Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival
448
Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival
448eBookProprietary (Proprietary)
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| ISBN-13: | 9781626367500 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Skyhorse |
| Publication date: | 03/17/2007 |
| Sold by: | SIMON & SCHUSTER |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Sales rank: | 797,219 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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CHAPTER 1
THE Russo-American Telegraph Company, or, as it was more properly called, the "Western Union Extension," was organized at New York in the summer of 1864. The idea of a line from America to Europe, by way of Behring's Straits, had existed for many years in the minds of several prominent telegraphers, and had been proposed by Perry McD. Collins, Esq., as early as 1857, when he made his trip across Northern Asia. It was never seriously considered, however, until after the failure of the first Atlantic cable, when the expediency of an overland line between the two continents began to be earnestly discussed. The plan of Mr. Collins, which was submitted to the Western Union Telegraph Company of New York as early as 1863, seemed to be the most practicable of all the projects which were suggested for inter-continental communication. It proposed to unite the telegraphic systems of America and Russia by a line through British Columbia, Russian America, and North-eastern Siberia, meeting the Russian lines at the mouth of the Amoor River on the Asiatic coast, and forming one continuous girdle of wire nearly round the globe.
This plan possessed many very obvious advantages. It called for no long cables. It provided for a line which would run everywhere overland, except for a short distance at Behring's Straits, and which could be easily repaired when injured by accident or storm. It promised also to extend its line eventually down the Asiatic coast to Pekin, and to develop a large and profitable business with China. All these considerations recommended it strongly to the favor of capitalists and practical telegraph men, and it was finally adopted by the Western Union Telegraph Co. in 1863. It was, of course, foreseen that the next Atlantic cable might succeed, and that such success would prove very damaging, if not fatal, to the prospects of the proposed overland line. Such an event, however, did not seem probable, and in view of all the circumstances, the company decided to assume the inevitable risk.
A contract was entered into with the Russian Government, providing for the extension of the latter's line through Siberia to the mouth of the Amoor River, and granting to the Company certain extraordinary privileges in Russian territory. Similar concessions were obtained in 1864 from the British Government; assistance was promised by our own Congress; and the "Western Union Extension Company " was immediately organized, with a nominal capital of $10,000,000. The stock was rapidly taken, principally by the stockholders of the original Western Union Company, and an assessment of five per cent was immediately made to provide funds for the prosecution of the work. Such was the faith at this time in the ultimate success of the enterprise, that its stock sold in two months for seventy-five dollars per share, with only one assessment of five dollars paid in.
In August, 1864, Col. Chas. S. Bulkley, formerly Superintendent of Military Telegraphs in the Department of the Gulf, was appointed Engineer-in-chief of the proposed line, and in December he sailed from New York for San Francisco, to organize and fit out exploring parties, and begin active operations.
Led by a desire of identifying myself with so novel and important an enterprise, as well as by a natural love of travel and adventure which I had never before been able to gratify, I offered my services as an explorer soon after the projection of the line. My application was favorably considered, and on the 13th of December I sailed from New York with the Engineer-in-chief, for the proposed headquarters of the company at San Francisco. Col. Bulkley, immediately after his arrival, opened an office in Montgomery street, and began organizing exploring parties to make a preliminary survey of the route of the line. No sooner did it become noised about the city that men were wanted to explore the unknown regions of British Columbia, Russian America, and Siberia, than the company's office was thronged with eager applicants for positions, in any and every capacity.
Adventurous Micawlers, who had long been waiting for something of this kind to turn up; broken down miners, who hoped to retrieve their fortunes in new gold fields yet to be discovered in the north; and returned soldiers thirsting for fresh excitement, — all hastened to offer their services as pioneers in the great work. Trained and skilled engineers were in active demand; but the supply of only ordinary men, who made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in experience, was unlimited.
Month after month passed slowly away in the selection, organization, and equipment of parties, until at last, in June, 1865, the company's vessels were reported ready for sea.
The plan of operations, as far as it had then been decided upon, was to land one party in British Columbia, near the mouth of the Frazer River; one in Russian America, at Norton's Sound; and one on the Asiatic side of Behring's Straits, at the mouth of the Anadyr River. These parties, under the direction respectively of Messrs. Pope, Kennicott, and Macrae, were directed to push back into the interior, following as far as practicable the courses of the rivers upon which they were landed; to obtain all possible information with regard to the climate, soil, timber, and inhabitants of the regions traversed; and to locate, in a general way, a route for the proposed line.
