDGING AND THE FUR TRADE Description of the sledge and its seven pairs of dogs — The harness — The useful polka— The start-off a gym- nastic performance for the driver — Methods of steering and avoiding obstructions while going at full speed — Dog-trading en route— Dog-fights are plentiful— Prices of sable and other skins in the native market — The four grades of sables— How they live and what they live on — A Russian writer on sable hunting — Days when a native would barter eighteen sable skins for an ax . . 116 IX. OFF FOR- THE NORTH— A RUNAWAY My winter wardrobe of deerskin — Shoes that keep the feet warm when it is sixty degrees below zero— Pie- mania, a curious native food in tabloid form — Other provisions— Outline of proposed exploration about the CONTENTS ix CHAPTER PAGE sources of the Ghijiga River— Four hours of sun a day — When dog meets deer — A race for life and a ludi- crous denouement— More queer native dishes— Curious habits of the sledge-dog 139 X. THROUGH THE DRIFTS Sledging over snow four feet deep — Making a camp in the snow — Finding traces of gold — A grand slide down a snow-covered hill — My polka breaks with disastrous results — Prospecting over the Stanovoi range .... 155 XL BURIED IN A BLIZZARD A trip to the northern side of the Stanovoi range of mountains— Nijni Kolymsk, the most-feared convict station— Sledging by light of the aurora— Lost in a blizzard on the vast tundra— Five days in a snow dug- out — I earn a reputation as a wizard — Back at Chris- offsky's 167 XII. CHRISTMAS— THE "DEER KORAKS" I celebrate Christmas day with the over-kind assistance of two hundred natives — Koraks as sharp-shooters — Comic features of a Russian dance— Off for Kaminaw — Another runaway — Slaughtering deer — A curious provision of nature — Eight families in one yourta — Korak method of washing dishes — A herd of ten thou- sand deer 177 XIII. HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KORAKS The hour-glass houses — Their curious construction — The natives prove to be both hospitable and filthy — Dialects of Dog Koraks and Deer Koraks— Some un- pleasant habits— How they reckon time— Making liquor out of mushrooms — Curious marriage customs — Clothes of the natives— Queer notions of a deity —Jealousy of the wandering Koraks— Thieving a virtue and childbirth a social function 205 x CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIV. OFF FOR BERING SEA— THE TCHUKTCHES The Tchuktches are the Apaches of Siberia— Their hos- pitality to Americans and their hostility to Russians — Wherein my experiences differ from those of Mr. Harry DeWindt — Result of licking a piece of stone with the thermometer at 45° below zero— Konikly — Power of moral suasion in dealing with a rebellious Korak— The cure of a dying woman and the disgust of her husband— Poll-tax and the Tchuktches 224 XV. A PERILOUS SUMMER TRIP The tundra in summer — Crossing the swift Paran River —Literally billions of mosquitos— Unique measures of protection against these pests — Mad race down the Uchingay River on a raft — Lighting a fire with a pistol — Narrow escape from drowning — Fronyo proves to be a man of mettle— Pak is caught stealing from slim sup- ply of provisions and receives chastisement — Subsisting on wild onions and half-ripe berries — Help at last . . 255 XVI. A TEN-THOUSAND-MILE RACE Persistent rumors of gold in the Tchuktche peninsula — Count Unarliarsky — I am called to Vladivostok to fit out an expedition— Our vessel arrives off Indian Point — Charging through the ice-floes — A meeting with Eskimos— Our prospecting proves fruitless— We meet the rival expedition in Plover Bay — Their chagrin — The end .292 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Washington B. Vanderlip Frontispiece PAGE Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vander- lip in his search for a Siberian Klondike ... 5 Korean Miners 15 Market-place, Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island . . £5 Russian Murderers in Angle of Prison-House, Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island ...... 37 Main Street of Petropaulovsk, Kamchatka ... 45 A River of Dead Salmon — August 53 The Salmon Catch 57 Ghijiga . . . . . . . 65 Russian Church, Ghijiga ..„„.... 71 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE House in Ghijiga occupied by Mr. Vanderlip and his Party 75 House of Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Christowic . . 81 Start from Ghijiga, Summer-time. Theodosia Chrisoffsky and Family — Fourteen Children . 87 Village of Christowic, Okhotsk Sea 93 Mr. Vanderlip on " Bill " 99 The Pride of the Family 105 Mr. Vanderlip crossing Turumcha River . . . Ill Sledge-dogs, showing Harness^ and Method of Hitching 119 Mr. Vanderlip's Dog-sled loaded . . . . . . 125 Ghijiga River in Winter 129 Deer crossing River 141 Reindeer 145 Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Guide 151 Mr. Vanderlip and Reindeer Team 157 Native Winter Camp 163 Mr. Vanderlip on March with Deer Outfit . . . 173 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE Reindeer 183 Herd of Reindeer 189 Reindeer, Herders in background 195 Reindeer — Summer 201 Upper View of Underground Hut — Home of the Dog Korak 207 Chinese Pump 213 One of the Tchuktches — an unconquered Race . 227 Summit of Kamchatka — First Sight of Bering Sea 233 Kassegan, half-caste Russian trader, and Korak wife, living at Boeta, Baron Koff Bay, Kam- chatka 239 In Crater of Extinct Volcano, digging for Sul- phur. Baron Koff Bay, Kamchatka .... 245 Killing Deer for Dog-food 251 Expedition on march — " Konikly " in foreground 257 Across the Tundra .... . ... 261 Tundra Camp 267 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE " Kim " in Summer Camp on Tundra .... 273 Reindeer Feeding 279 Three Little Half-caste Russians and Native Nurse, Ghijiga, Okhotsk Sea 287 Russian Miners 298 Picked up on the Ice off St. Lawrence Island . . 299 Natives at Indian Point, Siberia 303 Eskimo Village, East Cape — Northeastern Point of Asia 307 Plover Bay, Siberia, in July 313 PREFACE The following pages are the result of one of those delightful partnerships in which the party of the first part had all the adventures, pleasant and otherwise, while the party of the second part had only to listen to their recital and put them down on paper. The next best thing to seeing these things for one's self is to hear of them from the lips of such a delightful raconteur as Mr. Vanderlip. Whatever defects may be found in these pages must be laid at the door of the scribe ; but whatever is entertaining and instructive is due to the keen observation, the retentive memory, and the descriptive powers of the main actor in the scenes herein depicted. H. B. H. Seoul, Korea, December, 1902. IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE CHAPTER I OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia — Plan to prospect through Kamchatka and north to Bering Strait — Steamer Cosmopolite — Russian law in the matter of liquor traffic — I make up my party and buy supplies- — Korean habits of dress — Linguistic difficulties. WHEN the rich deposits of gold were found on the Yukon River, and later in the beach sands of Cape Nome, the question naturally arose as to how far these deposits extended. Sensa- tional reports in the papers, and the stories of valuable nuggets being picked up along the ad- jacent coast of Asia, fired the imagination of the Russians, who hoped, and perhaps not without reason, to repeat the marvelous successes which had been met with on the American side. The existence of valuable gold deposits in other parts of Siberia lent color to the belief that the gold- bearing belt extended across from America to Si- 4 IN SEARCH OF A beria, and that consequently the Asiatic shores of Bering Sea ought to be well worth prospecting. No people were ever more alive to the value of mineral deposits than the Russians, and none of them have been keener in the search for gold. As evidence of this we have but to point to the vast, inhospitable wilderness of northern Siberia, where gold has been exploited in widely separated dis- tricts and under conditions far more trying than those which have surrounded any similar under- taking, with the exception of the Klondike. I had left Chittabalbie, the headquarters of the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company, — an American firm that is successfully exploiting the gold deposits of northern Korea, — and being enamoured of a wandering life, I found myself one morning entering the magnificent harbor of Vladivostok, the eastern terminus of the Sibe- rian Railway and the principal Russian distribut- ing center on the Pacific coast. I believed that as the northeastern extremity of Asia was as yet virgin ground to the prospector, there would be no better opportunity for the practice of my profession than could be found in the town of Vladivostok. The surmise proved correct, and I was almost immediately engaged by a Russian firm to make an extended prospect- ing tour in Kamchatka, through the territory north of the Okhotsk Sea and along the shores of Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vanderlip in his search for a Siberian Klondike. SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 7 Bering Sea. This arrangement was made with the full cognizance and approval of the Russian authorities. I carried a United States passport. The Russians gave me another at Vladivostok, and through the Governor-general at that place I secured an open letter to all Russian magistrates in eastern Siberia, instructing them to give me whatever help I might need in the procuring of food, sledge-dogs, reindeer, guides, or anything else that I might require. Not only were no ob- stacles put in my way, but I was treated with the utmost courtesy by these officials, who seemed to realize the possible value of the undertaking. My instructions were to go first to the town of Petropaulovsk, on the southern point of the pe- ninsula of Kamchatka, and explore the sur- rounding country for copper. The natives had brought in samples of copper ore, and it was also to be found in the beach sands near Petropaul- ovsk, as well as in a neighboring island, called Copper Island, where the Russians had opened up a mine some seventy years before, but without success. I was next to go north to Baron KofF Bay, on the eastern coast of the peninsula, near its neck, and examine some sulphur deposits which were supposed to exist in that vicinity and which the government was very desirous of work- ing. From that point I was to cross the neck of the peninsula by reindeer sledge to the head of 8 IN SEARCH OF A the eastern branch of the Okhotsk Sea, my ob- jective point being Cape Memaitch, where I was to prospect for gold. It had been reported that on two successive years an American schooner had touched at this point and carried away full cargoes of gold ore to San Francisco. I was then to pass around the head of the Okhotsk Sea to the important trading town of Ghijiga. This was the headquarters, some thirty years ago, of the Russo- American Telegraph Company, with which Mr. George Kennan was connected and where he spent one winter. Making this my headquarters, I was to work out in various directions in search of the yellow metal, and finally I was to use my own judgment as to whether I should strike northeast to Bering Strait, following the Stenova range of moun- tains, or southward to Ola, where a steamship could stop and take me off the following sum- mer. As we shall see, the main points of this plan were carried out, though not in the order here given. As to the means for reaching Kamchatka I had no choice. There is no royal mail steam- ship route to these boreal regions. A " tramp ' : steamship is annually chartered by the great firm of Kunst and Albers in Vladivostok, and re- chartered by them to the Russian government, to take the Governor-general on his annual visit to SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 9 Saghalien and the trading posts in Kamchatka, and even as far northward as Anadyr, situated inland from Bering Sea on the Anadyr River. At each of these trading posts is a Russian magis- trate, or nitcheilnik; and a guard of about twenty Cossacks. The annual steamer carries the sup- plies for these officials and for the traders, as well as the goods which are used in trade. On her re- turn, the steamer brings back the furs of the Rus- sian Chartered Company, who hold all the furring rights of northeastern Siberia. In the summer of 1898 the steamer Cosmopo- lite was scheduled to make the annual voyage. She was a German tramp steamer of one thousand tons. Besides the captain there was but one other foreign officer. The crew was Chinese. In addi- tion to the annual mails she carried a full cargo of tea, flour, sugar, tobacco, and the thousand and one articles that make the stock in trade of the agents of the Chartered Company. She was allowed to carry no wines or liquors, with the exception of sixty bottles of vodka for each trader, and that for his private use only. He is strictly forbidden to sell a drop to the natives. For a first offense he is heavily fined, and for a second he serves a term of penal servitude on the island of Sagha- lien. This law is in brilliant contrast to the methods of other governments in respect to liquors. Africa and the Pacific Islands bear wit- 10 IN SEARCH OF A ness to the fact that, from the standpoint both of humanity and mere commercial caution, the Rus- sian government is immeasurably ahead of other powers in this respect. The sale of intoxicants demoralizes the natives and " kills the goose that lays the golden egg." Of course there is an occa- sional evasion of the law. The natives of Siberia are passionately fond of spirits of any kind, and, having tasted a single glass, will sell anything they have — even their wives and daughters — for another. When they are in liquor a single wine- glass of vodka will induce them to part with furs which in the London market would bring ten pounds. Besides this annual steamship, two Rus- sian men-of-war cruise north along the coast, looking for American whalers who bring alco- holic liquors to exchange for skins. I decided to take with me two Koreans from Vladivostok. They were gold-miners from southern Siberia. Being expert horse-packers and woodsmen and speaking a little Russian, they were sure to be of great use to me. They were named Kim and Pak respectively; both are among the commonest family names in Korea, the Kim family having originated at least as early as 57 B. c. Kim was thirty years old and was possessed of a splendid physique. He could take up four hundred pounds of goods and carry them a quarter of a mile without resting. Koreans are SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 11 taught from childhood to carry heavy weights on their backs. They use a chair-like frame, called a jigij which distributes the weight evenly over the shoulders and hips and enables them to carry the maximum load with the minimum of fatigue. Kim was always good-natured even under the most discouraging circumstances, and he was fairly honest. Pak was thirty-eight, tall and thin, but enormously strong. He enjoyed the possession of only one eye, for which reason I promptly dubbed him " Dick Deadeye." He was a cautious individual, and always " packed " his money in his clothes, sewed up between the vari- ous thicknesses of cloth; and whenever he had a bill to pay and could not avoid payment, he would retire to a secluded place, rip himself open, and return with the money in his hand and a myste- rious look on his face, as if he had picked the money off the bushes. Having secured the services of this precious