THE FIRST DEER OF THE SEASON
It was April. Winter was over, but the sun had not yet had time to melt
the ice in our part of the river when the alarm was given that the
Ussuri had broken loose a hundred miles above us and was rushing toward
our village at tremendous speed.
This news was brought by an officer who had been sent to give orders
that the river be dynamited at once to remove the ice blockade.
I was awakened that night by a terrible noise resembling hundreds
of guns shot in rapid succession. My first impression was that the
officer and his assistants were blowing up the ice, but I soon learned
differently.
When I had dressed and come out, I could see that it was caused
entirely by the breaking of the ice. All the village, including babes
in arms, were already on the banks. It was not light enough to see
the whole picture, but in the half darkness the moving white field
of ice blocks resembled now a herd of mysterious animals, fighting
among themselves, jumping on one another, and roaring, as they rushed
headlong toward the north, or then again more like spirits driven from
paradise, and making their way into the unknown with cries and wails,
in desperate panic and fear.
We stood there for two or three hours watching the ice blocks, many of
them three or four feet thick and hundreds of feet long, pushed out on
the shore by their neighbors, to be in their turn broken by new masses
of blocks. When the sun arose the picture instead of mysterious became
magnificent. As far as one could see there was a moving field of blocks
of ice, gleaming in rainbow colors, apparently changing shapes at every
moment. Those nearest to us rushed with the greatest velocity, the
middle blocks moved more slowly, and those toward the low Chinese shore
seemed merely a moving stretch of snow.
I had just noted that the river which I was accustomed to see far
below our high bank, now almost rose to its level, when I heard quick,
excited exclamations around me: "Deer! Deer!"
I turned to where the hands were pointing and saw a strange sight.
Several of the small deer that we Siberians called _koza_, were sailing
on a big block of ice in the middle of the stream. A moment after
every person was in motion, even the women running home for rifles. I
remained with only a few old men who muttered: "The fools! How could
they get them so far away, even if they should happen to shoot them?"
But the hunter instinct, or perhaps the strong desire to get this
particular kind of food, made every one reject the apparent
impossibility of getting the booty from this terrible roaring river,
carrying everything so swiftly away.
The animals approached nearer and nearer. We could see their occasional
desperate efforts to jump from one block to another, always to return
to the big block which quietly and majestically flowed among hundreds
of smaller ones, which pushed around it, now breaking their edges, now
leaving a part of themselves on its surface.
In a short time the deer were directly opposite us. There were five of
them, a big stag and four does.
Suddenly there was a rapid succession of shots around me from the men
who had returned. The stag fell, killed, I afterwards learned, by my
uncle who had aimed at it as being the most precious. Two of the does
also fell, but the two remaining started on a wild race for the Chinese
shore. One of them was obviously wounded, for after two or three slow
bounds she was caught by the moving mass of ice and disappeared under
the water. I followed the other with a certain amount of sympathy until
it was nothing but a tiny dot, and then turned my attention to what was
going on around me.
There was great excitement. An old Cossack named Skorin, was trying to
stop his nineteen-year-old son and two others from the mad attempt to
push a boat on to the stream, in order to go after the slain animals.
These had been pushed gradually nearer us by the ice, and Young Skorin
argued that it would be easy to get them.
I noticed that this dispute was being listened to by our friend Che-un,
a member of the Goldi tribe, one of the native Siberian races, who had
lived near our village as far back as I could remember. He was regarded
with considerable kindly respect by the Cossacks as being the most
experienced hunter and fisher among them. He had on, as usual, his
winter costume which made him look like a bundle of fur. It consisted
of a nicely made deerskin coat, deerskin trousers and boots. His dark
face, with its flat nose, its sparkling, black, almond-shaped eyes, was
all attention.
Old Skorin turned to him. "Tell this madman," he said, "that it is
certain death to try to get into the stream now."
Without giving him a chance to reply, Young Skorin burst out: "Say,
Che-un, tell father how I crossed during last year's flood."
The Goldi did not answer at once. Instead, he puffed two or three times
through the long pipe which he always held in his mouth. Then, slowly
pulling it out, he said brokenly, "Were it a bear, I might go--but for
deer--no."
"Oh, come on," said Young Skorin persuasively. "If you won't, I'll go
with Vassili here. Come on, Vassili," and, with a reckless laugh, and
without paying further heed to the protests of his father, he made a
bound to his boat which was lying among others on the snowy bank.
[Illustration: "IT SEEMED TO ALL OF US THAT THEY COULD NEVER REACH
THEIR GOAL"]
All of these boats were of the light Goldi type, built from three very
wide boards, one about two feet wide, at the bottom, the two others on
the sides, and two small end boards, all well-seasoned, nailed, and
caulked, bent to meet and generally raised at the bow. All the boards
were well smeared over with tar. Such a boat can be easily carried
by two men, or pushed along the snow or ice. At the same time its
displacement is so great that five and sometimes six men can cross a
stream in it.
When the two young men had pushed the boat over the snow into the
river, Young Skorin took his seat in it while Vassili ran for two
landing forks, a gun, and one oar. When he returned, Che-un suddenly
changed his mind and joined the daring youths. This gave great relief
to all of the women, who were filled with anxiety as to the outcome of
the boys' crazy venture.