In Search of a Siberian KlondikeVanderlip, Washington Baker
History
In Search of a Siberian Klondike
Vanderlip, Washington Baker
Gold mines and mining -- Russia (Federation) -- Siberia; Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel
The Russian Government forbids the export of salmon caught in the
rivers or within two miles of their mouths. While the people do not
destroy a thousandth part of one per cent. of the fish that run up the
river, we must bear in mind that not a single fish gets back to the
sea after depositing its eggs. As the fish are killed as near as
possible to the river's mouth, an enormous number of eggs are
destroyed. There is, therefore, a possibility of seriously diminishing
the supply if a wholesale slaughter takes place when the fish come in
from the sea. If they were taken after the eggs are deposited it would
be another matter; but this is never the case.
These salmon are of three different varieties, called, respectively,
the silver salmon, the "hump-backed" salmon, and the "garboosh." The
weight of a full-grown salmon is from eighteen to twenty-five pounds.
There is in the rivers another fish called the salmon-trout. It has a
dark-green back, with vivid pink spots, and it is a most delicious
article of food. The little lakes in the tundra also contain a fish
somewhat resembling the pickerel, which the natives catch in traps.
These are set in the little creeks leading from the tundra lakes. They
are cylindrical baskets, five feet long and three feet wide, and are
set in an opening in a dam built, for the purpose, of reeds and
stakes. Often as many as a dozen fish are taken from the traps at a
single catch. At the time when the salmon are running, hundreds of
sea-dogs (hair-seal) are attracted to the mouth of the river by the
smell of dead fish. As we went in from our steamer, they kept lifting
their heads from the water all about us, and afforded some good
shooting. The natives take them in huge nets made of walrus thongs
with a mesh of six inches or more. A good haul may net as many as
thirty of these big fellows, which weigh up to four hundred pounds
apiece. Their fur is of a mottled or speckled color. They are in high
repute among the natives, who use their hides for boots. The women are
able to sew them so as to be perfectly water-tight. The blubber is a
delicacy which is eaten cold. It is also made into oil, and in a
shallow dish, with a piece of moss for a wick, it forms the ordinary
lamp of the native. The sea-gulls, on their way north to breed, arrive
in May, and the air is simply filled with them. They make their nests
on rocky declivities or beside the rivers, or even on the open tundra.
The nesting and hatching of their young comes at such a time that it
just matches the running of the salmon, which is very convenient. The
young mature very quickly. When newly hatched they are gray. When they
come back the following season only their wings are gray, the body
being white. The egg harvest is a very important one to the natives,
who preserve the eggs by burying them in the ground on the north side
of a hill where there is perpetual frost. Besides the gulls, there are
countless ducks, geese, and snipe. These last often fly in such dense
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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