pair, I promptly marched them off to the store of one Enoch Emory to exchange their loose Ko- rean clothes for something more suited to the work in hand. This Enoch Emory, by the way, is a character unique in Siberian history. When sixteen years old he came out from New England as cabin-boy on a sailing vessel which had been sent by an American company to establish trad- ing stations on the Amur. He left the vessel and 12 IN SEARCH OF A went into one of the company's stores. He now " owns " the company and is one of the wealthiest merchants in Siberia. The company operates im- mense stores in Nikolaievsk, Blagovestchensk, and Khabarovka, with a large receiving store at Vladivostok. Emory always favors American goods and sells immense numbers of agricultural implements and of other things in the manufac- ture of which America excels. This is the only great American firm in Siberia. Emory makes his home in Moscow and comes out once a year to inspect his stores. He is a typical Yankee of the David Harum stamp. When my two proteges came to change Korean dress for American it was difficult to decide just where the dress left off and the man began. The Korean bathing habits are like those of the me- dieval anchorite, and an undergarment, once donned, is lost to memory. Besides the two Ko- reans, I engaged the services of a Russian secre- tary named Nicolai Andrev. He was an old man and not by any means satisfactory, but he was the only one I could get who knew the Russian min- ing laws and who could make out the necessary papers, in case I should have occasion to stake out claims. As it turned out, he hampered the move- ments of the party at every turn; he could not stand the hard knocks of the journey, and I was obliged to drop him later at the town of Ghijiga. SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 13 His lack of teeth rendered his pronunciation of Russian so peculiar that he was no help to me in acquiring the language, which is not easy to learn even under the best of circumstances. I was also accompanied by a young Russian naturalist named Alexander Michaelovitch Yankoffsky. As this name was quite too complicated for everyday use, I had my choice of paring it down to " Alek," " Mike," or " Yank," and while my loyalty to Uncle Sam would naturally prompt me to use the last of these I forbore and Alek he became. He did not take kindly to it at first, for it is de rigueur to address a Russian by both his first and second names, the latter being his father's name with vitch attached. This was out of the question, however, and he succumbed to the inevitable. So our complete party consisted of five men, representing three languages. None of my men knew any English, and I knew neither Russian nor Korean, beyond a few words and phrases. But before two months had elapsed, I had, by the aid of a pocket dictionary, my little stock of Ko- rean words, and a liberal use of pencil and paper, evolved a triglot jargon of English, Korean, and Russian that would have tried the patience of the most charitable philologist. The steamer was to sail in eight days, and this necessitated quick work in making up my outfit. 14 IN SEARCH OF A For guns I picked a twelve-bore German fowl- ing-piece with a rifle-barrel beneath, in order to be equipped for either small or large game with- out being under the necessity of carrying two guns at once ; a Winchester repeating rifle, 45-90 ; an .88 Mannlicher repeating rifle; and two 45- caliber Colt revolvers. As money is little used among the natives of the far North, it was neces- sary to lay in a stock of goods to use in trade. For this purpose I secured one thousand pounds of Moharka tobacco. It is put up in four-ounce packages and costs fifteen rouble cents a pound. I procured also two thousand pounds of sugar both for personal use and for trade. This comes in solid loaves of forty pounds each. Next in order came two thousand pounds of brick-tea. Each brick contains three pounds, and in Han- kau, where it is put up, it costs twelve and a half cents a brick. It is made of the coarsest of the tea leaves, twigs, dust, dirt, and sweepings, and is the kind universally used by the Russian peasan- try. I also secured one hundred pounds of beads, assorted colors, and a goodly stock of needles, to- gether with ten pounds of colored sewing-silks which the natives use to embroider the tops of their boots and the edges of their fur coats. Then came a lot of pipe-bowls at a cent apiece, assorted " jewelry," silver and brass rings, silk handkerchiefs, powder and shot, and 44-caliber o SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 17 cartridges. The last mentioned would be use- ful in dealing with the natives near the coast, who commonly use Winchester rifles. Those further inland use the old-fashioned musket ex- clusively. For my own use I laid in a goodly supply of Armour's canned beef, canned fruits, dried fruits, lime-juice, bacon, three thousand pounds of beans, canned tomatoes, tinned butter, coffee, German beef -tea put up in capsules an inch long by half an inch thick (which proved extremely fine), and canned French soups and conserves. Besides these things, and more important than all, I took two tons of black bread — the ordinary hard rye bread of Russia, that requires the use of a prospecting hammer or the butt of a revolver to break it up. This was necessary for barter as well as for personal use. Judging from my experiences in Australia, Burma, Siam, and Korea, as well as from my reading of Nansen, I thought it best not to en- cumber myself with any liquors excepting four bottles of brandy, which were carried in the medi- cine-chest and used for medicinal purposes only. My medical outfit consisted of four main articles, quinine, morphine, iodoform, and cathartic pills. With these four one can cope with almost any- thing that is likely to happen. The chest con- tained also bandages, absorbent cotton, mustard 18 IN SEARCH OF A leaves, a hot-water bottle, two small surgeon's knives, and a pair of surgical scissors. After a prolonged search for really good pack- saddles, I concluded that such things were un- known in Siberia ; so, calling in a Chinese carpen- ter, I gave him a model of an Arizona pack-sad- dle, with instructions to turn out a dozen at the shortest possible notice. I proposed to teach my Koreans how to throw the "diamond hitch," but I found later, to my humiliation, that what the Ko- rean does not know about packing is not worth knowing. Either Kim or Pak could do it quicker and better than I. Two thousand years of this sort of thing have left little for the Korean to learn. Mining-tools were of course a necessity. Even in Vladivostok I could not secure what I wanted. I therefore took what I could get. I purchased drills, hammers, a crow-bar, a German pump which was guaranteed to pump sand (but which I found later would pump nothing thicker than pure water), a quantity of blasting powder called " rack-a-rock," picks, shovels, wire, nails, and other sundries. The Russian shovel is an instru- ment of torture, being merely a flat sheet of iron with a shank for the insertion of a handle, which latter is supposed to be made and fitted on the spot. As there is no bend at the neck of the shovel, the lack of leverage makes it a most un- wieldy and exasperating utensil. As for the Rus- SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 19 sian pick, it has but one point, and in its construc- tion is clumsy beyond belief. Even the Korean picks are better. I also carried a simple blow- pipe outfit, an aneroid, a compass, gold-screens, and gold-pans, with other necessary appliances for prospecting. These preparations were made very hurriedly, as the Cosmopolite was the only steamer going north during the season. Tourists sometimes ask if it would not be pos- sible to secure passage on this annual steamer and take the trip along the coast to Bering Sea and back. There is nothing to prevent it. The trip of three months, stopping at ten or twelve points along the coast, could be made for about three hundred roubles, a rouble representing fifty cents in gold. But the trip would be of little value or interest, because, in the first place, the natives bring down their furs to the trading stations dur- ing the winter, when the ice makes traveling pos- sible, so that one would have very little oppor- tunity of seeing anything of native life, or of securing any of the valuable furs that come out of this region each year. It would be impossible for the tourist to pick up any good ones in sum- mer. Outside of natives and furs, it is difficult to see what interest there could be in such a trip, unless the tourist is studying the habits of mos- quitos and midges, in which case he would strike a veritable paradise. CHAPTER II SAGHALIEN AND THE CONVICT STATION AT KORSAKOVSK Departure of the expedition — Arrival at Korsakovsk — Con- dition of convict station — Freedom allowed prisoners, most of whom are murderers — Wreck of the steamer and loss of outfit — Gold lace and life-preservers — Return to Korsakovsk — Russian table manners — The Russian's naive attitude toward bathing — Some results of the intermar- riage of criminals — How Yankee shrewdness saved some confiscated photographs — Pleasant sensations on being shaved by a murderer — Predominance of American goods. 4T six o'clock in the afternoon of July 22, XV 1898, the Governor-general with his wife and suite, resplendent in gold lace and buttons, came aboard in the rain. The anchor was heaved up and we pointed southward toward the open sea, which is reached by way of a passage from half a mile to three miles wide and twelve miles long. The shore on either side bristles with ar- maments which, together with the narrowness of the passage, make Vladivostok entirely impreg- nable from the sea. There is a story, however, which the Russians 20 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 21 never like to hear. One morning, after a night of dense fog, as the sun cleared away the mist, four big British men-of-war were found an- chored within two hundred yards of the city, and could have blown it skyward without a shot from the batteries, being safe from the line of fire. Since then big guns have been mounted to cover the inner harbor. Reaching open water, we turned to the northeast and set our course toward the southern point of the island of Sagha- lien, for the Governor-general was to inspect the convict station of Korsakovsk. Three days of uneventful steaming at ten knots an hour brought the shores of Saghalien above the horizon. We saw a long, curved beach backed by low-lying hills covered with fields and woodland. As the place could boast no harbor, we dropped anchor in the open roadstead a mile from shore. Our whistle had long since waked to life an asthmatic little steam-launch, which soon came alongside. We forthwith invaded her stuffy little cabin and she waddled shoreward. As we approached the rough stone quay, we had our first glimpse of Russian convict life. A gang of prisoners were at work mending the sea- wall. Some of them wore heavy iron balls at their ankles, which they had to lift and carry as they walked, else they dragged ponderously along the ground. These balls would weigh about a hun- 22 IN SEARCH OF A dred pounds apiece. The convicts seemed to be well fed, but were excessively dirty and unkempt. They appeared to be men of the very lowest grade of mental development. It must be re- membered that no political convicts are confined on the island of Saghalien. They are kept in the far interior of Siberia, where the chances of es- cape are much less, and where there is no possi- bility of contact with others than their own jail- ers. The convicts on Saghalien are almost all desperate criminals. As there is no such thing as capital punishment in Siberia, Saghalien is the terrestrial Valhalla of these doomed men, a sort of ante-mortem purgatory. We stepped out upon the quay and walked up into the town. The street was about fifty feet wide, with a neat plank walk on either side. The houses were all log structures, but not the kind we are accustomed to associate with that name. The Russian makes the best log house in the world. The logs are squared and carefully fitted to- gether. The windows are mostly double, and the houses, all of one story, are warm enough to be habitable. The streets are lined with small shops and stores. The entire population outside of the officials consists of convicts, most of whom enjoy almost complete freedom within the limits of the town. It gives one a queer feeling to walk through the streets of a town and know that all SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 23 the storekeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, clerks, butchers, and bakers are or have been desperate criminals. This town of Korsakovsk contains about two thousand people, of whom nine tenths are convicts. I asked if I might inspect the prison, expecting a prompt refusal, and was surprised when in- formed that I could go wherever I pleased. Ap- proaching the main entrance to the prison, I found the two heavy gates off their hinges and the con- victs coming and going at their own pleasure. A sleepy Cossack was on guard, and he did not even challenge me. The prison buildings were ar- ranged around a large quadrangle. The pris- oners were talking, lying about at their ease, with a few at work on little wood carvings. I was astonished to see no prison bars any- where, but after I had looked about at my leisure, one of the officers took me in charge and led me into another part of the grounds, where we found a sentry on guard, armed only with a revolver. This guard took us in hand and conducted us to a small building which appeared to be heavily barred. Inside were rows of clean, dry, white- washed cells, half a dozen of which were occupied by convicts who had recently committed murder on the island, and were about to be sent north to the dreaded coal-mines, where they would be chained to wheelbarrows. These would be their 24 IN SEARCH OF A constant companions for seven years, night and day, summer and winter. In the workshops the convicts seemed to be trying to do as little as possible. They were making tools, hinges, horse-shoes, farming-im- plements, and other simple ironwork. In another portion of the shops they were making wagons and carts. Very many of the convicts are far- mers, and they seemed to be cultivating the sur- rounding fields with success. In the main offices I found a dozen clerks smoking and drinking tea. They were all convicts, most of them having dark crimes to their discredit. Leaving the prison, we walked down the street and soon came to a little stand, where bread and milk were being sold by a nice-looking Russian girl. I asked on what charge she had been brought to Saghalien. The officer interpreted my question. The girl laughed and said that she had murdered her husband. She was twenty-three years old. We had arrived at ten in the morning, and, as we left at four in the afternoon, my inspection of the town was necessarily brief, but enough had been seen to give impetus to even a very ordinary imagination. When we had all embarked again and the bell in the engine-room gave the signal for starting, we were enveloped in a thick mist ; but as we had p a P O a> o o < FT to P Cfq P i— ■ a p C SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 27 open sea before us and nothing, apparently, to fear, we drove ahead at full speed through the dense fog, pointing southeast in order to round the southern point of the island and make our way up the eastern coast. We might have been more cautious had not the Governor-general been in haste. As