The two American parties would have comparatively advantageous bases of operations at Victoria and Fort St. Michael; but the Siberian party, if left on the Asiatic coast at all, must be landed near Behring's Straits, on the edge of a barren, desolate region, nearly a thousand miles from any known settlement. Thrown thus upon its own resources, in an unknown country, and among nomadic tribes of hostile natives, without any means of interior transportation except canoes, the safety and success of this party were by no means assured. It was even asserted by many friends of the enterprise, that to leave men in such a situation, and under such circumstances, was to abandon them to almost certain death; and the Russian Consul at San Francisco wrote a letter to Colonel Bulkley, advising him strongly not to land a party on the Asiatic coast of the North Pacific, but to send it instead to one of the Russian ports of the Okhotsk Sea, where it could establish a base of supplies, obtain information with regard to the interior, and procure horses or dog-sledges for overland explorations in any desired direction.
The wisdom and good sense of this advice were apparent to all; but unfortunately the Engineer-in-chief had no vessel which he could send with a party into the Okhotsk Sea; and if men were landed at all that summer on the Asiatic coast, they must be landed near Behring's Straits.
Late in June, however, Col. Bulkley learned that a small Russian trading vessel, called the "Olga," was about to sail from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the southwest coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and he succeeded in prevailing upon the owners to take four men as passengers to the Russian settlement of Nikolaevsk, at the mouth of the Amoor River. This, although not as desirable a point for beginning operations as some others on the north coast of the sea, was still much better than any which could be selected on the Asiatic coast of the North Pacific; and a party was soon organized to sail in the "Olga" for Kamtchatka and the mouth of the Amoor. This party consisted of Major S. Abaza, a Russian gentleman who had been appointed superintendent of the work, and Generalissimo of the forces in Siberia; James A. Mahood, a civil engineer of reputation in California; R. J. Bush, who had just returned from three years' active service in the Carolinas; and myself, — not a very formidable force in point of numbers, nor a very remarkable one in point of experience, but strong in hope, self-reliance, and enthusiasm.
On the 28th of June we were notified that "the brig Olga" had nearly all her cargo aboard, and would have "immediate dispatch."
This marine metaphor, as we afterward learned, meant only that she would sail some time in the course of the summer; but we, in our trustful inexperience, supposed that the brig must be all ready to cast off her moorings, and the announcement threw us into all the excitement and confusion of hasty preparation for a start. Dress coats, linen shirts, and fine boots were recklessly thrown or given away; blankets, heavy shoes, and over-shirts of flannel were purchased in large quantities; Ballard & Sharpes' rifles, revolvers, and bowie-knives of formidable dimensions gave our room the appearance of a disorganized arsenal; pots of arsenic, jars of alcohol, butterfly-nets, snake-bags, pillboxes, and a dozen other implements and appliances of science about which we knew nothing, were given to us by our enthusiastic naturalists and packed away in big boxes; Vrangell's Travels, Gray's Botany, and a few scientific works were added to our small library; and before night we were able to report ourselves ready — armed and equipped for any adventure, from the capture of a new species of bug, to the conquest of Kamtchatka!
As it was against all precedent to go to sea without looking at the ship, Bush and I appointed ourselves an examining committee for the party, and walked down to the wharf where she lay. The Captain, a bluff Americanized German, met us at the gangway and guided us through the little brig from stem to stern. Our limited marine experience wouldn't have qualified us to pass an ex cathedrâ judgment upon the sea-worthiness of a mud scow; but Bush, with characteristic impudence and versatility of talent, discoursed learnedly to the Captain upon the beauty of his vessel's "lines" (whatever those were), her spread of canvas and build generally, — discussed the comparative merits of single and double topsails, and new patent yard-slings, and reefing-tackle, and altogether displayed such an amount of nautical learning that it completely crushed me and staggered even the Captain.
I strongly suspected that Bush had acquired most of his knowledge of sea terms from a cursory perusal of "Bowditch's Navigator," which I had seen lying on the office table, and I privately resolved to procure a compact edition of Marryat's sea tales as soon as I should go ashore, and just overwhelm him next time with such accumulated stores of nautical erudition that he would hide his diminished head. I had a dim recollection of reading something in Cooper's novels about a ship's dead heads and cat's eyes, or cat heads and dead eyes, I couldn't remember which, and, determined not to be ignored as an inexperienced landlubber, I gazed in a vague sort of way into the rigging, and made a few very general observations upon the nature of dead-eyes and spanker-booms. The Captain, however, promptly annihilated me by demanding categorically whether I had ever seen the spanker-boom jammed with the foretops'l-yard, with the wind abeam. I replied meekly that I believed such a catastrophe had never occurred under my immediate observation, and as he turned to Bush with a smile of commiseration for my ignorance I ground my teeth and went below to inspect the pantry. Here I felt more at home. The long rows of canned provisions, beef stock, concentrated milk, pie fruits, and a small keg, bearing the quaint inscription, "Zante cur.," soon soothed my perturbed spirit and convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt that the "Olga" was stanch and sea-worthy, and built in the latest and most improved style of marine architecture.
