IN SEARCH OF A
SIBERIAN KLONDIKE
AS NARRATED BY
WASHINGTON B. VANDERLIP
THE CHIEF ACTOR
and
HEREIN SET FORTH BY
HOMER B. HULBERT
ILLUSTRATED WITH
MANY PHOTOGRAPHS
[Illustration: Publisher's Mark]
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1903
Copyright, 1903, by
THE CENTURY CO.
_Published, October, 1903_
THE DE VINNE PRESS
TO
"THE LITTLE MOTHER"
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES
Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia--Plan to prospect through Kamchatka
and north to Bering Strait--Steamer _Cosmopolite_--Russian law in the
matter of liquor traffic--I make up my party and buy supplies--Korean
habits of dress--Linguistic difficulties 3
II. SAGHALIEN AND THE CONVICT STATION
AT KORSAKOVSK
Departure of the expedition--Arrival at Korsakovsk--Condition of
convict station--Freedom allowed prisoners, most of whom are
murderers--Wreck of the steamer and loss of outfit--Gold lace and
life-preservers--Return to Korsakovsk--Russian table manners--The
Russian's naïve attitude toward bathing--Some results of the
intermarriage of criminals--How Yankee shrewdness saved some
confiscated photographs--Pleasant sensations on being shaved by a
murderer--Predominance of American goods 20
III. PETROPAULOVSK AND SOUTHERN KAMCHATKA
Volcanoes of Kamchatka and the superstitious natives--The first
prospecting trip--Copper found, but no gold--Mosquitos cause an
evacuation of the land--The typical Chinese peddler 43
IV. SALMON-FISHING IN THE FAR NORTH
Tide that rises twenty-five feet--Wholesale suicide of salmon--
Fish-eyes as a delicacy for sea-gulls--How the natives store
fish for the sledge-dogs--The three varieties of salmon--An Arcadian
land for the birds 51
V. THE TOWN OF GHIJIGA
The sacred icon and the sewing-machine both in evidence--The native
"process of getting married"--Mrs. Braggin's piano--American
pack-saddles and Russian obstinacy--Theodosia Chrisoffsky and his
sixty descendants 64
VI. OFF FOR THE TUNDRA--A NATIVE FAMILY
Hard traveling--The native women--A mongrel race--Chrisoffsky's home
and family and their ideas of domestic economy--Boiled fish-eyes a
native delicacy--Prospecting along the Ghijiga 79
VII. TUNGUSE AND KORAK HOSPITALITY
My Korak host--"Bear!"--I shoot my first arctic fox--My Tunguse
guide--Twenty-two persons sleep in a twelve-foot tent--Tunguse family
prayers--The advent of Howka--Chrisoffsky once more 92
VIII. DOG-SLEDGING AND THE FUR TRADE
Description of the sledge and its seven pairs of dogs--The
harness--The useful _polka_--The start-off a gymnastic performance for
the driver--Methods of steering and avoiding obstructions while going
at full speed--Dog-trading _en route_--Dog-fights are
plentiful--Prices of sable and other skins in the native market--The
four grades of sables--How they live and what they live on--A Russian
writer on sable hunting--Days when a native would barter eighteen
sable skins for an ax 116
IX. OFF FOR THE NORTH--A RUNAWAY
My winter wardrobe of deerskin--Shoes that keep the feet warm when it
is sixty degrees below zero--_Plemania_, a curious native food in
tabloid form--Other provisions--Outline of proposed exploration about
the sources of the Ghijiga River--Four hours of sun a day--When dog
meets deer--A race for life and a ludicrous dénouement--More queer
native dishes--Curious habits of the sledge-dog 139
X. THROUGH THE DRIFTS
Sledging over snow four feet deep--Making a camp in the snow--Finding
traces of gold--A grand slide down a snow-covered hill--My polka
breaks with disastrous results--Prospecting over the Stanovoi
range 155
XI. BURIED IN A BLIZZARD
A trip to the northern side of the Stanovoi range of mountains--Nijni
Kolymsk, the most-feared convict station--Sledging by light of the
aurora--Lost in a blizzard on the vast tundra--Five days in a snow