it turned out, we would have done better to proceed more slowly; for shortly after eight o'clock, as I was sitting at dinner with the captain and the first officer, we heard the second mate on the bridge call loudly: " Hard aport! Ice ahead! " The captain rushed to the bridge, and I made my way to the prow of the boat. Peering through the fog in the failing light, I descried a low, white line that looked like ice, be- hind which a great dark mass rose high in the air. We had not begun to slow down yet, and almost instantly we struck with terrific force, which threw me to my knees. I scrambled to my feet and peered over the rail. I saw that the white line was not ice, but surf, and the dark object be- hind it was a cliff which towered hundreds of feet in the air. The utmost confusion prevailed among the Chinese crew and the Korean stevedores. It looked as if there would be serious trouble. I made my way as rapidly as possible to my state- room and buckled on my revolvers, tore my valise open and stuffed a package of money into my 28 IN SEARCH OF A pocket, and hurried on deck to help put down any rush that the Asiatics might make for the boats. The first officer was sounding the forward well, and water was already coming into the engine- room. The steamer, evidently, was making water very fast. As there were so few foreign officers, and as the Russians were of no use, the captain ordered me to get out the boats. Amid such con- fusion this was no easy task, but by means of the most sanguinary threats and the show of my re- volver, I got enough men together to swing a boat over the side. Fortunately, there was no sea running at the time, and affairs began to assume a more hopeful aspect when it was found that we lay on a shelv- ing beach and could not sink. We hurriedly sup- plied the boats with casks of water and bags of biscuits ; but as there was no immediate danger of sinking, the captain asked me to take one of the boats and explore the shore for a suitable landing- place. With a strong headlight in the prow, we pushed off in the fog ; and within an hour we were back with the news that half a mile up the shore there was a good landing-place. The Governor- general and his wife and staff were, of course, the first to be sent ashore. The lady seemed to take it very coolly, even more so than some of the staff. The latter, as soon as the alarm sounded, had has- tened to their state-rooms and put on their swell- SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 29 est regimentals. Their gold lace, glittering swords, and patent-leather boots seemed curi- ously out of place on board the wreck. It re- minded me of the ancient Persian custom of going into battle in full regalia. These Russians left everything but their fine clothes. In due time they were landed, and then we came back and took off the crew. It was growing light and the sea was rising. The steamer began to pound on the reef, and it was evident that she would not hold together long. The captain said he was going to stay on her till she broke up. As I was an enthusiastic knight of the camera, I thought this would be a good opportunity to se- cure a picture of a ship going to pieces, so I deter- mined to stay with the captain as long as possible. We remained on board all that day and the next two, taking watch, by turns, six hours at a time. We determined to rig a block and tackle over the after hatch, and although this was under water, we managed to get hold of the big Russian mail- bags and haul them out. Among other things, they held fifteen thousand roubles in notes. During the second day of our detention we sighted the British gunboat Archer passing us to the southeast on her way to Kamchatka. We tried desperately to attract her attention with bombs, but did not succeed. Meanwhile, the chief officer had taken the long-boat and part of the 30 IN SEARCH OF A crew and sailed back to Korsakovsk with a fair wind, to secure help. Three days later, he re- turned with the steam-launch and two lighters, one of which was filled with convicts who had been brought to help in getting the steamer off the rocks, if possible. If not, they were to save what cargo they could. They were put into the for- ward hold and a few cases were gotten out, but all my provisions and outfit were lost except my tent, which had been sent ashore for the Gov- ernor-general's wife. This, together with my valise, camera, guns, and ammunition, was all that I had to show for the careful preparation I had made. My Russian friends had not enjoyed their stay on shore under the trying conditions. We threw overboard for their use all the ducks and geese, which, after disporting themselves a few minutes in honor of their new-found liberty, made their way to the shore, where they were speedily de- spatched with axes by the gentlemen in patent- leather boots and gold lace. We also consigned a pig to the vasty deep and it nobly struggled ashore only to meet the common fate of succu- lent pork. Through the glass I could see the Governor-general in his swell regimentals with a row of medals across his breast lugging an armful of driftwood along the shore to the fire. And so we made our way back to Korsakovsk, a SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 31 very discouraged and bedraggled company. The Governor-general took me to the house of the chief magistrate, where I was given a comfortable room, and could once more sit down to a good table. That night I ate my first genuine Russian dinner. Each person as he enters a dining-room, faces the icon which hangs in the corner, and bows and crosses himself. The table was loaded with tinned preserves, pate de f oie gras, caviar, salted salmon, herrings pickled, and raw fish, sardines, cheese, sliced raw onions, cold sausages, raw cab- bage, and huge piles of black and white bread. There was also the usual large carafe of pure white vodka, a powerful distilled liquor made from rye. Before eating, every glass is filled and the host's health is drunk to the accom- paniment of " Butches sd rovia," which means, " Your good health." In eating, you must reach for what you want. It is very seldom that anything is passed during this first stage of the meal. You would never suggest to your neighbor on the right to pass you the cheese; but you would rise in your place and, with a firm grasp on your knife, reach over his plate and impale the tempting morsel. If this is not possible, you leave your place and go around the table and secure your loot. There is only one thing that they will readily pass, and that is the vodka. The general aspect of things is that of a 32 IN SEARCH OF A well-patronized free-lunch counter when the train is to start in five minutes. It must be confessed that Russian table manners are not fashioned on ordinary European models. They closely resem- ble the Korean method of eating at a public feast, when all the food is put on the table at once. It is a mistake to suppose this terminates a Rus- sian dinner. It has only begun. By this time the uninitiated is full to repletion unless he has been forewarned, but to the Russian this is but the ante-prandial overture. Everything is now cleared off the table except the vodka, which is never out of sight, and the dinner proper begins with soup. I must say that this soup is the heavi- est and richest it has ever been my fortune to taste. Alone, it would form a full meal for any one less robust than the ordinary Russian. Each guest adds to his soup two or three heaping spoonfuls of sour whipped cream. Their method of eating soup appeals as much to the ear as to the eye. Perhaps they go on the principle that soup must be eaten as audibly as possible, for this means that it is so good you can- not wait for it to cool. My Russian naturalist, Alek, was a fair sample of an educated Russian, and he turned to me and said: " I see that vou eat with a fork." a/ " Yes," said I; " and I see that you do not." SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 33 " No ; but I had a sister who studied at an Eng- lish convent in Japan for a year or so. When she came back she ate with a fork, but we soon laughed her out of it." The end of the Russian knife is broader than the portion next the handle, and it is used both as a knife and as a spoon. They complain that the American knives do not " hold " enough. After the soup came fowls, roast meats, vege- tables, and two or three more dishes made of whipped cream. These last one grows to like. Their favorite form of dessert is this same sour cream, sprinkled generously with sugar and ground cinnamon. When all is seemingly over the table is again cleared, and the samovar is placed steaming upon the table. Every one takes four or five glasses of hot tea, flavored with sliced lemon. Some of the Russian tea is very fine. It is well known that they drink the costliest as well as the cheapest grades. It is more than likely that not a pound of the very best tea grown in China ever gets farther west than Russia. Meanwhile every one is smoking cigarettes, men and women alike; not only after dinner but between the courses. My use of the fork was not the only thing that distinguished me while in the country of the White Czar. Wherever I went, the Russians were highly amused at my use of the tooth-brush, 34 IN SEARCH OF A which they consider a peculiarly feminine utensil. I was everywhere embarrassed by the total ab- sence of the wash-bowl. Such things seem to be unknown. A sort of can or ewer of water, with a valve in the bottom, lets out a little stream of water on the hands; or, oftener still, a mouthful of water is taken from a glass and spurted over the hands — a much more sanitary method than the American, since the Russian does not wash in any vessel which has been used by others. The Rus- sian objects to any bath excepting the elaborate Russian bath, and as this can be obtained only in the centers of population, the result is not edify- ing. Even on the steamer, where hot and cold baths could be had for the asking, the bath-room was not patronized. The Russians say of the English and Americans that they bathe so much that they emit an offensive odor, which turns the tables on us somewhat surprisingly and casts some doubt upon the truth of the proverb that virtue is its own reward. As black, the most somber of all colors, is in truth a lack of all color, so perhaps the lack of any distinctive odor in the well-tubbed Englishman strikes the Russian as unpleasant. One of the waiters in attendance was a young and handsome man of twenty-five, convicted of murder. He was dressed in the picturesque cos- tume of the Cossack, and, strangely, wore a dag- SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 35 ger at his side. The woman who brought in the samovar had killed an entire family: her hus- band, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and her own child. She had been married to the waiter a year since arriving at Saghalien. The intermarriage of criminals raises a delicate penological question, considering what the fruit of such unions is likely to be. After dinner, I suggested to one of the Gover- nor's aides that we take a stroll, but the local magistrate veteod this, saying that on no account must we go out on the street after six o'clock in the evening. Our lives would be in immediate danger, as murders among the convicts averaged one a day on Saghalien. Hundreds have broken away and escaped into the interior of the island, living on game, roots, and berries. Some roam the streets at night, looking for plunder, espe- cially when a steamship is in harbor. The following day we passed a building which seemed to be full of women. They were convicts recently landed. On stated days, those male con- victs whose conduct has been uniformly good are taken to this building where the women are lined up and the men are allowed to choose wives for themselves. The women are quite willing to be chosen, but if they refuse they are not compelled to marry. Marriage means that they get away from the confinement of the workshops and gain 36 IN SEARCH OF A a snug little home among the neighboring hills, with nothing to suggest penal conditions except an occasional inspection. If they consent to marry, they go immediately to the little cathe- dral and are married by the priest. A plot of land is allotted to the couple, to clear and culti- vate. Possibly a horse, a cow, and a few chickens are given them, as well as the inevitable samovar. Our saying, " What is home without a mother? " might well be rendered in Russian, "What is home without a samovar? " All the money that they can make by raising produce is their own, and will be turned over to them upon the expira- tion of their sentences. But most of the convicts on Saghalien have sentences which terminate only at death. The women in the prisons are kept busy mak- ing clothes for such convicts as have not been let out on good behavior. The following day I was invited to attend, at the Greek Church, a service of thanksgiving for the escape of the passengers and crew of our wrecked steamer. The service proved a very im- pressive one. The singing, by a choir of convicts, was especially fine. In these Russian churches seats are not provided, and the audience stands or kneels during the entire service. That afternoon I had the temerity to take my camera under my arm and stroll through the Cfq W en 02 3 2 S - o cc O o >-s P FT 1 O <1 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 39 prison grounds. To my great surprise, I was permitted to take what photographs I pleased. Even the guards lined up and were " snapped," much to their delight. I also secured a picture of a convict being knouted for some slight misde- meanor. This is very common, and is done by tying the offender to a bench, face down, and in- flicting the necessary number of blows on his back. As the light began to fail I remembered the magistrate's injunction about being indoors be- fore dark, and so made my way home to dinner, during which I sat at the same table with the magistrate. He was a man of considerable ability, and made good use of the English lan- guage. During the meal he leaned over toward me and said, smiling : ' I understand you have been taking some pic- tures." " Yes," I answered penitently. ' Well, of course that is against the law, and I am afraid I shall have to ask you to turn those plates over to me." I expostulated mildly, but found that his mind was firmly made up on the matter. To tell the truth, my mind was also made up on the matter. "But," said I, "the plates are still in the camera, undeveloped." ' Oh, well, bring your camera along and I will 40 IN SEARCH OF A develop them for you," — this with a little smile of amusement. " Shall I go now," said I, pushing my chair back from the table, although dinner was not half over. " Don't think of it. To-morrow morning will do just as well." And to-morrow morning surely did, for that night the camera went to bed with me, and when the magistrate smilingly drew out the plates next morning and cracked them, one by one, on the corner of the table, he was not aware that he was spoiling fresh plates. I tried to look as sad as the occasion seemed to demand. I asked him if any of the convicts ever escaped from the island. He gave a short laugh and said : " Some of them got away once. I will tell you about it. A Japanese fishing-schooner put in here under stress of weather and anchored off the town. That night eight of the convicts swam off to her, murdered the crew, and sailed away with- out the slightest knowledge of navigation. Af- ter drifting about aimlessly for several days, they were picked up by an American whaler and car- ried to San Francisco. As