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
When I crawled out of that noisome hole the next morning, I found that
the dogs were very uneasy; they scratched the snow continually with
their hind feet. This was a sure sign that one of the dreaded
storms--a porgo--was coming. As I had experienced one of them, I had
no wish to be caught out in another, so I determined to wait where I
was till it blew over. By ten o'clock it was raging, and for three
mortal days there was no stirring from that village. Just before the
storm came on I secured some photographs of the reindeer. They were
very tame indeed, and would come up to me and smell of my garments,
and would even lick them, hoping to get some salt. I had to carry a
short stick to keep them from pressing too close upon me. I walked in
among the herd, which numbered about ten thousand, and watched them
eat. They would paw away the snow until they reached the moss, which
lay about ten inches below the surface, and then, kneeling down, would
dig it out with their teeth. The moss is about ten inches thick, and
is a loose, spongy mass of vegetation. It will not bear the weight of
a man, the foot sinking through it. It forms a most excellent food for
deer, but horses will not eat it. The Tunguse deer, which is larger
than the Korak, eats only moss, but the Korak deer will eat either
moss or grass.
These nomads have regular roads to and from the coast, and generation
after generation they follow the same old beaten tracks. In December,
they are farthest from the sea. Once in two, three, or four weeks,
according to the supply of moss and the size of the herd, they break
camp and move off on the trail. Late in December they turn, and
gradually work their way back, so that by the time that June and the
mosquitos have arrived they are near the sea. The deer eagerly lick
the salt from the rocks, and even drink the sea water. They stay on
the coast until late in August, when the frosts kill off the
mosquitos, and then they move off inland for another winter. In
summer, the deer grow very poor and weak, for they find little moss
near the coast. All along the shores of Bering Sea thousands of deer
can be counted every summer. A few years ago, when the United States
Government wished to secure some reindeer herds for Alaska, they sent
all the way to Lapland, and imported the deer at enormous expense,
took them across the American continent by rail, and shipped them by
steamer to Alaska. By the time they arrived, those that had not died
must have cost an enormous sum. If the government had sent a steamer a
single day's run across Bering Sea, it could have purchased fifty
thousand reindeer right on the coast at a cost of one rouble, or fifty
cents, apiece. Coin cannot be used in purchasing these animals, for
the natives do not understand nor use our coinage, but they can be
obtained by barter at the rate of one rouble's worth of tobacco a
head. Some rich natives might accept a few silver coins to hammer up
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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