dug-out--I earn a reputation as a wizard--Back at Chrisoffsky's 167
XII. CHRISTMAS--THE "DEER KORAKS"
I celebrate Christmas day with the over-kind assistance of two hundred
natives--Koraks as sharp-shooters--Comic features of a Russian
dance--Off for Kaminaw--Another runaway--Slaughtering deer--A curious
provision of nature--Eight families in one yourta--Korak method of
washing dishes--A herd of ten thousand deer 177
XIII. HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KORAKS
The hour-glass houses--Their curious construction--The natives prove
to be both hospitable and filthy--Dialects of Dog Koraks and Deer
Koraks--Some unpleasant habits--How they reckon time--Making liquor
out of mushrooms--Curious marriage customs--Clothes of the
natives--Queer notions of a deity--Jealousy of the wandering
Koraks--Thieving a virtue and childbirth a social function 205
XIV. OFF FOR BERING SEA--THE TCHUKTCHES
The Tchuktches are the Apaches of Siberia--Their hospitality to
Americans and their hostility to Russians--Wherein my experiences
differ from those of Mr. Harry DeWindt--Result of licking a piece of
stone with the thermometer at 45° below zero--Konikly--Power of moral
suasion in dealing with a rebellious Korak--The cure of a dying woman
and the disgust of her husband--Poll-tax and the Tchuktches 224
XV. A PERILOUS SUMMER TRIP
The tundra in summer--Crossing the swift Paran River--Literally
billions of mosquitos--Unique measures of protection against these
pests--Mad race down the Uchingay River on a raft--Lighting a fire
with a pistol--Narrow escape from drowning--Fronyo proves to be a man
of mettle--Pak is caught stealing from slim supply of provisions and
receives chastisement--Subsisting on wild onions and half-ripe
berries--Help at last 255
XVI. A TEN-THOUSAND-MILE RACE
Persistent rumors of gold in the Tchuktche peninsula--Count
Unarliarsky--I am called to Vladivostok to fit out an expedition--Our
vessel arrives off Indian Point--Charging through the ice-floes--A
meeting with Eskimos--Our prospecting proves fruitless--We meet the
rival expedition in Plover Bay--Their chagrin--The end 292
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Washington B. Vanderlip _Frontispiece_
Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vanderlip
in his search for a Siberian Klondike 5
Korean Miners 15
Market-place, Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island 25
Russian Murderers in Angle of Prison-House,
Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island 37
Main Street of Petropaulovsk, Kamchatka 45
A River of Dead Salmon--August 53
The Salmon Catch 57
Ghijiga 65
Russian Church, Ghijiga 71
House in Ghijiga occupied by Mr. Vanderlip and
his Party 75
House of Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Christowic 81
Start from Ghijiga, Summer-time. Theodosia
Chrisoffsky and Family--Fourteen Children 87
Village of Christowic, Okhotsk Sea 93
Mr. Vanderlip on "Bill" 99
The Pride of the Family 105
Mr. Vanderlip crossing Turumcha River 111
Sledge-dogs, showing Harness and Method of
Hitching 119
Mr. Vanderlip's Dog-sled loaded 125
Ghijiga River in Winter 129
Deer crossing River 141
Reindeer 145
Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Guide 151
Mr. Vanderlip and Reindeer Team. 157
Native Winter Camp 163
Mr. Vanderlip on March with Deer Outfit 173
Reindeer 183
Herd of Reindeer 189
Reindeer, Herders in background 195
Reindeer--Summer 201
Upper View of Underground Hut--Home of the
Dog Korak 207
Chinese Pump 213
One of the Tchuktches--an unconquered Race 227
Summit of Kamchatka--First Sight of Bering
Sea 233
Kassegan, half-caste Russian trader, and Korak
wife, living at Boeta, Baron Koff Bay, Kamchatka 239
In Crater of Extinct Volcano, digging for Sulphur.