soon as the facts be- came known, the Russian authorities demanded their extradition, but the American papers took the matter up and made a great outcry about sending back these innocent political convicts to SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 41 the horrors of Siberia, while the ladies of San Francisco heaped confections and flowers upon them. The United States authorities declined to give them up, though it should have been well known that no political suspects are ever sent to Saghalien, only tried and condemned criminals. But mark the sequel. Within two years all but one of those eight men were hung for murder, and the remaining one was in prison for life. We appreciate the kindness of the United States in relieving us of the support of these criminals, and she can have all the Russian convicts on the island of Saghalien if she wants them, and welcome." Saghalien is Russia's gallows, and the incident given above shows how philanthropic zeal, if ill- informed and misdirected, may easily work harm. Having occasion to interview the barber, I en- tered a neat shop in company with a Russian offi- cial. It was not till the razor was playing about my chin that I learned that the barber was a com- mon murderer. There was no backing out, for I knew not what savage instincts I might arouse in him by proposing to leave his place half shaved. I generally manage to get a nice little nap when under the soothing influence of the barber's hand, but this time I confess that I remained rather wider awake than usual. The gentle reader can, perhaps, imagine my feelings as the keen steel rasped across the vicinity of my jugular vein. 3 42 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE Strange to say, the only image that remains in my mind's eye is a staring advertisement which hung against the wall, and which expatiated with Yankee modesty upon the merits of a certain American barber-supply house and the unique opportunity it offered of securing the best goods at the cheapest price. I was informed later that this barber combined with his tonsorial occupa- tion that of procurer, which shows how wide a range of pursuits Russia allows her convicts. A superficial examination of the various shops which lined the main street of the town showed that American canned goods, sheetings, prints, flour and other food-stuffs are most in demand. The hardware was mostly of cheap German manufacture. I saw no English goods displayed. CHAPTER III PETROPAULOVSK AND SOUTHERN KAMCHATKA Volcanoes of Kamchatka and the superstitious natives — The first prospecting trip — Copper found, but no gold — Mos- quitos cause an evacuation of the land — The typical Chinese peddler. UPON our return to Korsakovsk from the wreck, the Governor-general had imme- diately telegraphed the news of the disaster to Vladivostok, and had asked that a relief steamer be despatched at once. In six days we saw her smoke on the horizon, and soon the Swatow, fly- ing the German flag, cast anchor off the town. She was accompanied by a Russian gunboat, which carried the Governor-general and his suite back to Vladivostok, as he had been recalled on urgent business. I found that the Swatow would not be able to go up into Bering Sea, but could only visit the trading stations on the Okhotsk Sea, at the head of which lies the important town of Ghijiga. Although my outfit had been so terribly de- pleted in the wreck, I was determined to push on and live on the country if necessary. The 43 44 IN SEARCH OF A steamer had brought me a small supply of brick- tea, sugar, and hard bread. This slender store I supplemented as best I could from the shops in Korsakovsk, and boarded the Swatow en route for the north. On leaving Saghalien for the second time, we gave the southern point of the island a wide berth, and after ten days of uneventful steaming we sighted the shores of the peninsula of Kam- chatka, which showed a chain of lofty snow-cov- ered mountains, now and again hidden by dense banks of fog. We entered the magnificent harbor of Petro- paulovsk by way of a narrow passage, and found ourselves in a landlocked bay, twenty-five miles long and ten miles wide. Its shores were well wooded, and we could see several fine streams as they made their way swiftly down the moun- tain-sides to the waters of the bay. At the north- ern extremity of the harbor rose the active volcano of Avatcha, sixteen thousand feet high from the water's edge. About its summit lay heavy masses of snow, and above it hovered a thick blanket of smoke. Kamchatka lies in the line of volcanic activity which stretches from Tierra del Fuego in South America northward through South and North America, the Aleutian Islands, Kam- chatka, the Kurile Islands, Japan, and so south- ward; and, therefore, it is not surprising that 5" e-t- o — • pa P- S3 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 77 amusement and contempt. The double cinches and the breast and back cinches puzzled them completely, and they refused to have anything to do with them. As fast as my Koreans would get the packs on, the Russians would take them off when our backs were turned. I soon discovered that the Russians were determined to use their own saddles, and no argument would move them. I unbuckled a Russian saddle and threw it to the ground, substituting one of my own for it. I turned to a second horse to do likewise, when, looking over my shoulder, I saw a Russian qui- etly unfastening the first. Stepping up to him, I gave him a slap with the open hand on the jaw. Instantly, the whole matter assumed a new as- pect. I was not to be trifled with. They saw it. Their objections were at once withdrawn, and never after that did I have occasion to strike a man. My guide was an old man of sixty-five, but a noted sledge-driver and hunter. His name was Theodosia Chrisoffsky, a half-caste. He was a dried-up and wizened old man, but I found him as active as a youth of twenty. He was always the first up in the morning, and the last to bed at night. He owned the best dogs in northeastern Siberia, and could get more work out of a dog- team than any other man. His reputation reached from the Okhotsk Sea to the Arctic 78 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE Ocean, and he was considered among the dog-men to be about the wealthiest of his class. He owned a hundred dogs, valued at from three to one hun- dred roubles each. Perhaps ten of them were worth the maximum price, and the rest averaged about ten roubles apiece. He also owned five horses. Not the least part of his wealth were twelve strapping sons and daughters, all of whom, with their wives and husbands, lived under the paternal roof — or, rather, under a clump of paternal roofs. There were some sixty souls in all, and they formed a little village by themselves about twenty miles up the river from Ghijiga. I had to load the horses very light on account of the marshy condition of the tundra. Each pack was a hundred pounds only. On this trip I took only one of my Koreans. CHAPTER VI OFF FOR THE TUNDRA — A NATIVE FAMILY Hard traveling — The native women — A mongrel race — Chrisoff sky's home and family and their ideas of domestic economy — Boiled fish-eyes a native delicacy — Prospecting along the Ghijiga. WE set out at nine o'clock on the sixth of September. Fortunately for us, the sharp frosts had already killed off all the mosquitos. The path through the tundra was very difficult. We stepped from tuft to tuft of moss, between which were deep mud and slush. When we could keep in the river-bed, where it was dry, we had tolerably good going ; so we kept as near the river as possible. Often I would have to mount the back of my faithful Kim to cross some tributary of the main stream. We were continually wet to the knee or higher, and were tired, muddy, and bedraggled beyond belief. Toward night, we saw the welcome smoke from the village of the Chrisoffskys. A crowd of small urchins came running out to greet their grandfather, and soon we were in the midst of the village. The old gentleman, my guide, took 79 80 IN SEARCH OF A my hand and led me into his house, where, after I had kissed every one (drawing the line at the men), one of the daughters sat down on the floor, unlaced my boots, took off my wet socks, and replaced them by soft, fur-lined deerskin boots. She then looked my boots over very care- fully, and finding a little seam ripped, she got out a deer-sinew and sewed it up. All my men were similarly attended to. The boots were then hung up to dry. In the morning, they would have to be oiled. This attention to the foot-gear is an essential part of the etiquette of this people. Any stitch that is to be taken must be attended to before the boot is dry and stiff. Even here the samovar reigned supreme. The women were strong, buxom creatures, and they wore loose calico gowns of gaudy colors. The hair, which is never luxuriant in the women of the North, was put up in two slender braids crossed at the back and brought around to the front of the head and tied up. Their complexions were very dark, al- most like that of a North American Indian. Most of them had very fine teeth. These people are of a mongrel race, having a mixture of Korak, Tunguse, and Russian blood. Chrisoffsky himself was one fourth Russian. They speak a dialect that is as mixed as their blood ; for it is a conglomerate of Korak, Tun- guse and Russian. They are very prolific, six SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 83 and eight children being considered a small family. The death-rate among them is very high, and, as might be expected, pulmonary diseases are responsible for a very large proportion of the deaths. This house into which I had come as guest con- sisted of a kitchen, a small living-room, and a tiny bedroom. The old gentleman's wife was fifty- five years old, and was still nursing her fifteenth child, which, at night, was swung from the ceil- ing, while the father and mother occupied a nar- row bed. Three of the smaller children slept on the floor beneath the bed. The room was eight feet long and six feet wide. The fireplace in the living-room was a huge stone oven, which pro- jected through the partition into the bedroom. Every evening its capacious maw was filled with logs, and this insured heat in the heavy stone body of the stove for at least twenty-four hours. In the mouth of this oven the kettles were hung. This house was far above the average; for, in truth, there were only twelve others as good in the whole immense district. For dinner, the first course was a startling one. It consisted of a huge bowl of boiled fish-eyes. This is considered a great delicacy by the natives of the far North. When the dish was set before me, and I saw a hundred eyes glaring at me from all directions and at all angles, cross, squint, and 84 IN SEARCH OF A wall, it simply took my appetite away. I had to turn them down, so that the pupil was not visible, before I could attack them. The old gentleman and I ate alone, the rest of the family not being allowed to sit down with us. This was eminently satisfactory to me, as we ate from the same dish ; in fact, I could have dispensed with my host too. The second dish consisted of fish-heads. I found on these a sort of gelatin or cartilage that was very good eating. Then came a kind of cake, fried in seal-oil, of which the less said the better. For dessert, we had a dish of yagada, which is much like our raspberry, except that it is yellow and rather acid. The rest of the family, together with my men, squatted on the floor of the kitchen, and ate from tables a foot high by three feet square. In the center of each table was set a large bowl of a kind of fish-chowder. Each person wielded a spoon made from the horn of the mountain sheep, and held in the left hand a piece of black bread. After dinner they all had tea. No sugar is put in the tea, but a small lump is given to each per- son, and he nibbles it as he sips his tea. It is the height of impoliteness to ask for a second piece of sugar. Many of these people drink as many as sixty cups of tea in a single day. They seldom, if ever, drink water. We sat and talked a couple of hours over the SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 85 samovar, and then the blankets were spread for the night. The large room was reserved for me. Three huge bearskins were first placed on the floor, and then my blankets were spread over them. It made a luxurious bed, and quite free from vermin; for a bedbug will never approach a bearskin. In the kitchen, I fear, they were packed like sardines. They slept on deerskins or bearskins, anything that came handy being used for a covering. Curiously enough, these people all prefer to sleep on a steep incline, and to secure this position they use heavy pillows or bolsters. Before retiring, each person came into my room and bowed and crossed himself before the icon in the corner. I had to shake hands with them all, and kiss the children, which operation I generally performed on the forehead, as hand- kerchiefs are unknown luxuries in that country. The next morning, while partaking of a sort of French breakfast of bread, tea, and sugar, I noticed that my party were the only ones that made use of a comb and brush. When I stepped outside the door to clean my teeth, I was sur- rounded by twenty or more, who had come to wit- ness this strange operation. They were brim- ming over with laughter. The tooth-brush was passed around from hand to hand, and I had to keep a sharp lookout, lest some of them tried it themselves. 