I therefore went up to tell Bush that I had made a careful and critical examination of the vessel below, and that she would undoubtedly do. I omitted to state the nature of the observations upon which this conclusion was founded, but he asked no troublesome questions, and we returned to the office with a favorable report of the ship's build, capacity, and outfit.
On Saturday, July 1st, the "Olga" took in the last of her cargo, and was hauled out into the stream.
Our farewell letters were hastily written home, our final preparations made, and at nine o'clock on Monday morning we assembled at the Howard street wharf, where the steam-tug lay which was to tow us out to sea.
A large party of friends had gathered to bid us good-by; and the pier, covered with bright dresses and blue uniforms, presented quite a holiday appearance in the warm clear sunshine of a California morning.
Our last instructions were delivered to us by Colonel Bulkley, with many hearty wishes for our health and success; laughing invitations to "come and see us" were extended to our less fortunate comrades who were left behind; requests to send back specimens of the North Pole and the Aurora Borealis were intermingled with directions for preserving birds and collecting bugs; and amid a general confusion of congratulations, good wishes, cautions, bantering challenges, and tearful farewells, the steamer's bell rang. Dall, ever alive to the interests of his beloved science, grasped me cordially by the hand, saying, "Good-by, George. God bless you! Keep your eye out for land snails and skulls of the wild animals!"
Miss B — — said pleadingly, "Take care of my dear brother;" and as I promised to care for him as if he were my own, I thought of another sister far away, who, could she be present, would echo the request, "Take care of my dear brother." With waving handkerchiefs and repeated good-byes, we moved slowly from the wharf, and, steaming round in a great semicircle to where the "Olga" was lying, we were transferred to the little brig, which, for the next two months, was to be our home.
The steamer towed us outside the "heads" of the Golden Gate, and then cast off; and as she passed us on her way back, our friends gathered in a little group on the forward deck, with the Colonel at their head, and gave three generous cheers for the "First Siberian exploring party." We replied with three more, — our last farewell to civilization, — and silently watched the lessening figure of the steamer, until the white handkerchief which Arnold had tied to the backstays could no longer be seen, and we were rocking alone on the long swells of the Pacific.
CHAPTER 2"He took great content and exceeding delight in his voyage, as who doth not as shall attempt the like."
— BURTON.
AT SEA, 700 MILES N. W. OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Wednesday, July 12th, 1865.
TEN days ago, on the eve of our departure for the Asiatic coast, full of high hopes and joyful anticipations of pleasure, I wrote in a fair round hand on this opening page of my journal, the above sentence from Burton; never once doubting, in my enthusiasm, the complete realization of those "future joys," which to "fancy's eye" lay in such "bright uncertainty," or suspecting that "a life on the ocean wave " was not a state of the highest felicity attainable on earth. The quotation seemed to me an extremely happy one, and I mentally blessed the quaint old Anatomist of Melancholy for providing me with a motto at once so simple and so appropriate. Of course "her took great content and exceeding delight in his voyage; " and the wholly unwarranted assumption that because "he" did, every one else necessarily must, did not strike me as being in the least absurd.