Baron Koff Bay, Kamchatka 245
Killing Deer for Dog-food 251
Expedition on march--"Konikly" in foreground 257
Across the Tundra 261
Tundra Camp 267
"Kim" in Summer Camp on Tundra 273
Reindeer Feeding 279
Three Little Half-caste Russians and Native
Nurse, Ghijiga, Okhotsk Sea 287
Russian Miners 293
Picked up on the Ice off St. Lawrence Island 299
Natives at Indian Point, Siberia 303
Eskimo Village, East Cape--Northeastern Point
of Asia 307
Plover Bay, Siberia, in July 313
PREFACE
The following pages are the result of one of those delightful
partnerships in which the party of the first part had all the
adventures, pleasant and otherwise, while the party of the second part
had only to listen to their recital and put them down on paper. The
next best thing to seeing these things for one's self is to hear of
them from the lips of such a delightful raconteur as Mr. Vanderlip.
Whatever defects may be found in these pages must be laid at the door
of the scribe; but whatever is entertaining and instructive is due to
the keen observation, the retentive memory, and the descriptive powers
of the main actor in the scenes herein depicted.
H. B. H.
SEOUL, KOREA, December, 1902.
IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN KLONDIKE
CHAPTER I
OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES
Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia--Plan to prospect through
Kamchatka and north to Bering Strait--Steamer
_Cosmopolite_--Russian law in the matter of liquor
traffic--I make up my party and buy supplies--Korean habits
of dress--Linguistic difficulties.
When the rich deposits of gold were found on the Yukon River, and
later in the beach sands of Cape Nome, the question naturally arose as
to how far these deposits extended. Sensational reports in the papers,
and the stories of valuable nuggets being picked up along the adjacent
coast of Asia, fired the imagination of the Russians, who hoped, and
perhaps not without reason, to repeat the marvelous successes which
had been met with on the American side. The existence of valuable gold
deposits in other parts of Siberia lent color to the belief that the
gold-bearing belt extended across from America to Siberia, and that
consequently the Asiatic shores of Bering Sea ought to be well worth
prospecting.
No people were ever more alive to the value of mineral deposits than
the Russians, and none of them have been keener in the search for
gold. As evidence of this we have but to point to the vast,
inhospitable wilderness of northern Siberia, where gold has been
exploited in widely separated districts and under conditions far more
trying than those which have surrounded any similar undertaking, with
the exception of the Klondike.
I had left Chittabalbie, the headquarters of the Oriental Consolidated
Mining Company,--an American firm that is successfully exploiting the
gold deposits of northern Korea,--and being enamoured of a wandering
life, I found myself one morning entering the magnificent harbor of
Vladivostok, the eastern terminus of the Siberian Railway and the
principal Russian distributing center on the Pacific coast.
I believed that as the northeastern extremity of Asia was as yet
virgin ground to the prospector, there would be no better opportunity
for the practice of my profession than could be found in the town of
Vladivostok. The surmise proved correct, and I was almost immediately
engaged by a Russian firm to make an extended prospecting tour in
Kamchatka, through the territory north of the Okhotsk Sea and along
the shores of Bering Sea. This arrangement was made with the full
cognizance and approval of the Russian authorities. I carried a United
States passport. The Russians gave me another at Vladivostok, and
through the Governor-general at that place I secured an open letter to
all Russian magistrates in eastern Siberia, instructing them to give
me whatever help I might need in the procuring of food, sledge-dogs,
reindeer, guides, or anything else that I might require. Not only were
no obstacles put in my way, but I was treated with the utmost courtesy
by these officials, who seemed to realize the possible value of the
undertaking.
[Illustration: Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vanderlip in
his search for a Siberian Klondike.]