86 IN SEARCH OF A Finally, I lined them all up to take their pho- tograph. I placed my camera on the ground, and turned to direct them how to stand. I had no need to ask them to look pleasant, for they were all on a broad grin. I was at a loss to account for their mirth till I turned and saw that the vil- lage dogs were treating my camera in a charac- teristically canine fashion. Then it was I who needed to be told to look pleasant. At last we were on the road again. For the first five miles our way led up the bed of the river, sometimes in the water, and sometimes on the bank in grass as high as the horses' shoulders. When, at last, we came out on to the tundra, to the north, a hundred and fifty miles away, I could see the tops of the mountains among which the Ghijiga River has its source. They are about ten thousand feet high. To the northeast, about sixty miles away, I could see the foothills of a range of mountains in which rises the Avecko River, which enters the Okhotsk Sea within a mile of the mouth of the Ghijiga. Reaching the sum- mit of the water-shed between the two rivers, I discovered that between me and these foothills the land was low and abounded in tundra lakes. To avoid these, I bore to the left and kept on the summit of the water-shed. By noon we had cov- ered only eight miles. We halted for dinner, un- packed the horses, and turned them out to feed JO *< JO »-h> ►-S O o as JO S3 o p- 3 H tr CD o O O o SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 89 upon the rich grass while we made our dinner of fish, bread, and other viands which we had brought ready prepared from the house. At eight that night we camped on a " tundra island," a slight rise in the general flatness on which grew a few tamarack trees. As the nights were now very cold, we built a roaring fire. My koklanka, or great fur coat, with its hood, now proved its utility. After supper, which consisted of several brace of fat ptarmigan, brought down that after- noon with my shotgun, each man took his deer- skin and spread it on a pile of elastic tamarack boughs. With our feet shod in dry fur boots, with our koklankas about us and great pillows under our heads, we slept as soundly and as com- fortably as one could desire. In the morning we found ourselves covered with white frost. The start was very difficult, for an all-day tramp in the bog the day before had made our joints stiff. For the first half hour, walking was so painful that I found myself fre- quently counting the steps between objects along the way. But after a time the stiffness wore off, and I began to find the pace of the horses too slow. When at last we came to higher ground and better going, I examined the streams for gold. The pan showed several " small colors," for we were in a granite country, but as yet there were no signs of any gold-bearing float rock. 90 IN SEARCH OF A On the thirteenth day we arrived at our desti- nation which was a certain creek indicated by a Russian engineer named Bugdanovitch. I liked the looks of the country very much. The creeks were filled with quartz float. So I determined to stop here two or three weeks and explore the ad- jacent hills and creeks for gold. At this point my guide's contract expired and I reluctantly let him go, as well as five of the six horses. I was thus left in the wilderness with Kim and Alek. I pitched camp in a favorable place and went to work in good spirits. I thoroughly prospected the hills and ravines and made repeated trials of the creek beds, but though I found more or less show of gold, I was at last obliged to confess that there was nothing worth working. This being the case, it behooved me to be on my way back to headquarters at Ghijiga. I thought there could be no difficulty about it, as the water all flowed in one direction. I did not want to go back by the way we had come. I sus- pected that there was a shorter way, and that the guide had purposely brought me a longer dis- tance in order to secure more pay. So I decided to make a " bee line " for Ghijiga. Already we had had a slight flurry of snow, which had made me a trifle uneasy. We had only thirty days' pro- visions with us, and it would not do to be snowed in. As we had only one horse, we could not, of SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 91 course, take back with us all our camp equipage, so I left Alek at the camp and started out for Ghijiga with Kim and our one horse, intending to send back dog-sledges for the things. A more timid man than Alek would have hesitated before consenting to be left behind in this fashion, but he bore up bravely and in good cheer sent us off. CHAPTER VII TUNGUSE AND KORAK HOSPITALITY, My Korak host — Bear ! \ 9 — I shoot my first arctic fox — My Tunguse guide — Twenty-two persons sleep in a twelve-foot tent — Tunguse family prayers — The advent of Howka — ChrisofFsky once more. I STRUCK what I thought to be a straight course toward our destination. The going was much better than it had been a few weeks before, because of the hard frost which held everything solid till ten o'clock in the morning. Then the sun would melt the ice and make it very hard to travel; for the broken ice would cut our boots, which meant wet feet for the rest of the day. On the second day we struck a small water- course and saw many signs of reindeer. Soon we found a tiny trail, and, following it down the val- ley, I turned around a bend in the creek, and saw before me six large deerskin tents, while on the surrounding hillsides were hundreds of reindeer. As we neared the village a dozen curs came rush- ing out; some of them were hobbled so as to prevent their chasing the deer. They attacked us savagely, as is the custom of these ugly little mon- 92 CfQ CD o o I— '• SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 95 grels. We had to make a counter attack with stones to keep them off. The noise aroused the natives, who hurried out and received us with the hospitable " drosty." These people were pure Koraks, 1 a little under the medium size, in which they resemble the Japa- nese. I was led into the largest of the tents, and a wooden bowl containing boiled reindeer meat was placed before me. To the delight of my host, I went to my pack and produced some tea. I also displayed some sugar and black bread, which firmly established me in their good graces. I was greatly surprised to see my host bring out a box, from which he produced half a dozen china cups, heavily ornamented with gilt, and bearing such legends as " God Bless Our Home," " To Father," and "Merry Christmas." He must have secured them from an American whaling vessel on one of his annual trips to the coast. So, in the midst of this wilderness, I drank my tea from a fine mustache cup, originally designed to make the recipient " Remember Me." These cups were the heirloom of the family, and were brought out only on state occasions. When tea was finished I produced some to- bacco and filled my pipe and that of my host, much to his gratification. The sequel was em- 1 Sometimes spelled Koriaks or Koryakes. Korak is given the preference as being more accurately the phonetic spelling. 96 IX SEARCH OF A barrassing; for when our pipes were smoked out he insisted on filling them again with his own to- bacco. This was rough on me, but I set my teeth on the pipe-stem and bravely went through with it to the end. I can say nothing worse of it than that it was as bad as a cheap American cigarette. My host was a genial old fellow, and later on he became my bosom friend. He was the wealth- iest man in his district, and owned upward of ten thousand reindeer. Of course I had great diffi- cultv in talking to him, but bv a liberal use of signs, I made him understand where I had come from, and that I would like to have him kill some reindeer and carry them back to the camp where I had left Alek, and, if possible, bring him to this village. I made a rough sketch of the posi- tion of the camp, and he understood perfectly, as shown by the fact that he carried out my instruc- tions to the letter on the next day. I asked him the way to Ghijiga and pointed in the direction that I had supposed it lay. This was approxi- mately correct, but he promised to give me a guide to take me to town. That evening there was another surprise in store for me. They served for supper the boiled flesh of unborn reindeer. It is accounted a specially choice viand among the Koraks. This seemed worse than smoking the old man's tobacco, but I laid aside all squeamishness and found that, after SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 97 all, it was a palatable dish. My bed that night was a pile of skins, a foot deep, in a corner of the tent. The next morning we set out with our guide, a mere boy dressed in a close-fitting suit of brown buckskin. He carried in his hand an ugly looking bear spear with a blade a foot long and sharpened on both edges. It was artistically inlaid with copper scroll-work and was a fine example of genuine Korak art. The shaft was a good eight feet long. All day we pushed ahead without ad- venture or misadventure until about seven o'clock in the evening, when, as we were passing down a gentle incline through thick bushes, with the Korak guide in the lead and I behind, my notice was attracted by a mound of fresh earth a few steps from the path. I went to investigate, and was greeted by a terrific roar. I brought my gun to position and cocked both barrels, but could see nothing beyond a tremendous shaking of the bushes. Looking around, I saw the little guide with his eyes blazing and his spear in readiness for an attack. He exclaimed " Medvait! " which in Russian means " bear." As my gun was loaded only with bird shot, I decided that discre- tion was the better part of valor, and slowly backed out of the dense undergrowth. When I reached the open, whatever remnant of hunting instinct a hard day's tramp had left in me asserted 98 IN SEARCH OF A itself. Hastily reloading my gun with shells loaded with buckshot, I circled around the bushes to get a shot at the fellow. I saw where the bushes were being beaten down by his hasty re- treat, but could not catch sight of the brute. I sent a charge of buckshot after him as an induce- ment to come out and show himself, but the argu- ment worked just the other way, and he made off at his best speed. The strangest thing about the whole affair was that we had passed within ten feet of the animal without the horse showing any signs of uneasiness. Nothing will so frighten a horse as the smell of a bear. But I learned after- ward that this particular horse was afraid of no- thing. I had named him " Bill," and we had many a hard day together. Night was now upon us, and so we made our camp in some dry grass beside a brook. The guide slept on a single deerskin, with no covering but the clothes he wore. In the morning I as- cended a little knoll, and with my glasses could see a mountain near the town of Ghijiga, so the guide left me, and went back. That afternoon I killed my first arctic fox. The little fellow, about as large as a coyote, came running toward us. We stopped short, and the inquisitive animal approached to within a hundred feet and paused to inspect us. I killed him with a ball through the chest. < P.. CD o w SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 101 That night as Kim and I sat beside a roaring fire of birch logs a little animal leaped suddenly into the firelight opposite. It was a young arctic fox, the prettiest sight I have ever seen. He would jump to one side and then the other, and crouch, and strike attitudes like a kitten at play. Then he would lift his nose in the air and sniff this way and that, raising one of his paws meanwhile. The thought of killing the little thing would never have entered my head if Kim, the matter-of-fact, had not whispered, " Strelite," which means " shoot." Instinctively my hand crept toward my gun, but the little fox saw the movement and was gone like a flash. I was heartily glad of it, too. In this district are to be found almost all the different varieties of foxes — the red, fiery, blue, chestnut, black, and white. But it should be re- membered that, with the exception of the white and red, these are not exactly different species. For instance, a black fox may be found in a litter of the common red fox in any country. He is simply a freak of nature, just as one might find a black kitten among a litter of gray ones. The foxes are caught by poison or traps. There are two kinds of traps, one of which seizes the ani- mal by a leg or around the neck, and the other is made with a bow and arrow so set that as the fox goes along the path the slightest touch of the foot fLofC. 102 IN SEARCH OF A will discharge the arrow. Formerly these animals were so common that when the dogs were fed the foxes would come and try to steal part of the food, and had to be driven away with clubs. At that time the natives valued their pelts hardly more than dogskins, but as the foreign demand increased the foxes became worth catching. We had four days of hard work traveling across the tundra, which was frozen hard in the morning, but was soft in the afternoon. Many times a day we were up to the waist in the mud and water, working to get Bill out of the mire. On the fourth day, just as night fell, we struck the trail between Ghijiga and old Chrisoffsky's little hamlet. I did not know just how far we were from the village, and as we were tired out we camped for the night. In the morning, what was our chagrin to find that we were within a quarter of a mile of Ghijiga. Bill doubtless knew, and if he could have talked he would have saved us one night in the open. The days now grew rapidly colder, with flurries of snow that heralded the coming of winter. As it was now possible to use dog-sleds, I engaged some of the natives to go to the Korak village and bring down my camping outfit, which I thought must long since have arrived at that place. At this season the dogs could travel only at night, when the ground was hard, but even so SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 103 they covered between thirty and forty miles a day without difficulty. Meanwhile I loaded up Bill with all he could carry, and, in company with Kim, started out to find the head waters of the Turumcha River, where gold was reported to have been discovered. This trail led west from Ghijiga, but it was first necessary to go up the valley of the Ghijiga a short distance before crossing over into the other valley. I had, therefore, to pass ChrisofFsky's place again. We arrived there the first evening and received a hearty welcome. I tried to get the old gentleman to go with me and to furnish horses and dogs, but he could do neither. His dogs were engaged by the trading company on the coast, and his horses were in too poor a condition to un- dertake the journey which I contemplated. So I was reduced to the melancholy necessity of walking, Bill carrying our camp outfit. As I was about to start, a native Tunguse ar- rived at ChrisofFsky's. He was the first of that tribe that I had seen. Chrisoffsky told me that this young man was going the same road as I, and that his yourta, or hut, was near the stream along which I intended to prospect. He willingly agreed to act as my guide at a wage of one brick of tea a day. He answered to the euphonious name of Fronyo. He was five feet high and weighed only one hundred and ten pounds, but 104 IN SEARCH OF A was prodigiously strong and wiry. He was dressed in old tanned buckskin, with a gaudy apron trimmed with beads in geometric patterns and with a fringe. According to the custom of his tribe, he wore a long, ugly knife strapped to his thigh, the point reaching to the knee, while the handle lay at the hip. These knives are fash- ioned by the Koraks, who sell them to the Tun- guses. On his feet were moccasins with seal-hide soles. I found that he could speak a little broken Rus- sian, and as I had acquired a few Russian ex- pressions we got along famously. So we set out, Fronyo leading off with his long bear spear but no fire-arms. It was a straight three days' trip across the tundra, and without special incident. At night we arrived in good season at a skin yourta on the banks of a tributary of the Ghijiga. On our approach a dozen dogs rushed out with the full intention of tearing us to pieces, but changed their minds when they found that we were equally determined to defend ourselves. The dogs were followed by the denizens of the place, ten or twelve in number, including Fron- yo's father, mother, brothers, and sisters. Their greeting consisted in grasping right hands, throwing out the lips as far as possible and touching the two cheeks and lips of the friend. I pretended ignorance of the ceremony. In truth, M. CD O Ml So 3 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 107 they were so unconscionably dirty that it was im- possible to tell the color of their skin, and besides, I could not distinguish the men from the women. But I learned later that the dress of the two sexes does differ slightly, for the women have a little fringe about the bottom of the skirt, which is split up the back precisely like our frock-coats. The flap of the tent was drawn aside and we crept in, only to find ourselves buried in a dense cloud of smoke, which came from an open fire burning in the middle of the tent, and which es- caped through a hole at the top, as in the wigwam of the North American Indian. On sitting down, I discovered that near the ground the air was com- paratively clear. Because of this smoke, the na- tives suffer severely from sore eyes. Among the Tunguses the guest is always sup- posed to provide the tea, so I had Kim bring out a brick, and it was brewed and served with bread and sugar. For supper I had a splendid salmon- trout spitted before the fire, and it seemed the most