_THE OBI._
Dimensions of river.--Its tributaries.--Province of Tobolsk.--
Geographical features.--Population.--Voguls.--Samoyedes.--
Intemperance.--Commercial prospects of Obi.--Siberian
produce.--Corn land.--Timber.--Cost of provisions.--Carriage.--
Discoveries of Wiggins.--Followed by Nordenskiöld.--Ship-building
at Tiumen.--Navigation of Kara Sea.--Books on basin of Obi.
The Obi is one of the largest rivers of the Old Continent, and seems
destined to play an important part in opening up to commerce the
immense wealth of Western Siberia. Something, therefore, should be said
of this enormous stream, and the province of Tobolsk through which
it flows. The basin of the river contains more than a million and a
quarter of square miles; an area nearly 2,000 miles in length, and,
at the widest part, 1,200 in breadth.[1] This vast area is covered
with a network of streams, navigable from the Arctic Ocean to the
best parts of Western Siberia, the importance of which can hardly be
overestimated, when it is borne in mind that the success of recent
enterprise has demonstrated the possibility of carrying produce by
water to Europe.
But let us now speak of the province, inhabitants, and aborigines of
Tobolsk, which, though not the largest, is at once the oldest and by
far the most populous of the governments of Siberia. It extends from
the frozen ocean down to the 55th parallel, a distance of 1,200 miles
from north to south, and of 700 miles in its widest part from east to
west, its total area covering 800,000 square miles--a country, that is
to say, seven times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. The surface,
save where the western border approaches the Urals, is flat--so flat,
indeed, that Tobolsk, which is 550 miles from the sea, is only 378 feet
above its level. It has no large lakes, but there are several small
ones, from which salt is obtained.[2]
Ethnographically considered, the province is not so varied as some
others, the people being for the most part Russians, Tatars, Voguls,
Ostjaks, or Samoyedes; the Tatars belonging to the Turkish, and the
Voguls and Ostjaks to the Finnish stock. Some writers classify the
Samoyedes as Finns, but Mr. Howorth considers they should be treated
as a race apart. Mr. Rae, in his “Land of the North Wind,” and Mr.
Seebohm, in his “Siberia in Europe,” have recently given interesting
information concerning the Samoyedes.
The Voguls inhabit a district which coincides pretty closely with the
ridge of the Northern Urals, and were estimated in 1876 at 5,000 in
number. Their country makes them hillmen and foresters, for they lie
within the northern limit of the fir and birch, in the country of the
wolf, the bear, the sable, the glutton, the marten, the beaver, and
the elk. They usually dress like the Russians, and live by hunting,
for they have no plains for the breeding of cattle, and no climate for
agriculture. They are said to use no salt. Their villages are scattered
and small, consisting of from four to eight cabins. Obdorsk is their
trading town. To this town, on the Arctic circle at the mouth of the
Obi, come also the Samoyedes and Ostjaks, of which latter I shall speak
as I saw them further east.
The Samoyedes inhabit a larger tract of country, stretching along
the shore of the frozen ocean from the north-east corner of Europe,
all across the Tobolsk government to the Yenesei, descending to the
region of the Ostjaks, and on some parts of the southern border to
Tomsk. With the Samoyedes I felt already in a measure acquainted,
partly by correspondence from my friend in Finland, and partly by a
near approach to them in 1878, when I travelled to Archangel. Their
numbers were estimated, in 1876, at 5,700. Their riches consist of
herds of reindeer, which they pasture on the mosses of the vast bogs or
_tundras_, from which the animals in winter scrape the snow with their
feet, and thus find their sustenance. To the Samoyede the reindeer is
everything; when alive, the animal draws his sledge, and, when dead,
its flesh is eaten and the skin used for tent and clothing.
[Illustration: MY SAMOYEDE DRESS.]