My instructions were to go first to the town of Petropaulovsk, on the
southern point of the peninsula of Kamchatka, and explore the
surrounding country for copper. The natives had brought in samples of
copper ore, and it was also to be found in the beach sands near
Petropaulovsk, as well as in a neighboring island, called Copper
Island, where the Russians had opened up a mine some seventy years
before, but without success. I was next to go north to Baron Koff Bay,
on the eastern coast of the peninsula, near its neck, and examine some
sulphur deposits which were supposed to exist in that vicinity and
which the government was very desirous of working. From that point I
was to cross the neck of the peninsula by reindeer sledge to the head
of the eastern branch of the Okhotsk Sea, my objective point being
Cape Memaitch, where I was to prospect for gold. It had been reported
that on two successive years an American schooner had touched at this
point and carried away full cargoes of gold ore to San Francisco. I
was then to pass around the head of the Okhotsk Sea to the important
trading town of Ghijiga. This was the headquarters, some thirty years
ago, of the Russo-American Telegraph Company, with which Mr. George
Kennan was connected and where he spent one winter.
Making this my headquarters, I was to work out in various directions
in search of the yellow metal, and finally I was to use my own
judgment as to whether I should strike northeast to Bering Strait,
following the Stenova range of mountains, or southward to Ola, where a
steamship could stop and take me off the following summer. As we shall
see, the main points of this plan were carried out, though not in the
order here given.
As to the means for reaching Kamchatka I had no choice. There is no
royal mail steamship route to these boreal regions. A "tramp"
steamship is annually chartered by the great firm of Kunst and Albers
in Vladivostok, and rechartered by them to the Russian government, to
take the Governor-general on his annual visit to Saghalien and the
trading posts in Kamchatka, and even as far northward as Anadyr,
situated inland from Bering Sea on the Anadyr River. At each of these
trading posts is a Russian magistrate, or _nitcheilnik_, and a guard
of about twenty Cossacks. The annual steamer carries the supplies for
these officials and for the traders, as well as the goods which are
used in trade. On her return, the steamer brings back the furs of the
Russian Chartered Company, who hold all the furring rights of
northeastern Siberia.
In the summer of 1898 the steamer _Cosmopolite_ was scheduled to make
the annual voyage. She was a German tramp steamer of one thousand
tons. Besides the captain there was but one other foreign officer. The
crew was Chinese. In addition to the annual mails she carried a full
cargo of tea, flour, sugar, tobacco, and the thousand and one articles
that make the stock in trade of the agents of the Chartered Company.
She was allowed to carry no wines or liquors, with the exception of
sixty bottles of vodka for each trader, and that for his private use
only. He is strictly forbidden to sell a drop to the natives. For a
first offense he is heavily fined, and for a second he serves a term
of penal servitude on the island of Saghalien. This law is in
brilliant contrast to the methods of other governments in respect to
liquors. Africa and the Pacific Islands bear witness to the fact
that, from the standpoint both of humanity and mere commercial
caution, the Russian government is immeasurably ahead of other powers
in this respect. The sale of intoxicants demoralizes the natives and
"kills the goose that lays the golden egg." Of course there is an
occasional evasion of the law. The natives of Siberia are passionately
fond of spirits of any kind, and, having tasted a single glass, will
sell anything they have--even their wives and daughters--for another.
When they are in liquor a single wineglass of vodka will induce them
to part with furs which in the London market would bring ten pounds.
Besides this annual steamship, two Russian men-of-war cruise north
along the coast, looking for American whalers who bring alcoholic
liquors to exchange for skins.
I decided to take with me two Koreans from Vladivostok. They were
gold-miners from southern Siberia. Being expert horse-packers and
woodsmen and speaking a little Russian, they were sure to be of great
use to me. They were named Kim and Pak respectively; both are among
the commonest family names in Korea, the Kim family having originated
at least as early as 57 B.C. Kim was thirty years old and was
possessed of a splendid physique. He could take up four hundred pounds
of goods and carry them a quarter of a mile without resting. Koreans
are taught from childhood to carry heavy weights on their backs. They
use a chair-like frame, called a _jigi_, which distributes the weight
evenly over the shoulders and hips and enables them to carry the
maximum load with the minimum of fatigue. Kim was always good-natured
even under the most discouraging circumstances, and he was fairly
honest. Pak was thirty-eight, tall and thin, but enormously strong. He
enjoyed the possession of only one eye, for which reason I promptly
dubbed him "Dick Deadeye." He was a cautious individual, and always
"packed" his money in his clothes, sewed up between the various
thicknesses of cloth; and whenever he had a bill to pay and could not
avoid payment, he would retire to a secluded place, rip himself open,
and return with the money in his hand and a mysterious look on his
face, as if he had picked the money off the bushes.
