Tent Life in Siberia: A New Account of an Old Undertaking; Adventures among the Koraks and Other Tribes In Kamchatka and Northern AsiaKennan, George
History
Tent Life in Siberia: A New Account of an Old Undertaking; Adventures among the Koraks and Other Tribes In Kamchatka and Northern Asia
Kennan, George
Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) -- Description and travel; Kennan, George, 1845-1924; Siberia, Eastern (Russia) -- Description and travel
disposed to look upon this achievement very modestly, but in some
respects it was one of the most remarkable journeys ever made by one
of the Company's employés.
The _Onward_, as we had supposed, being unable to reach Gizhiga, on
account of the lateness of the season, had discharged her cargo and
landed most of her passengers at Petropavlovsk; and Mr. Lewis had been
sent by the chief of the party to report their situation to Major
Abaza, and find out what they should do.
After the arrival of Mr. Lewis nothing of special importance occurred
until March. Arnold at Yamsk, Sandford on the Tilghai, and Bush at
Anadyrsk, were trying, with the few men they had, to accomplish some
work; but, owing to deep snow-storms, intensely cold weather, and a
general lack everywhere of provisions and dogs, their efforts were
mostly fruitless. In January I made an excursion with twelve or
fifteen sledges to Sandford's camp on the Tilghai, and attempted to
move his party to another point thirty or forty versts nearer Gizhiga;
but in a severe storm on the Kuil steppe we were broken up, dispersed,
and all lost separately, and after wandering around four or five
days in clouds of drifting snow which hid even our dogs from sight,
Sandford with a portion of his party returned to the Tilghai, and I
with the remainder to Gizhiga.
Late in February the Cossack Kolmagórof arrived from Petropavlovsk,
Kamchatka, bringing three of the men who had been landed there by the
_Onward_.
In March I received by a special courier from Yakutsk another letter
and more orders from Major Abaza. The eight hundred labourers whom he
had engaged were being rapidly sent forward to Okhotsk, and more than
a hundred and fifty were already at work at that place and at Yamsk.
The equipment and transportation of the remainder still required his
personal supervision, and it would be impossible, he wrote, for him to
return that winter to Gizhiga. He could come however, as far as
the settlement of Yamsk, three hundred versts west of Gizhiga, and
requested me to meet him at that place within twelve days after the
receipt of his letter. I started at once with one American companion
named Leet, taking twelve days' dog-food and provisions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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