At Archangel I bought a _sovik_ or tunic, a cap, and a wonderful pair
of Samoyede boots; and as the Samoyede manner of dressing resembles
in its main features that of other northern aborigines in Siberia, I
may as well describe it particularly. In winter, then, to be in the
(Samoyede) fashion, one should dress as follows:--First a pair of short
trousers made of softened reindeer skin, fitting tight, and reaching
down to the knee. Then stockings of _peshki_, the skin of young fawns,
with the hair inwards. Next come the boots, called _poumé leepte_,
which means boot-stockings, reaching almost to the thigh, the sole
being made of old and hard reindeer hide, the hair pointing forward
to diminish the possibility of slipping on the ice or snow. Common
boots have the hair only on the outside. Mine are a gay “lady’s” pair,
lined inside with the softest fur, and made of white reindeer skin
without, sewn with stripes of darker skin, and ornamented in front
with pieces of coloured cloth. The clothing of the lower limbs being
completed, one must work one’s way from the bottom to the top of the
tunic, or _sovik_, which has an opening to put the head through, and
is furnished with sleeves. Mine has a high straight collar, but in some
brought by Mr. Seebohm from the Yenesei this collar rises behind above
the top of the head. The costume is completed by a cap of reindeer
skin, with strings on either side ornamented with pieces of cloth.
The hair of the _sovik_ is worn outside in fine weather, and inside
when it rains; but when prolonged exposure to cold is apprehended, a
second garment, called a “_gus_,” is worn, with the hair outside, and
a close-fitting hood, leaving exposed only a small portion of the
face. The Ostjaks are said to have at the end of the sleeve a glove
or mitten, made of the hardest hide of the reindeer, and suitable for
heavy work, and also a slit under the wrist to allow of the fingers
being put through for finer work. A girdle is worn round the loins,
over which the _sovik_ laps a little, and thus forms a pocket for small
articles.
[Illustration: SAMOYEDES OF ARCHANGEL.]
I have been told, by one well acquainted with the Samoyedes, that
it is often very difficult to trade with them before giving a glass
of _vodka_, and that, when once given, they are irrepressible in
clamouring for more. Men may sometimes be seen who have brought in
their wares to barter for winter necessaries, and who will exchange the
whole for spirits, and reduce themselves to beggary. This has caused
the Russian Government to forbid the sale of spirits in these northern
regions, but the traders smuggle them in.[3]
I must not forget to add that some pleasing accounts of the honesty of
the Samoyedes and Ostjaks were related to us. The merchants of Tobolsk,
for instance, when they go north in the summer to purchase fish, take
with them flour and salt, place them in their summer stations, and,
on their return, leave unprotected what remains for the following
year. Should a Samoyede pass by and require it, he does not scruple to
take what he wants, but he leaves in its place an I.O.U., in the form
of a duplicate stick, duly notched, to signify that he is a debtor;
and then, in the fishing season, he comes to his creditor, compares
the duplicate stick he has kept with the one he left behind, and
discharges his obligation. Captain Wiggins also records that when, in
the winter months of 1876-77, his ship the _Thames_ was laid up in the
Kureika, it was surrounded by hundreds of Ostjaks and other natives,
but that nothing was stolen.
The difficulties of educating and Christianizing these wandering
tribes are very great.[4] I heard, however, that in European Russia
a priest is sent yearly to a town in the far north of the Archangel
province, to baptize the children and marry such among the Samoyedes
of that region as are professedly Christian. Réclus, however, speaks
of the Yurak-Samoyedes as still practising their bloody rites, and
thrusting pieces of raw flesh into the mouths of their idols. In 1877
the Russians opened a school at Obdorsk for the natives. We may hope,
therefore, that for them better days are coming, both by reason of
what the Russians are doing, and also, possibly and indirectly, by the
efforts which certain Englishmen are making to invade the lands of
these aborigines for the purposes of trade.
[Illustration: A YURAK-SAMOYEDE.]