Having secured the services of this precious pair, I promptly marched
them off to the store of one Enoch Emory to exchange their loose
Korean clothes for something more suited to the work in hand. This
Enoch Emory, by the way, is a character unique in Siberian history.
When sixteen years old he came out from New England as cabin-boy on a
sailing vessel which had been sent by an American company to establish
trading stations on the Amur. He left the vessel and went into one of
the company's stores. He now "owns" the company and is one of the
wealthiest merchants in Siberia. The company operates immense stores
in Nikolaievsk, Blagovestchensk, and Khabarovka, with a large
receiving store at Vladivostok. Emory always favors American goods and
sells immense numbers of agricultural implements and of other things
in the manufacture of which America excels. This is the only great
American firm in Siberia. Emory makes his home in Moscow and comes out
once a year to inspect his stores. He is a typical Yankee of the David
Harum stamp.
When my two protégés came to change Korean dress for American it was
difficult to decide just where the dress left off and the man began.
The Korean bathing habits are like those of the medieval anchorite,
and an undergarment, once donned, is lost to memory. Besides the two
Koreans, I engaged the services of a Russian secretary named Nicolai
Andrev. He was an old man and not by any means satisfactory, but he
was the only one I could get who knew the Russian mining laws and who
could make out the necessary papers, in case I should have occasion to
stake out claims. As it turned out, he hampered the movements of the
party at every turn; he could not stand the hard knocks of the
journey, and I was obliged to drop him later at the town of Ghijiga.
His lack of teeth rendered his pronunciation of Russian so peculiar
that he was no help to me in acquiring the language, which is not easy
to learn even under the best of circumstances. I was also accompanied
by a young Russian naturalist named Alexander Michaelovitch
Yankoffsky. As this name was quite too complicated for everyday use, I
had my choice of paring it down to "Alek," "Mike," or "Yank," and
while my loyalty to Uncle Sam would naturally prompt me to use the
last of these I forbore and Alek he became. He did not take kindly to
it at first, for it is _de rigueur_ to address a Russian by both his
first and second names, the latter being his father's name with
_vitch_ attached. This was out of the question, however, and he
succumbed to the inevitable.
So our complete party consisted of five men, representing three
languages. None of my men knew any English, and I knew neither Russian
nor Korean, beyond a few words and phrases. But before two months had
elapsed, I had, by the aid of a pocket dictionary, my little stock of
Korean words, and a liberal use of pencil and paper, evolved a triglot
jargon of English, Korean, and Russian that would have tried the
patience of the most charitable philologist.
The steamer was to sail in eight days, and this necessitated quick
work in making up my outfit. For guns I picked a twelve-bore German
fowling-piece with a rifle-barrel beneath, in order to be equipped for
either small or large game without being under the necessity of
carrying two guns at once; a Winchester repeating rifle, 45-90; an .88
Mannlicher repeating rifle; and two 45-caliber Colt revolvers. As
money is little used among the natives of the far North, it was
necessary to lay in a stock of goods to use in trade. For this purpose
I secured one thousand pounds of Moharka tobacco. It is put up in
four-ounce packages and costs fifteen rouble cents a pound. I procured
also two thousand pounds of sugar both for personal use and for trade.
