Yakutsk

“ As though to increase the wildness of the scenery presented by the mountains and rocks surrounding the dark taiga, a fiendish kind of music is daily provided by the furious gales—chiefly north—which prevail here continually, and bring the early night frosts in summer, and ceaseless Yakutsk frosts and snowstorms in winter. ”

“ This would improve our situation in a greater or lesser degree according to the locality whither we should be banished. “Politicals” are generally sent to the province of Yakutsk, where conditions of life are in many respects no better than in the settlement at Kara. It must be remembered that Yakutsk is a very sparsely populated province, and lies further from the civilised world than the Transbaikalian province in which 308Kara is situated. The climate is worse than that of Kara, the winter longer; and in other ways, too, our comrades there were worse off than we. ”

“ The furs [119] of Kamtchatka and of the Eastern isles are now conveyed from that peninsula by water to Ochotsk; from thence to Yakutsk by land on horse-back, or by rein-deer: the roads are so very bad, lying either through a rugged mountainous country, or through marshy forests, that the journey lasts at least six weeks. Yakutsk is situated upon the Lena, and is the principal town, where the choicest furs are brought in their way to Kiachta, as well from Kamtchatka as from the Northern parts of Siberia, which lay upon the rivers Lena, Yana, and Endigirka. ”

“ The distance from Yakutsk to Verkhoyansk is 934 versts, or about 625 English miles. Most of the way lies through a densely wooded region and across deep swamps, almost impassable in summer. About half-way the Verkhoyansk range is crossed, and here vegetation ceases and the country becomes wild in the extreme. Forests of pine, larch, and cedar disappear, to give place to rugged peaks and bleak, desolate valleys, strewn with huge boulders, and slippery with frozen streams, which retard progress, for a reindeer on ice is like a cat on walnut-shells. ”

“ The wooden houses are built upon high basements to protect them from the floods. Yakutsk possesses a theological seminary and a cathedral. Its merchants carry on trade in furs, mammoth ivory and reindeer hides. ”

“ The natives granted these first settlers as much land, for the erection of a citadel, as they could encircle with a limited number of reindeer skins. But the wily Russians cut the skins into thin, very long strips and took possession of an extensive site for a town. At present Yakutsk is a city of the past, one may almost add of the [Pg 70] dead, where ghosts walk in the shape of surly Russian traders clad in the fashion of a century ago, and sinister-looking fur-clad Yakutes. And yet the dead here may be said to live, for corruption is delayed for an indefinite period, so intense is the cold. ”

“ At Yakutsk the average temperature of the winter is −40.2°, and the soil is frozen to a depth of 600 ft. (Middendorff) . The Lena, both at Kirensk and at Yakutsk, is free from ice for only 161 days in the year, the Yana at Ust-Yansk for 105. At Yakutsk only 145 days and at Verkhoyansk only 73 have no snow; the interval between the latest frosts of one season and the earliest frosts of the next is barely 37 days.
The bulk of the inhabitants are Yakuts; there are some 20,000 Russians, many of them exiles, and a certain number of Tunguses, Tatars, Lamuts and Chukchis. ”

“ This incident will show that, in Yakutsk at any rate, the “politicals” are treated not only with leniency but with a friendly courtesy, which on this occasion was certainly abused. Mr. Olenin, an exile whose term of banishment was expiring, told me that he had no fault whatever to find with Yakutsk as a place of exile, so much so that he had resolved not to return to Russia at the end of his sentence, but to remain here and complete an ethnological work upon which he was engaged. ”

“ It was a common thing for caravans of four or even five thousand pack horses employed by the Russian fur traders of America to file into Irkutsk of a night. At the head waters of the Lena, rafts and flatboats, similar to the old Mackinaw boats of American fur traders on the Missouri, were built and the cargo floated down to Yakutsk, the great rendezvous of Siberian fur traders. Here exiles acting as packers and Cossacks as overseers usually went on a wild ten days' spree. From Yakutsk pack horses, dog trains, and reindeer teams were employed for the remaining thousand miles to the Pacific ”