That the commercial value of the basin of the Obi and a large part
of Western Siberia is not yet realized by European capitalists is
the opinion of most of those that I have met who have been there. A
limited demand exists for English merchandise, and the possibility of
an almost unlimited supply of products needed by England. The Altai
mountains, for instance, are rich in silver, copper, and iron, which
last is also abundant in the valley of the Tom. But these are as
nothing compared with grain, for the production of which the country
is admirably fitted. From the southern border of the Tobolsk province,
for 600 miles northward, lies a district of fertile black earth; and
so exclusively is it of this character in the valleys of many of
the rivers, which overflow like the Nile, and leave a rich deposit,
that the geologist finds it difficult to pick up even a few specimen
pebbles. It is like a vast tract of garden land, well suited for the
production of wheat, oats, linseed, barley, and other cereals. Farther
north are prairies for cattle, and a wooded region, inhabited by
various fur-bearing animals, where the pine, fir, and birch abound.
These remarks apply to the valley of the Obi no less than to that of
the Yenesei, where Mr. Seebohm found he could purchase a larch, 60 feet
long, 3 feet diameter at the base, and 18 inches at the apex, for a
sovereign, and that a hundred such could be had to order in a week. In
the city of Tobolsk the cost of provisions, we were told, had advanced
to five times what it was 30 years ago; but even so, the present
price of meat was quoted at 2_d._, and rye flour at a halfpenny, per
pound.[5] Again, north of the wooded region come the _tundras_, over
which roam the reindeer, wild and tame; and about 100 miles up the
Kureika, which flows into the Yenesei, there is a valuable mine of
graphite lying on the surface; besides which the rivers are so full
of fish that the fishermen try not to catch too many, because of the
frequent breaking of their nets.
These riches have long been known to the Siberians, to whom they were
practically useless for export, by reason of expensive land carriage
over the Urals; and the only other way of transit to Europe was through
the Kara Sea, which was supposed to be ice-blocked perpetually. So far
back as the sixteenth century, the English and the Dutch tried hard
to penetrate the Siberian ocean, but were always stopped at Novaia
Zemlia; so that for two centuries no fresh effort was made. Of late
years, however, Captain Wiggins, of Sunderland, who, from his youth,
appears to have been a bold and adventurous seaman, happened to read
in Wrangell’s “Polar Sea” that, three centuries ago, the Russians were
wont to coast from Archangel, for purposes of trade, to Mangasee, on
the Taz, near the gulf of the Obi; and it occurred to him that, if
they could do it in their wretched “kotchkies,” or boats of planking,
fastened to a frame with thongs of leather, and calked with moss, he
ought much more easily to be able to do so with the aid of steam.
With his characteristic love of adventure, therefore, and at his own
expense, he determined to make the attempt; and on June 3rd, 1874, he
left Dundee in the _Diana_, a small steamer of only 104 tons. In little
more than three weeks the Kara Sea was entered, and found free of ice;
and the _Diana_ entered the gulf of Obi on the 5th of August--the
first sea-going vessel that had ever done so. Circumstances did not
permit of his ascending the river; he returned, therefore, paid off his
crew, and employed the winter in making known the feasibility of the
route. He found great difficulty, however, in persuading the mercantile
world, and applied in vain to the Royal Geographical Society for help
to follow up his discoveries. Whereupon there came forward another
explorer to snatch the rose from the captain’s hand; for Professor
Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins had done,--amply supported by his
Government, by private enterprise, and without cost to himself (as it
should be)--followed next year through the Kara Sea, passed the Obi
gulf, and entered the Yenesei, from whence, having sent back his ship,
he returned overland to Petersburg. The feasibility of the sea-route
was now manifest; and, as I passed through Tiumen, Messrs. Wardropper
were building, at a distance of 700 miles from the ocean, two sea-going
ships, for Messrs. Trapeznikoff and Co., of Moscow, to be floated down
the Obi and round the North Cape to England.