delicious morsel I had ever tasted. Then we lighted our pipes and took our ease. I noticed that the women carried pipes. The little brass pipe-bowls are bought from the Russian traders and are fitted with reed stems about eight inches long. Some of the pipe-stems were made of two pieces of wood grooved down the center and then bound together with deer thong. They mix 108 IN SEARCH OF A Manchu tobacco with the dried inner bark of the fir tree. When it came time to retire, several logs were added to the fire in the center of the tent, the deerskins were spread, and each lay down in the clothes he or she had worn all day. The tent was twelve feet in diameter, and in that space twenty-two persons slept ; three of them were in- fants who were swung from the top and just below the smoke line. Indeed we lay like matches in a box, and certain grave misgivings I had rela- tive to living mementoes of the occasion were later verified. But before retiring I witnessed a scene that would have put to shame not a few of the homes in America. These Tunguses are, many of them, adherents of the Greek Church. There was an icon in the tent, and before and after eating they crossed themselves before it. Now as we were about to retire the family shook hands and kissed one another. They came and shook my hand and said, " Pleasant sleep." Then the old man turned his face upward, closed his eyes and said, " O God, do not forget our home to-night." Consid- ering the surroundings, it was the most impres- sive thing I had ever witnessed. On our departure the next day we made the old people happy with the gift of several bricks of tea. Snow had fallen during the night to the SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 109 depth of six inches. Winter was on us in full force. As we left we were followed from the yourta by a beautiful black dog the size of a fox. I was to become well acquainted with him later. We camped that night on the banks of the Tu- rumcha where I was to commence my work. The stream was only sixty feet wide, but it was swift and turgid and filled with floating ice. The next morning we were obliged to ford it; so, tying a lariat about Bill's neck and leaving the end of it in Kim's hands, I mounted and forced the horse into the water. At the deepest point it came well up to his shoulders and he found it hard to keep his feet, but we got safely over. Kim pulled the horse back by the lariat and the guide came across. That long-suffering brute had to make four round trips before we and our effects were all across the river. When Kim started across, the dog began to howl piteously, but finally sprang into the water after us. When in mid-stream he encountered a floating cake of ice. He climbed upon it and was whirled down- stream and out of sight. He got across, however, and caught up with us two hours later. We followed up the bed of the stream, stop- ping often to examine it for signs of gold. We sunk shafts here and there and panned the gravel in the icy water of the stream, always getting a few " colors " but nothing of particular interest. 110 IN SEARCH OF A Each night we camped in some sheltered nook, often in heavy timber, and our first move always was to change our wet boots. One night I spread out my deerskin bed, put on my heavy fur coat and cap, lay down as usual with the canvas tar- paulin over all, and was soon asleep. About four o'clock in the morning I felt something warm moving at my side. I put out my hand and found that it was the black dog which had fol- lowed us. We called him Howka. When I stirred he offered to leave, but I patted him and coaxed him to remain, which he was quite willing to do. Afterward I bought him, and for a year he was my constant companion. Once, during a long period of semi-starvation, he saved my life by hunting sea-gulls' nests, from which I took the eggs. After working my way up to the headwaters of the stream without finding gold in paying quantities, I determined to cross over the divide into another section, but my guide, Fronyo, begged me to go one day's trip farther up the little brook to a place which he described as " white walls with little sparkling points like the stars." I said to myself, " Probably quartz with sulphurets " (bisulphide of iron) . So on we went and came at last to the shiny wall. It proved to be a large vein of low grade gold ore crossing the brook at right angles. Panning below I < n H o o p SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 113 found nothing of particular value; so breaking off fragments of the rocks we piled them up be- side the stream, making a little monument to mark the spot, should I wish to revisit it. I ap- peared to be now in a mineral country. We went on up the brook, panning continually, but no- where on the bed-rock found gold in paying quantities. We had now reached the top of the divide, and so crossed over into a district called Toloffka, with a stream of the same name, where we spent several days. The cold was intense. The ther- mometer registered ten degrees below zero. The streams were all ice-bound, except where they were very swift. The snow was about a foot deep, and Bill was faring badly. His only food was the tops of the grass that stuck up through the snow or that could be found on wind-swept places. He was so weak that he could only pack sixty pounds, and that with difficulty. All our food was gone except rice and tea. Our tobacco had long ago given out, and, as a substitute, we used brick tea mixed with pine bark. It made a smoke — and that was all. The rough work had destroyed my boots. I had used one pair to mend the soles of the other. My guide made a needle of a fish bone, and with thread from the fiber of a vine sewed the soles on for me. It was evi- dently time for us to be turning our faces home- 114 IN SEARCH OF A ward. We went straight for the yourta where Fronyo's family lived, and of course made it in far less time than it had taken us to come. I found that the whole trip had covered just one month. Bill came very near giving out on the home trip, but by a heroic effort pulled through and was rewarded at the journey's end by get- ting all the provender he could stow away. As Bill had to carry the pack and as my feet were not in the best condition, Fronyo proposed that I ride to Ghijiga on a reindeer. A fine big bull of about five hundred pounds was brought out and I looked him over. I had some misgiv- ings, but at last decided to accept the offer. The saddle was made with reindeer bones for a foun- dation. These were securely bound together, padded with moss, and covered with rawhide. The antlers of the deer had a spread of five feet, and there were so many prongs that I never tried to count them. Much to my surprise, I found that the motion of my steed was a smooth and gliding one, even more comfortable than the gait of a single-footer. It had taken us three days to walk up from ChrisofFsky's to the yourta. It took just eight hours to make the same trip in the other direction. ChrisofFsky's house was on the left bank of the stream, while we were on the right. It would have been death to the deer to have taken him SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 115 within scent of the dogs. So I dismounted two miles from the house, tethered the deer, and made my way in on foot. The stream was not solidly frozen, so I fired off my gun and brought out the whole settlement. A boat was found, and pres- ently I was seated again at old ChrisofFsky's fireside. CHAPTER VIII DOG-SLEDGING AND THE FUR TRADE Description of the sledge and its seven pairs of dogs — The harness — The useful polka — The start-off a gymnastic performance for the driver — Methods of steering and avoiding obstructions while going at full speed — Dog- trading en route — Dog-fights are plentiful — Prices of sable and other skins in the native market — The four grades of sables — How they live and what they live on — A Russian writer on sable hunting — Days when a native would barter eighteen sable skins for an ax. I COULD not delay here. The sledge-road to Ghijiga was in fine condition, and, hiring a team of dogs, I started out the next morning on my first sledge-ride. Our team consisted of four- teen big, wolflike sledge-dogs with shaggy coats and erect pointed ears. Some were white, some black, some gray, some red, and some a bluish color. The two leaders were a magnificent pair — one red, the other blue. They were all fierce- looking fellows, but I had no difficulty in stroking them, as they like to be petted. The harness con- sisted of a breast collar and a belly-band. Lead- ing back from the collar, and held in place on the 116 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 117 sides by the belly-band, are two thongs, which are attached to a ring directly behind the dog. From this ring a single thong, three feet in length, at- taches the dog to the central tug which draws the sledge. Each thong is fastened to a ring on the tug by means of a wooden pin three inches long. The dogs are always fastened to the tug in pairs. The central tug leads forward from the sledge to a point between the leading pair of dogs. [Be- tween the several pairs is a clear space of about eighteen inches. The sledge itself, which is called a narta, is a re- markable vehicle. It is made of light basswood without nails or screws. The parts are bound to- gether with walrus thongs. It is admirably adapted to survive the hard knocks which it is sure to receive. It has just the necessary amount of " give " without losing anything in strength. The runners are from ten to fourteen feet long and two feet apart. They are from three to four inches wide and unshod. The bed of the sledge is raised ten inches above the runners by means of posts at frequent intervals. On each side is a railing six inches high, with a thong mesh to pre- vent the load from falling off. At about one third the distance from the front to the back of the sledge is placed a perpendicular bow of stout wood, which rises some four feet and a half from the ground. The driver sits behind this, and 118 IN SEARCH OF A whenever an obstruction is met with, he steps off quickly at the side and pulls the sledge one way or the other by means of this bow, which he grasps in the right hand. The driver holds a stout steel- shod stick five feet in length with a cord attached to the end. He can use this polka as a brake by putting it between the runners and digging it into the ground, or he can anchor the sledge with it by driving it perpendicularly into the snow imme- diately in front of the sledge and then tying the cord to the bow which has been described. When this is done the sledge cannot possibly move forward. Several bearskins were laid in the bed of the sledge for me, and a back-rest was made by lash- ing together three cross-pieces. I was told to keep as far down as possible, as it would lessen the probability of capsizing. Before starting, one more important piece of work had to be per- formed. Chrisoff sky, using the polka as a lever, tipped the sledge up at an angle of forty-five de- grees, exposing the bottom of one runner, and proceeded to scrape it with a knife he always car- ried in a sheath at his thigh. Then from under his fur coat he drew out a little bottle of water which was fastened about his neck with a cord, and wet- ting a piece of deer fur as one would wet a sponge, he drew it rapidly along the runner, with the result that a thin film of ice was formed along CD &. a a. o Cf=3 O B' crq p s p- >> a> <-t- o p- o CfQ SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 121 its whole length. The other runner was treated likewise. This is a very important part of the preparation for a sledge-ride. While this was going on the dogs were con- tinually yelping with excitement and leaping in their collars, eager to be off. Old Chrisoffsky quieted them with the cry " Chy, chy, chy." The old gentleman himself was to be my driver, and I mounted and was carefully tucked in by kindly, even if dirty, hands, while Chrisoffsky restrained the dogs. I said good-by, and settled back to wit- ness a marvelous feat of human dexterity on the part of the driver, and of almost human intelli- gence on the part of the dogs. It was a crisp, cold morning. The road was well broken, but the difficulty was in getting out of the village with its narrow, winding paths to the open tundra where the road was straight and easy. As Chrisoffsky untied the cord from the bow, the alert dogs gave a wild yell, and strained at their collars as though they had gone mad. He drew out the polka, placed one foot on the run- ner, gave the bow a jerk to dislodge the sledge from its position in the snow, and shouted, " Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!' : to the impatient dogs. They sprang forward together, giving the sledge a jerk that nearly threw me overboard, and dashed forward at a terrific speed, Chrisoffsky still standing on the runner and waving the polka 122 IN SEARCH OF A in his hand. We were off like a shot amid the laughter and good-bys of Chrisoffsky's numer- ous progeny. The trick was to get the dogs around those sharp curves at such a speed without upsetting the sledge. The driver by shouting, " Put, put, put! " could make them swerve about forty-five degrees to the right, and they would continue to turn till he stopped ; then they would go straight ahead. If he wanted them to turn to the left he would give a strong guttural, scraping noise that sounded like an intensified German " ch," repeated as long as he wished them to con- tinue turning. If we met an obstruction he would leap off, even when going at full speed, and by means of the bow pull or push the sledge free from the impending smash, and then leap on again as nimbly as a cat, despite his sixty-odd years. As we swept out of the village, fol- lowed by the shouts of " Doswi dania" (good- by), we plunged down into a gully and up the other side on to the open tundra, the dogs on the dead run. For a time our speed must have been nearly that of a greyhound at full stretch. Old Chrisoffsky looked back at me and laughed, and asked me how I liked it. I have ridden a good many kinds of vehicles, but for beauty of motion give me a narta with fourteen big, wild dogs, and a smooth road. The narta goes like a snake, it is so sinuous and adapts SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 123 itself so perfectly to the irregularities of the road. After a while the dogs got the " wire edge " worked off their enthusiasm and settled down to a good steady trot that took us along at the rate of seven miles an hour. They worked together as smoothly as a machine. When they became thirsty, they would lap up the snow beside the path. If one of the dogs stops drawing and be- gins to shirk, the driver stands up and throws the polka at him, hitting him on the head or back, and then, by a dexterous motion, pushes the narta to one side and recovers the polka as the sledge passes it. The dog so warned will probably go miles with his head over his shoulder watching to see if he is going to be struck again ; and all the other dogs, too, keep a weather-eye open. The best dogs are always in the lead, and the poorest ones back near the driver, where he can manage them most easily. If a dog refuses to draw, the sledge is stopped and the driver, to an accompaniment of very choice language, beats the sluggard with the lash of the polka till he deems the punishment suffi- cient. That dog will need no more reminders for a day at least. Almost always after starting out one or two dogs have to be handled in this manner before they will settle down to the day's work. Not infrequently dog-teams, meeting in the road, 