This comes in solid loaves of forty pounds each. Next in order came
two thousand pounds of brick-tea. Each brick contains three pounds,
and in Hankau, where it is put up, it costs twelve and a half cents a
brick. It is made of the coarsest of the tea leaves, twigs, dust,
dirt, and sweepings, and is the kind universally used by the Russian
peasantry. I also secured one hundred pounds of beads, assorted
colors, and a goodly stock of needles, together with ten pounds of
colored sewing-silks which the natives use to embroider the tops of
their boots and the edges of their fur coats. Then came a lot of
pipe-bowls at a cent apiece, assorted "jewelry," silver and brass
rings, silk handkerchiefs, powder and shot, and 44-caliber
cartridges. The last mentioned would be useful in dealing with the
natives near the coast, who commonly use Winchester rifles. Those
further inland use the old-fashioned musket exclusively.
[Illustration: Korean Miners.]
For my own use I laid in a goodly supply of Armour's canned beef,
canned fruits, dried fruits, lime-juice, bacon, three thousand pounds
of beans, canned tomatoes, tinned butter, coffee, German beef-tea put
up in capsules an inch long by half an inch thick (which proved
extremely fine), and canned French soups and conserves. Besides these
things, and more important than all, I took two tons of black
bread--the ordinary hard rye bread of Russia, that requires the use of
a prospecting hammer or the butt of a revolver to break it up. This
was necessary for barter as well as for personal use.
Judging from my experiences in Australia, Burma, Siam, and Korea, as
well as from my reading of Nansen, I thought it best not to encumber
myself with any liquors excepting four bottles of brandy, which were
carried in the medicine-chest and used for medicinal purposes only. My
medical outfit consisted of four main articles, quinine, morphine,
iodoform, and cathartic pills. With these four one can cope with
almost anything that is likely to happen. The chest contained also
bandages, absorbent cotton, mustard leaves, a hot-water bottle, two
small surgeon's knives, and a pair of surgical scissors.
After a prolonged search for really good pack-saddles, I concluded
that such things were unknown in Siberia; so, calling in a Chinese
carpenter, I gave him a model of an Arizona pack-saddle, with
instructions to turn out a dozen at the shortest possible notice. I
proposed to teach my Koreans how to throw the "diamond hitch," but I
found later, to my humiliation, that what the Korean does not know
about packing is not worth knowing. Either Kim or Pak could do it
quicker and better than I. Two thousand years of this sort of thing
have left little for the Korean to learn.
Mining-tools were of course a necessity. Even in Vladivostok I could
not secure what I wanted. I therefore took what I could get. I
purchased drills, hammers, a crow-bar, a German pump which was
guaranteed to pump sand (but which I found later would pump nothing
thicker than pure water), a quantity of blasting powder called
"rack-a-rock," picks, shovels, wire, nails, and other sundries. The
Russian shovel is an instrument of torture, being merely a flat sheet
of iron with a shank for the insertion of a handle, which latter is
supposed to be made and fitted on the spot. As there is no bend at the
neck of the shovel, the lack of leverage makes it a most unwieldy and
exasperating utensil. As for the Russian pick, it has but one point,
and in its construction is clumsy beyond belief. Even the Korean picks
are better. I also carried a simple blow-pipe outfit, an aneroid, a
compass, gold-screens, and gold-pans, with other necessary appliances
for prospecting. These preparations were made very hurriedly, as the
_Cosmopolite_ was the only steamer going north during the season.
Tourists sometimes ask if it would not be possible to secure passage
on this annual steamer and take the trip along the coast to Bering Sea
and back. There is nothing to prevent it. The trip of three months,
stopping at ten or twelve points along the coast, could be made for
about three hundred roubles, a rouble representing fifty cents in
gold. But the trip would be of little value or interest, because, in
the first place, the natives bring down their furs to the trading
stations during the winter, when the ice makes traveling possible, so
that one would have very little opportunity of seeing anything of
native life, or of securing any of the valuable furs that come out of
this region each year. It would be impossible for the tourist to pick
up any good ones in summer. Outside of natives and furs, it is
difficult to see what interest there could be in such a trip, unless
the tourist is studying the habits of mosquitos and midges, in which
case he would strike a veritable paradise.