It is the opinion of both navigators that “a regular sea communication
between Siberia and Northern Europe, during a short season of the
year, ought not to be attended with greater risks and dangers than
seamen encounter on many other waters now visited by thousands of
vessels.” These are the sober words of Professor Nordenskiöld; and
to the same effect are the words spoken publicly by Captain Wiggins,
in whom we have a brave and honest seaman, and concerning whose work
England need only be ashamed that he received so little support. He
has shown, however, by a voyage made in 1878, that steamers of any
size, but of shallow draught, can go some 400 miles up the Obi. On
the 2nd of August he left Liverpool in the _Warkworth_, an ordinary
steamer of 340 tons net register, chartered through Mr. Wm. Byford,
of London, shipbroker, for sole account of Mr. Oswald Cattley, first
guild merchant of Petersburg, with a miscellaneous cargo, and arrived
in 15 days. He was met by lighters from the Barnaul district, with
wheat, flax, etc., to load the steamer, and then convey inland the
cargo from Liverpool. No mishap occurred on the outward voyage; but,
in consequence of the Obi falling so rapidly, the steamer touched the
ground on coming down the river. He arrived safely, however, in London
on the 3rd of October; thus occupying two months on the passage out
and home. Subsequent trading voyages have been attempted, some of
which failed; but the causes of failure were such as may in future be
overcome, the _Neptune_ of Hamburg having made successful voyages in
1878 and 1880. It appears, then, that the trade only awaits further
development,[6] and if, with specially strengthened steamers, the
carriage of produce can thus be arranged between England and Siberia,
both countries will doubtless be gainers thereby.[7]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The principal branch of the Obi is the Irtish, which, rising in
Mongolia, passes through Lake Zaizang, about 1,720 feet above the sea
level. It then passes Ustkammenogorsk, in the Altai region, where it
becomes navigable, and, flowing on to Omsk, is subsequently joined by
the Ishim and the Tobol, which last is made up of the Isset, Tura,
and Tavda, the last three descending from the watershed of the Urals.
The Obi proper rises in Siberia, and runs with a rapid course through
the northern ridges of the Altai mountains, amid scenery resembling
in beauty and grandeur that of the Lake of Lucerne. It is joined
north of Tomsk by the Tom and the Tchulim, and then it flows on in a
westerly course, swelled by many minor streams, to its junction with
the Irtish, on the 60th parallel. Before reaching the Tom the current
becomes gentle, and allows of easy navigation, especially in spring,
when water is abundant; but, in approaching the Irtish, shoals become
numerous. The Obi then takes a northerly course, and frequently divides
as it traverses an alluvial and low plain from 40 to 50 miles wide, the
greater part of which, after winter, is inundated. This enormous river,
having now a course of 2,700 miles, falls into the Obi Gulf, which is
400 miles long, and from 70 to 80 miles wide. For a large part of the
year the water flows under ice, which at Tiumen is from 3 to 4 feet,
and on the gulf is 7 feet, thick.
[2] There are nine uyezds in the province, and among its prominent
towns are Turinsk and Tiumen, on the Tura; Kurgan and Yalutorofsk on
the Tobol; Ishim, on the river of that name; and Tara, on the Irtish;
together with Surgut, Berezov, and Obdorsk, on the Lower Obi; whilst
the capital town of the government is Tobolsk. Hoppe’s Almanack for
1880 gives the population at 1,102,302, but the Almanack for 1878
gives a smaller number, which represents an earlier census, and is
mentioned here only for the purpose of giving the reader some idea of
the social position of the inhabitants, who in 1870 were classified
thus: hereditary nobles, 404; personally noble, 3,025; ecclesiastical
persons (which includes not only all grades of clergy, but also their
families), 3,045; a town population of 30,000, and a rural population
of 436,000. To this must be added a military force of 50,000, 25
foreigners, and an aboriginal and mixed population of 142,000; the
exact total of which then amounted to 666,800.