“ The second winter was passed at Yakutsk, where the ships that were to chart the Arctic coast of Siberia were built and launched with crews of some hundred men.
It was the end of June, 1735, before the main forces were under way again for the Pacific. From Yakutsk to Okhotsk on the Pacific, the course was down the Lena, up the Aldan River, up the Maya, up the Yudoma, across the Stanovoi Mountains, down the Urak river to the sea. A thousand Siberian exiles were compelled to convoy these boats. [11] Not a roof had been prepared to house the forces in the mountains. ”

“ CHAPTER XXXIX START FOR ST. PETERSBURG ROUTE TO YAKUTSK—A TUNGUSE ENCAMPMENT— CROSSING THE STANAVOI MOUNTAINS—SEVERE COLD—FIRE-LIGHTED SMOKE PILLARS—ARRIVAL IN YAKUTSK When we reached Okhotsk, about the middle of September, I found a letter from Major Abaza, brought by special courier from Yakutsk, directing me to come to St. Petersburg by the first winter road. The Onward sailed for San Francisco at once, carrying back to home and civilisation all of our employees except four, viz., Price, Schwartz, Malchanski, and myself. ”

“ And one cold grey morning I awaken, worn out with cold and fatigue, to peer with sleepy [Pg 67] eyes, no longer down the familiar avenue of ice and pine-trees, but across a white and dreary wilderness of snow. On the far horizon, dividing earth and sky, a thin drab streak is seen which soon merges, in the clear sunrise, into the faint semblance of a city. Golden domes and tapering fire-towers are soon distinguishable, and our driver grows proportionately loquacious as his home is neared. "Yakutsk!" ”

“ Although the Yakutes form the bulk of the population in Yakutsk (the entire province contains about a quarter of a million) they do not mix a great [Pg 83] deal with the Russians, and we saw little of the better class. As a race the Yakutes are not interesting, while in appearance both sexes are distinctly plain, and often repulsive. The type is Mongolian; sallow complexion, beady eyes, flattened nostrils and wiry black hair. The men are of medium height, thick set and muscular, the women ungainly little creatures, bedizened with jewellery, and smothered with paint. ”

“ The traveller who starts from the Okhotsk Sea with the intention of going across Asia by way of Yakutsk and Irkutsk must make up his mind to be independent of roads;—at least for the first fifteen hundred miles. The mountain passes, the great rivers, and the post-stations, will determine his general course; but the wilderness through which he must make his way has never been subdued by the axe and spade of civilisation. ”

“ The correct idea of the shape of the land of the Chukchees and the peninsula bearing the same name, is due to geographical investigations instituted by me at Yakutsk in 1736 and 1737."
Blinded by the archival dust of Yakutsk, Müller confused everything. Cape Chukotskoi, which Bering had found to be in latitude 64° 18' N., was placed beyond 72° N.; Bering's most northerly point, which lay far out in the sea, was changed to a headland in latitude 66° N., [Pg 45] and, misled by some vague reports from the garrison at Fort Anadyr, he called this point Serdze Kamen. Everything is guess-work! ”

“ The news was a terrible shock to us. To be buried alive in some snow-bound hut! What for? To live like beasts in that uninhabitable region from which only few ever emerge alive!
There was still one ray of hope. Governor Kraft, of Yakutsk, had the reputation of being a very kind man, and he might reassign Yasha if I begged him to do so. Yasha had been advised to appeal to the Governor, and he sent me on this mission. ”

“ Were the Yakutsk province an American State the now desolate shores of the Lena would swarm with prosperous towns, and [Pg 71] the city would long ere this have become a Siberian El Dorado of the merchant and miner. [13] As it is the trade of this place is nothing to what it could be made, in capable and energetic hands, within a very short space of time. Here, as everywhere else on the river, the summer is the busiest season. In August a fair is held on the Lena in barges, which drift down the river from the Ust-kutsk with European merchandise of every description. ”

“ The road from Yakutsk to Irkutsk, some two thousand six hundred versts, or fifteen hundred and fifty English miles, lay for the most part alternately on and along the river Lena in a southeasterly direction; there being no attempt to cross Siberia at any point in a straight line. By this time the river was frozen, and the only concession Rezanov would make to his enfeebled frame was an arrangement to cover the entire journey by private sledge instead of employing the swifter course of post sledge on the long stretches and horseback on the shorter cuts. ”