124 IN SEARCH OF A will stop and the drivers will proceed to " swap horses," or rather dogs, in the true David Harum style. But the two leaders are never exchanged in this way. They are the driver's favorites, and are too valuable to risk in such a trade. Even if their master is starving he will not part with his leaders. About five miles out, we met a team of dogs going up-country. We stopped simultaneously to exchange news, and inside of ten seconds one of our dogs made a jump at one of the other team. This was the signal, and in an instant all the twenty-eight dogs were at it tooth and nail in one grand scrimmage. After beating them unmerci- fully, the drivers were able to separate the two teams, and we found that three of our dogs were limping. I then learned that in a fight the Sibe- rian dog does not make for his antagonist's throat, but for his feet, for he seems to know that injury to that member is the most serious that can happen to a sledge-dog. It was amusing to see with what deftness they would draw their feet back from the snap of the enemy. The neck is generally covered with a thick growth of hair which is impervious to teeth, while from the ankle to the foot the hair is cut away by the driver to prevent the snow from balling upon it. Our troubles proved not to be serious, and at the end of the third hour we approached Ghijiga. As l-t < s &. ro ►5" c o CD cT P CD SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 127 soon as the dogs scented the town they gave a simultaneous yelp and broke into a swift run, as is always their custom in approaching any settle- ment. At the same time all the dogs of the vil- lage, apparently, came rushing out to meet us, and ran alongside yelping and snapping in a friendly way at our dogs. Old Chrisoff sky drew up with a flourish before my cabin, where I re- ceived a hearty welcome from the townsfolk. This day's trip from Chrisoff sky's house by dog- sledge cost me the enormous sum of one rouble, or fifty cents in United States gold. It was now late in October, and it was necessary for me to stop in Ghijiga while my winter outfit of clothes was being prepared. The snow was al- ready deep and the river frozen solid, excepting at the rapids. But cold as it was, my work was but just beginning, for it is only in winter that long distance travel is possible. In summer you may struggle across six or eight miles of spongy tundra a day, but in winter you can easily cover from sixty to ninety miles, depending upon the quality of your teams and the number of your relays. By this time the natives were beginning to bring in their furs and other valuables to ex- change with the merchants of the trading com- pany. It may be of interest to give the prevail- ing prices. 128 IN SEARCH OF A The native, ordinarily, does not take money for his skins, but various kinds of necessaries. Re- ducing it all, however, to a monetary basis, we find that he receives for sable skin ten to thirteen roubles; red-fox skin, two to three roubles; white-fox skin, one and a half roubles; black- fox skin, fifty to one hundred and fifty roubles; blue-squirrel skin, thirty-five cents; unborn-deer skin, twelve cents; turbogan (kind of coon), fif- teen cents ; yearling-deer skin, seventy-five cents ; sea-dog skin, one rouble; black-bear skin, seven roubles ; brown-bear skin, five roubles ; white-bear skin, twenty-five roubles; walrus rope, two cents a yard; walrus ivory, from five cents to one and a half roubles a tusk; mammoth tusk, five to six roubles ; fur coats, one and a half to five roubles ; boots, twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents a pair. For an ermine skin he is wont to receive two needles or a piece of sugar as large as a thimble. In exchange for these commodities the traders give tea, sugar, powder, lead, cartridges, tobacco, bar iron one inch wide by a quarter of an inch thick, needles, beads, and various other trinkets. When the goods are marketed it is found that the company makes anywhere from one hundred to one thousand per cent, profit. Tea, the article most called for, allows only one hundred per cent, profit. On sugar some three hundred per cent, is o crq p s? CD SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 131 made, and on the trinkets and other miscellaneous goods anywhere from five hundred to one thou- sand per cent, is made. Several significant facts are to be deduced from this list : first, the low price that is paid for sables compared with the prices they bring in the Euro- pean market; second, the comparatively high price the skin of the black fox brings, although it is only a fraction of what it costs at home (a single skin has brought as high as four thousand dollars in Paris) ; third, the extremely low cost of ermine ; and fourth, the fact that there is no active trade in mammoth tusks, although they are plen- tiful. They are often ten feet in length, and it might be supposed that they would contain ivory enough to make them worth much more than they bring; but the fact is that it is fossil ivory, and the outside of each tusk is so far broken and de- cayed that only the very center of the tusk con- tains marketable ivory. The common rule is to give the natives one year's credit; the tea, sugar, tobacco, and other articles which they receive this year being paid for by the skins which they bring next year. The plan works well, for the natives are scrupulous in the payment of their debts. And furthermore, the traders, being on the spot, have a wide per- sonal acquaintance among the natives and know just whom they can depend upon. 132 IN SEARCH OF A Of course the most valuable portion of the produce of this north country is sable skins. There are four kinds, or rather grades, of sables. The finest come from the Lena River district ; the second grade from the territory of which we are writing and within a radius of five hundred miles about the head of the Okhotsk Sea; the third grade from the Amur River district, and the fourth from Manchuria. Generally, the farther north one goes the better the sables. Before Siberia was conquered by Russia, sables were extremely common, but gradually they were pushed back by the coming of settlers, for they will not remain in the vicinity of human dwell- ings. They live in holes, as do the martens or er- mines, but those who have studied their habits say that they frequently build nests of sticks and grass in the branches of trees, and use them alter- nately with their holes. They usually sleep about half the day, and roam about in search of food the other half. In the early spring they live on hares, though they will also eat weasles or ermine. When the berries are in season they subsist solely on cranberries, blueberries, and especially the ber- ries of the shad-bush. The natives say that eating these last causes them to itch and rub themselves against the trees, which for the time being spoils their fur; so that while the shad-bush is in berry no sables are caught. SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 133 About the end of March the sable brings forth its young, from three to five in the litter, and suckles them from four to six weeks. The method of trapping sables has been well described by a quaint writer near the beginning of the nineteenth century, and, as there have been very few changes during the interval, he is worth quoting : The sable hunters, whether Russian or native, begin to set out for hunting about the beginning of September. Some Russians go themselves, and others hire people to hunt for them, giving them proper clothes and instru- ments for hunting, and provisions for the time of their being out. When they return from the chase they give their masters all the game, and restore them likewise all that they received, except the provisions. A company that agrees to hunt together assembles from six to forty men, though formerly there were some- times even fifty. They provide a small boat for every three or four men, which they cover over; and take with them such persons as understand the language of the people among whom they go to hunt, and like- wise the places properest for hunting. These persons they maintain at the public charge, and give them, be- sides, an equal share of the game. In these boats every hunter lays thirty poods of rye- flour, one pood 1 of wheat-flour, one pood of salt, and a quarter of a pood of groats. Every two men must have 1 Russian weight equivalent to thirty-six pounds avoirdupois. 134 IN SEARCH OF A a net, a dog, and several poods of provisions for the dog, a bed and covering, a vessel for preparing their bread, and a vessel to hold leaven. They carry with them very few firearms. The boats are then drawn up-stream as far as they can go, where the hunters build for themselves. Here they all assemble and live until the river is frozen over. In the mean time they choose for their chief leader one who has been of tenest upon these expeditions ; and to his orders they profess an entire obedience. He divides the company into several small parties, and names a leader to each, except his own, which he himself directs ; he also appoints the places where each party is to hunt. As soon as the season begins, this division into small parties is unalterable, even though the whole company consists of only eight or nine, for they never all go toward the same place. When their leaders have given them their orders, every small company digs pits upon the road by which they must go. In these pits they lay up for every two men three bags of flour against their return, when they shall have consumed all their other provisions ; and whatever they have left in the huts they are obliged to hide also in pits, lest the wild inhabitants should steal it. As soon as the rivers are frozen over and the season is proper for the sable hunting, the chief of the leaders calls all the huntsmen into the hut, and, having prayed to God, gives orders to every chief of each small company, and despatches them the same road which was before as- signed them. Then the leader sets out one day before the rest to provide lodging-places for them. SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 135 When the chief leader despatches the under-leaders he gives them several orders ; one of which is that each should build his first lodging in honor of some church, which he names, and the other lodgings to some such saint whose image he has with him, and that the first sable they catch should be laid aside in the quarter of the church, and at their return be presented to it. These sables they call " God's Sables," or the church's. The first sable that is caught in the quarter of each saint is given to the person who brought the image of that saint with him. On their march they support themselves with a wooden crutch about four feet long ; upon the end of which they put a cow's horn, to keep it from being split by the ice, and a little above they bind it around with thongs to keep it from sinking too deep in the snow. The upper part is broad like a spade, and serves to shovel away the snow or to take it up and put it into their kettles, for they must use snow, as they have frequently no water. The principal chief having sent out the small parties, starts with his own. When they come to the places of lodging they build little huts of logs, and bank them up with snow round about. They hew several trees upon the road, that they may the more easily find their way in the winter. Near every quarter they prepare their trap- pits, each of which is surrounded with sharp stakes, about six or seven feet high, and about four feet distant, and is covered over with boards to prevent the snow from fall- ing in. The entrance through the stakes is narrow, and over it a board is hung so nicely that by the least touch of the sables it turns and throws them into the 136 IN SEARCH OF A trap; and they must absolutely go this way to reach a piece of fish or flesh with which the trap is baited. The hunters stay in a station till they have a sufficient num- ber of traps set, every hunter being obliged to make twenty in a day. When they have passed ten of these quarters the leader sends back half of his company to bring up the provisions that were left behind, and with the remainder he advances to build more huts and set more traps. These carriers must stop at all the lodging -places to see that the traps are in order, and take out any sables they may find in them, and skin them, which none must pretend to do but the chief man of the company. If the sables are frozen they thaw them out by putting them under the bedclothes with them. When the skins are taken off, all present sit down and are silent, being careful that nothing is hanging on the stakes. The body of the sable is laid upon dried sticks, and these are after- ward lighted, the body of the animal smoked, and then buried in the snow or the earth. Often when they ap- prehend that the Tunguses may meet them and take away their booty, they put the skins into hollow pieces of wood and seal up the ends with snow, which being wetted soon freezes. These they hide in the snow near their huts, and gather them up when they return in a body. When the carriers are come with provisions, then the other half are sent for more ; and thus they are em- ployed in hunting, the leader always going before to build traps. When they find few sables in their traps they hunt with nets, which they can only do when they find the fresh tracks of sables in the snow. These they SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 137 follow till it brings them to the hole where the sable has entered; or if they lose it near other holes, they put smoking pieces of rotten wood to them, which generally forces the sable to leave the hole. The hunter at the same time has spread his net, into which the animal usu- ally falls; and for precaution his dog is generally near at hand. Thus the hunter sits and waits sometimes two or three days. They know when the sable falls into the net by the sound of two small bells which are fastened to it. They never put smoky pieces of wood into those holes which have only one opening, for the sable would sooner be smothered than come towards the smoke, in which case it is lost. When the chief leader and all the hunters are gathered together, then the leaders of the small parties report to the chief how many sables or other beasts their party has killed, and if any of the parties have done anything contrary to his orders and the common laws. These crimes they punish in different ways. Some of the cul- prits they tie to a stake; others they oblige to ask par- don from every one in the company; a thief they beat severely, and allow him no part of the booty ; nay, they even take his own baggage from him and divide it among themselves. They remain in their headquarters until the rivers are free of ice ; and after the hunting they spend their time preparing the skins. Then they set out in the boats they came in, and when they get home they give the sables to the several churches to which they promised them ; and then, having paid their fur-tax, they sell the rest, dividing equally the money or goods which they receive for them. 138 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE Before Kamchatka was conquered by the Rus- sians the sables were so plentiful that a hunter could easily take seventy or eighty in a season, but they were esteemed more for their flesh than for their fur. At first the natives paid their tribute in sables, and would give eight skins for a knife and eighteen for an ax. CHAPTER IX OFF FOR THE NORTH A RUNAWAY My winter wardrobe of deerskin — Shoes that keep the feet warm when it is sixty degrees below zero — Plemania, a curious native food in tabloid form — Other provisions — Outline of proposed exploration about the sources of the Ghijiga River — Four hours of sun a day — When dog meets deer — A race for life and a ludicrous denouement — More queer native dishes — Curious habits of the sledge- dog. I NOW set about preparing my winter ward- robe. With the aid of my good friend Mrs. Braggin, several native women were set at work to make a complete suit of native clothes, for I knew that only in these would I be able to endure the rigors of their arctic winter. The trousers were made of yearling-deer skin tanned soft on the inside, and the short hair left on the outside. A short jacket of the same material completed the inner suit. The socks were made of the same skin with the fur left on the inside. They reached well to the knee. Over these came a pair of boots made from skin taken from reindeer's legs, with soles of seal-hide. A cushion of grass is used in 139 140 IN SEARCH OF A the boot. The skin taken from the reindeer's leg is better adapted to the manufacture of boots than any other part of the skin, because the hair is shorter and denser in growth. I also had boots with soles made of the fur which grows between the toes of the reindeer, and which is of such a texture that it prevents slipping on the ice. On each foot of the reindeer there is a tuft of this hair about as large as a silver dollar, and it takes twelve of them to make the sole of a single boot. These boots are used only in extremely cold weather. Even with the thermometer sixty de- grees below zero they prevent cold feet. For an overcoat I had a great koklanka made. It was shaped like a huge night-gown, reaching to the knee. It was made of two thicknesses of yearling-deer skin, and was provided with an ample hood. It is too heavy to wear when walk- ing, but is used in the dog- or deer-sledge and when sleeping. It is usually belted in with a gay-colored woolen scarf. For head-gear I wore a " Xansen " woolen hat capable of being drawn down over the face. Without it my nose would have been severely punished. My heavy mittens were made of fur from the deer's leg, with the hair outside. Even in the worst ofi weather they were a complete protection from cold. Of snow-shoes I took three pairs, two being designed for use in soft snow. They mea- < O % . :a SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 143 sured five feet and ten inches long by eight inches wide, being pointed and curved up in front and gathered to a point at the back. They were shod with reindeer fur, with the hair pointing back, thus preventing slipping. One pair for use on hard snow were three feet long and eight inches wide. An indispensable part of my equipment was a sleeping-bag made of the thick winter fur of the reindeer, with the fur inside. It was provided with a hood that, when pulled down, completely shut out the cold. One would suppose that the sleeper must smother in such a case ; but, although at first it seemed rather close, I suffered no in- convenience. Enough air found its way in around the edge of the hood for respiration. For provisions I first laid in several hundred pounds of plemaniaj as the Russians call it. It consists of little balls of reindeer meat chopped fine, and surrounded with a casing of dough. Each ball was about the size of an English wal- nut. These froze immediately and remained so till thrown into a pot of boiling water. Ten min- utes then sufficed to make a most tempting dish. To this I added several hundred pounds of hard rye bread, which had been cut in slices and dried on the top of the oven to the consistency of stone. Tea, sugar, and tobacco were added as luxuries, though the first is well-nigh a necessity, and all 144 IN SEARCH OF A of them are potent levers in opening the hearts of the native Korak or Tunguse. I took a small quantity of dried fruits, which, of course, proved most useful in a land where food is almost all of an animal nature. It was my intention to explore first the moun- tains in which the Ghijiga River has its source, together with the tributary streams; and after that to cross over the mountains and explore the head waters of the rivers flowing north into the -Arctic Ocean. I anticipated that this would take at least two months. Old ChrisofFsky furnished six dog-sledges; he himself and two of his sons acted as drivers. The other three drivers were hired from Ghijiga. My party consisted, then, of the following members : my faithful Kim, who stuck to me through thick and thin, though, at first, he little dreamed how far I would take him from the pleasant hills and valleys of his beloved Chosun; my Tunguse guide, Fronyo, who had proved such a valuable help in my trip into his district; the six drivers, myself, and the eighty-four dogs. I had left be- hind all my Russian help, as they would have been of no value on such an expedition as this. The reader may imagine that our stock of food was small for such a party, but we were going into a reindeer country where we were sure of securing all the meat we wanted. So all the available space S3 B' a* SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 147 on the sledges was loaded with dog-food — namely, salmon heads and backs. It was now November, and there were only four hours of sunlight — from ten to two. But the northerner does not depend on the sun. The glistening snow and the stars overhead give sufficient light for ordinary travel. We were off with a dash and a happy howl of mingled dogs and village children, at one in the afternoon, and that night we spent at Chrisoff- sky's village. The next morning we were off again in the gray light at seven o'clock, up the bed of the Ghijiga River. The third day out we neared the yourta of a wealthy Tunguse magistrate. At four o'clock in the afternoon the dogs suddenly broke into a swift run, and we knew they had scented something that interested them. We soon perceived that we had struck a deer trail and that we were nearing an encampment. We turned a bend in the road and there, a hundred yards ahead of us, saw the cause of the dogs' excitement. A team of reindeer were running for their lives. Their Tunguse driver was lashing them with the whip and urging them on with all his might, for he knew as well as we that if our dogs over- took them before the camp was reached, we seven men would be utterly powerless to prevent the dogs from tearing the deer to pieces. Chrisoff sky put on the brake with all his might, but it had not 148 IN SEARCH OF A the least effect. Our fourteen dogs had become wolves in the turn of a hand and no brake could stop them. There were many stumps and other obstructions along our path, and my driver had great difficulty in preventing a smash-up. For a short time the deer held their own, and, in fact, gained on us, but before the yourta came in sight we were gaining rapidly. While we were still at some distance the people of the village, warned by the cries of the dogs, comprehended what was the matter, and, arming themselves with sticks and spears, came running toward us. As they came on they spread out in a fan-like formation across the trail. When the terrified deer reached them they opened and let the team through, and instantly closed again to dispute the passage of our dogs. Chrisoffsky was in no wise minded to let these natives club his dogs and perhaps injure the valuable animals, so he resorted to the last ex- pedient. Giving a shout of warning to me he suddenly, by a deft motion, turned our sledge completely over, landing me in a snow-drift on my head. In this position the sledge was all brake and the dogs were forced to stop, leaping in their harness and yelling like fiends incarnate. I sat up in the snow-bank and laughed. The other drivers had followed our example, and the struggling tangle of sledges, harness, dogs and men formed a scene that to the novice at least SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 149 was highly ludicrous. The drivers and the village people were belaboring the dogs, and the entire herd of reindeer belonging to the village were es- caping in all directions up the hills. When order was at last restored, which was not accomplished till every deer was out of sight, we made our way to the yourta, which was large and comfortable, and, as usual, the women set about making tea. The reader may well ask how the natives can use both dogs and reindeer if the very sight of a deer has such a maddening effect on the dogs. The explanation is sim- ple. The two never go together. There is the dog country and the deer country, and the two do not impinge upon each other. Even among the same tribe there may be a clear division. For instance, there are the " Deer Koraks " and the " Dog Koraks." In some of the villages of the former there may oc- casionally be seen a few low-bred curs which are not used for sledging and have been trained not to worry deer. Confusion is often unavoidably caused by traveling with dogs through a deer country, but the natives do not take it in ill part, knowing that if they themselves have to travel with deer through a dog country they will cause quite as much inconvenience. While we were drinking tea and eating hard bread I noted that the settlement contained some 150 IN SEARCH OF A thirty men, with their wives and children. The women hastened to prepare a dinner of unborn- deer's flesh and deer tongues. Frozen marrow bones, uncooked, were broken and the marrow, in the shape of sticks or candles, was passed around as a great delicacy. These dishes, together with frozen cranberries, formed our repast, and a very good one we voted it. When we were done I went outside and found, to my surprise, that the dogs had not yet been fed. I remonstrated with ChrisofFsky, but he answered that they had not yet finished their evening toilet. Then I saw that the dogs were busy licking them- selves and biting the pieces of frozen snow out from between their toes. My driver explained that if they were fed before performing this very necessary task, they would immediately lie down to sleep and wake up in the morning with sore feet and rheumatism, and then they would be use- less for several days. It takes the dogs a good hour before they have groomed themselves fit for dinner. They seem to know that they can get nothing to eat before this work is done, but the minute they have finished they sit up and begin to howl for their meal. Each dog receives two or three salmon backs and heads. This is a fairly good amount considering that the salmon were originally eighteen- or twenty-pound fish. The dogs were all left in harness and still attached to Theodosia Chrisoffsky., Guide. SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 153 the main tug. This is pulled taut and anchored at the front with the polka, which prevents the dogs from fighting, for no more than two can reach each other at a time. As they feed, the dri- vers watch them to see that they do not steal each other's food. After they finish their dinner they scratch a shallow place in the snow, curl up with their backs to the wind and go to sleep. They are never unfastened from the sledge from one end of the journey to the other. They literally live in the harness. While the dogs were eating, the mongrel curs belonging to the encampment (an entirely different breed from the sledge-dog) stood around and yelped saucily at the big intru- ders, but the sledge-dogs gave them no notice whatever. The dogs sleep quietly all night unless one of them happens to raise his nose and emit a long- drawn howl. At this signal they all join in the howl for about three minutes, stopping at the same instant. If some puppy happens to give an additional yelp, all the others turn a disgusted look at him as if, indeed, he ought to display bet- ter manners. This howling concert generally comes off two or three times a night. We do not know what causes it, but probably it is some sub- conscious recollection of their ancestral wolf- hood. The same thing happens whenever the team stops on the road. They all sit and howl for several minutes. 154 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE On the road the dogs are fed simply with the dried fish heads and backs; but at home a more elaborate meal is prepared for them. Water is put into a sort of trough, and then rotten fish, which has been kept in pits, is added, with a few of the dried fish, and the whole is cooked by throwing in red-hot stones. This is fed to the dogs only at night. In the summer-time the dogs have to forage for themselves, which they do by digging out tundra-rats. By the time summer is over the dogs are so fat that they have to be tied up and systematically starved till brought into condition for the sledge again. This period is one long concert of howls, but the natives do not seem to mind it. The food of the dogs is en- tirely carnivorous, for they would rather live by gnawing their own harness than to eat bread, even if the latter could be supplied. The instinct by which these animals foresee the coming of a bliz- zard is truly wonderful. The unfailing sign of a coming storm is the pawing of the snow. For what reason they paw the snow will probably never be known. This, too, may be some residual taint of their original savage state. CHAPTER X THROUGH THE DRIFTS Sledging over snow four feet deep — Making a camp in the snow — Finding traces of gold — A grand slide down a snow-covered hill — My polka breaks with disastrous re- sults — Prospecting over the Stanovoi range. THE next morning we had before us ten miles of forest in which the snow lay four feet deep, and the trail was unbroken. This meant serious work for our teams. At the advice of Chrisoffsky I hired two reindeer narties to go ahead and break the trail, but they had to keep a mile in advance, out of sight of our dogs. The snow had been falling all night, and when we came out in the morning, we saw only a lot of little snow hummocks, like baby graves in the snow. Chrisoffsky cried, " Hyuk, hyuk!" and there occurred a most surprising resurrection. Every dog jumped clear of the ground from his warm bed and clamored to be off. I looked to see them fed, but nothing were they to have till their day's work was done. When fed during the day they are lazy and useless, but with the anticipa- 155 156 IN SEARCH OF A tion of salmon heads before them they push on heroically. It would be difficult to express ade- quately my admiration for these animals. They are patient, faithful, and always ready for work. A mile, then, in the lead went the reindeer nar- ties to break the trail; and ahead of them were two Tunguse villagers on snow-shoes to mark the way for the deer. A mile in the rear came the dogs, and heavy work it was, as is shown by the fact that when lunch-time came we had made only five miles. When we came up with the Tunguses they had already built a fire, and water was boiling. The deer were tethered in the bushes about two hun- dred yards away, out of sight of the dogs. The latter smelled them, however, and were making desperate efforts to break out of their harness and give chase, but their efforts seemed futile, so we paid no more attention to them. As we were busy drinking tea I happened to look around, and was dismayed to see that the worst dog in the pack had broken loose and was already near the deer, who were plunging and making desperate efforts to escape. When the dog was almost at the throat of the nearest deer it broke its fastenings and made off through the snow, followed by the rest of the herd. We hurried after them on our snow-shoes at our best speed. The deer could easily outstrip the dog in the deep snow, but we < &9 &- CD t-i i— j CD CU CD CD hS H