On the contrary, it carried all the weight of the severest logical demonstration, and I would have treated with contempt any suggestion of possible disappointment. My ideas of sea life had been derived principally from glowing descriptions of poetical marine sunsets, of "summer isles of Eden, lying in dark purple spheres of sea," and of those "moonlight nights on lonely waters " with which poets have for ages beguiled ignorant landsmen into ocean voyages. Fogs, storms, and sea-sickness did not enter at all into my conceptions of marine phenomena; or if I did admit the possibility of a storm, it was only as a picturesque, highly poetical manifestation of wind and water in action, without any of the disagreeable features which attend those elements under more prosaic circumstances. I had, it is true, experienced a little rough weather on my voyage to California, but my memory had long since idealized it into something grand and poetical; and I looked forward even to a storm on the Pacific as an experience not only pleasant, but highly desirable. The illusion was very pleasant while it lasted; but — it is over. Ten days of real sea life have converted the "bright uncertainty of future joys" into a dark and decided certainty of future misery, and left me to mourn the incompatibility of poetry and truth. Burton is a humbug, Tennyson a fraud, I'm a victim, and Byron and Procter are accessaries before the fact. Never again will I pin my faith to poets. They may tell the truth nearly enough for poetical consistency, but their judgment is hopelessly perverted and their imagination is too luxuriantly vivid for a truthful realistic delineation of sea life. Byron's "London Packet" is a brilliant exception, but I remember no other in the whole range of poetical literature.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Introduction Larry McMurtry ix
Preface xv
The Russo-American Telegraph-The "Olga" sails from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the Amoor 1
The Voyage across the North Pacific 10
Voyage continued-Petropavlovski 22
Petropavlovski 30
Russian Language-Departure of the Amoor River Party 40
A Kamtchatkan Wedding-Start for the "Far North" 48
Horseback Ride in Kamtchatka-The Mountains-Vegetation-Animal Life-The Villages-The People 56
"Jerusalem"-The Dwellings-A Kamtchatka Supper-Indian Summer-A "Jehu" Prayer-Hard Riding 67
Malqua-Fine Scenery-Genul-A Bear Hunt-Pooschin 78
Sherom-Boating-Milkova-Exciting Reception in the Character of "Emperor" 86
The River, continued-Volcano Kloochay-A "Black Bath" 97
Canoe Travel on the "Yolofka"-Volcanic Conversation-"Oh, Susanna!"-Talking "American"-Ride to Yolofka under Difficulties 109
A Chilly Lodging-Grand Scenery-Another Bear Hunt-Steeple-Chase-Floating to Tigil 122
Coast of the Okhotsk Sea-Lesnoi-Whale-boat and the Land Part-"Devil's Pass"-Samanka Mountains-Snow-storm-Wild Scene 133
Gale continued-Famine imminent-Boating Party heard from-Return to Lesnoi 146
Kamtchadal Nights' Entertainments-ThePeople-The Fish-Sables-Language-Music-Songs-Dog-sledges-Costume 154
Russian Doctoring-The Samanka Mountains-Encampment of Wandering Koraks-Dogs and Reindeer-Personals-Burrowing-"Prologs"-Korak Delicacies 166
Other Traits of Wandering Koraks-Independence-Hospitality-Lodging-Breakfast-Reindeer Travel-Korak Notions of Distance-Mysterious Visitor 181
Cheerless Travelling-Korak Marriage Ceremonies-Won't you take a Toadstool?-Monotonous Existence 195
Korak Language-Religion-Customs, etc 206
River Penzhina-"25[degree] below zero"-Kamenoi-Korak "Yourt"-Journey to Geezhega-"Pavoskas" Meekina-The "Settled Koraks" 221
Dog-driving-Reindeer Episode-Geezhega-The Governor and his Hospitality-Telegraphic Plans-The Author's Party sent to Anadyrsk 235
Arctic Rambling in Winter-Malmofka-Night Scenes-Shestakova 250
Dismal Lodgings-News from Col. Bulkley-Search for Lost Party of Americans-Curious Tree-Siberian "Poorga"-Storm 261
Penzhina-Telegraph Poles-Arctic Temperature-Studying Astronomy-Arrival at Anadyrsk-A Priest's Hospitality 273
Anadyrsk-The Northern Outpost of Russian Life-Russian Christmas-A Ball-A Feast-Siberian Politeness 285
Adventures in search of our Comrades 300
Adventures continued-Discovery of the Party 308
Siberian Tribes and their Peculiarities-Ideas of Reading and the Arts 320
An Arctic Aurora-Further Explorations-Arrival of our Comrades-Journey to the Okhotsk Sea 331
Social Life at Geezhega-Major Abasa's Expedition-Sudden Transformation from Winter to Summer-Customs of the People, etc 343
Weary Waiting-Mosquitoes-Arrival of a Russian Frigate 362
Arrival of Supply-Ships-Last Journey to the Arctic Circle-Korak Drivers-Famine at Anadyrsk 374
Bush Redivivus-Serious Dilemma-Starvation threatened-Eight Hundred Laborers hired-Enterprising American-A Wilderness 390
Journey to Gamsk-Valley of the Viliga-A Storm-A perilous pass 406
Return to Geezhega-Arrival of the Onward-Orders to "Close up"-Beaten by the Atlantic Cable-Summary-Start for St. Petersburg-ATrip of more than 5,000 miles 421