[3] We heard from other sources that for brandy these aborigines
will sell everything short of their souls, and even these would
appear sometimes to tremble in the balance, if the following story
be true:--A Russian priest, it seemed, intent upon adding sheep to
his fold, even though by very questionable means, sometimes gave
drink to the Samoyedes and Ostjaks, and, when they were in a muddled
condition, baptized them, put round their necks the cross, and thus
brought them into the fold of the orthodox Russian Church. On coming
to their senses they sometimes objected to what had been done, but,
like the recruit who took the Queen’s shilling, they were caught, and
the only way to escape was to bribe the priest to erase their names
from his register, and let them go. This was told us by a man who had
lived in the Samoyede country. The story presented such a _bathos_
of proselytizing zeal, that I asked particularly if it were really
true, and was answered in the affirmative. In the time of the Emperor
Nicholas, zealous missionary priests received honours and decorations
in proportion to the number of Pagans and Jews they baptized; but
this, I believe, is not the case now. I heard, further east, of other
questionable means taken by a priest to obtain proselytes from the
aborigines of the Amur. This, however, was done by one who, during my
stay in the town, publicly disgraced his cloth by intemperance. These
enormities, therefore, must be laid to the account, not of the Russian
Church, but to that of certain of its corrupt officials. They are
mentioned here on the principle that not only the truth but the whole
truth should be told; and, further, because I would fain not have to
allude to the subject when I come hereafter to record better things, as
I shall have to do, of the missionary efforts of the Russian Church in
Siberia.
[4] In 1824 a commencement was made to translate into Samoyede the
Gospel of St. Matthew, but it did not go on after 1826. The same gospel
was translated some years ago into the language of the Ostjaks by the
_protohierea_, or chief priest, at Obdorsk, and was forwarded to the
Russian Bible Society, but not published; and, up to the present time,
neither that nor any other part of the New Testament exists, as far as
I know for the Samoyedes, Ostjaks, or Voguls.--Dr. Latham mentions 11
dialects in the Samoyede language, and refers to the work of Professor
Castrén, who, about 30 years ago, studied closely the languages of the
Finnish and Samoyede nations, and to whose labours we owe dictionaries
of some of these tongues,--published after his death by Schiefner.
[5] The surprisingly small cost of provisions on the Obi will be
referred to hereafter; but some idea may be formed, for the purposes of
trade, of the cheapness of provisions, from the fact that a merchant
told me that in 1877 he bought up meat at Tobolsk for less than ½_d._
per English pound, and that, more recently, he sold for the Petersburg
market ten thousand brace of black grouse, capercailzie, and hazel
grouse at 9_d._ a pair all round. The cost for transporting from
Tiumen to Petersburg is as follows: heavy goods, going by land where
necessary, and floated on the rivers where possible, take 12 months
in transit, and cost about 5_s._ a cwt.; if, however, goods are sent
by road to Nijni Novgorod, and thence forwarded by rail, they take 2½
months in transit, and cost up to 12_s._ a cwt.; or, again, if goods
are sent “express”--that is, put into large sledges, carrying each from
a ton to a ton and a half, placed under charge of a man, and drawn by
three horses, to Nijni Novgorod, and thence by rail--the transport
costs 18_s._ a cwt. Notwithstanding this heavy cost of carriage,
however, the merchants at Tiumen can bring their fish from the mouth of
the Obi, forward it to Petersburg, sell the sturgeon at 24_s._, and the
_sterlet_, _nelma_, and _moksun_ at 30_s._ the cwt., and then secure a
handsome profit for everybody concerned.
[6] For further remarks on the commercial prospects of Western Siberia,
see Appendix D.
[7] There are two books written by scientific explorers of the basin
of the Obi, which it may be useful to mention for the sake of any who
wish to study this part of Siberia. One is that of Adolph Erman, who,
for the purpose of making magnetical observations, travelled in 1828
to Tobolsk, and then descended the river as far as Obdorsk; the second
is the German work of Dr. Otto Finsch, who, from Tiumen, ascended the
Irtish, in 1876, towards the Altai mountains, and then, turning north
to Barnaul and Tomsk, followed the Obi to its mouth. Another class
of books, written for the most part by returned exiles, throws more
or less light upon Western Siberia, such as “The Exile of Kotzebue,”
published in 1802, and “Revelations of Siberia,” by a banished lady,
who spent a short time on the Lower Obi at Beresov.