“ All the way to Yakutsk the river was studded with islands, which, recurring at short intervals, added to the romantic effect of the scenery; but the weather was growing cold, and heavy fogs hung over the river until a late hour in the morning. The mountains flanking the river were said to abound with wolves and bears; and there was an abundance of wild fowl, of which our travellers shot as many as they pleased. Salmon-trout was plentiful in the river; and the inhabitants fished with seines, and also with spears, like the natives of Tahiti, by torchlight. ”

“ IRKUTSK, a government of Asiatic Russia, in East Siberia, bounded on the W. by the government of Yeniseisk, on the N. by Yakutsk, on the E. by Lake Baikal and Transbaikalia and on the S. and S.W. by Mongolia; area, 287,061 sq. m. The most populous region is a belt of plains 1200 to 2000 ft. in altitude, which stretch north-west to south-east, having the Sayan mountains on the south and the Baikal mountains on the north, and narrowing as it approaches the town of Irkutsk. The high road, now the Trans-Siberian railway, follows this belt. ”

“ The abundance of fur-bearing animals in the less rigorous parts of the tundras has induced the hardy Russians to colonize and build towns on these confines of the Frozen World. Yakutsk, on the river Lena, in 62° 1′ 30′′ N., may be regarded, perhaps, as the coldest town on the Earth. The ground is perpetually frozen to the depth of more than 400 feet, of which three feet only are thawed in summer, when Fahrenheit’s thermometer frequently marks 77° in the shade. Yet in winter the rigour of the climate is so extreme that mercury is constantly frozen for two and occasionally even for three months. ”

“ The Russian Admiral Von Wrangell (who visited Yakutsk in 1820) wrote: "The inhabitants are not in an advanced state of intellectual cultivation. They pass much of their super-abundant leisure in somewhat noisy assemblages where eating and drinking play a principal part. ”

“ The Admiralty to Captain Bering, Feb. 26, 1736.
Your expedition is a very protracted one, and apparently it is being conducted somewhat carelessly on your part, which is shown by the fact that it has taken nearly two years to reach Yakutsk. Moreover, it appears from your report that your stay in Yakutsk will be too long; in fact, there seems to be no reason to hope that you will succeed in getting any farther. As a consequence of all this the Admiralty is extremely dissatisfied with your arrangements, and will not let matters go on without an investigation. ”

“ At Yakutsk -79° has been recorded, but the greatest natural cold ever measured is -93° at Verkhoyansk, in 67° 34′, near the river Lena.
A great part of the Siberian coast is quite uninhabited, but some hardy tribes extend their wanderings to, and even have permanent settlements on the shores of the polar sea. The Samoyeds, with both reindeer and dog-sledges, extend their wanderings to the Yenisei. The Ostiaks of the Obi and upper Yenisei rivers, numbering 27,000, are Finnish and have close racial affinities with the Samoyeds. They possess a fine breed of dogs, but live chiefly by fishing. ”

“ Otherwise I should have taken the risk of starving them to death, putting an end to all hopes of accomplishing anything, and thus incurring a heavy responsibility. Some of my men remained in Yakutsk in charge of the affairs of the expedition there, and to forward provisions. Others remained at the Maya harbor, Yudomskaya Krest, and at the Urak landing, to guard the magazines and attend to the transportation of necessaries to Okhotsk, for it is not yet possible to feed so many at Okhotsk. ”

“ Irkutsk (421) , a central Siberian province, separated from China by the Sayan Mountains; it has Lake Baikal on the E., Yenisei and Yakutsk on the W. and N.; a rich pastoral country, watered by the navigable rivers Angara and the Lena, agriculture, cattle rearing are prosperous industries; there are gold, iron, and salt mines; one-third of the population are forced colonists; the capital, Irkutsk (45) , is the seat of government for Eastern Siberia, an ecclesiastical centre, and the chief emporium of commerce; it is the finest city in Siberia. ”

“ Before the opening of the Amoor the carrying trade from Yakutsk to Ohotsk was in their hands. As many as forty thousand horses used to pass annually between the two points, nearly all of them owned and driven by Yakuts.
Most of these natives have been converted to Christianity, but they still adhere to some of their ancient practices. On the road, for example, they pluck hairs from their horse’s tails and hang them upon trees to appease evil spirits. ”