CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS--THEIR VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY
ALONG THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA.
Ivan the Terrible.--Strogonoff.--Yermak, the Robber and
Conqueror.--His Expeditions to Siberia.--Battle of Tobolsk.--
Yermak’s Death.--Progress of the Russians to Ochotsk.--Semen
Deshnew.--Condition of the Siberian Natives under the Russian
Yoke.--Voyages of Discovery in the Reign of the Empress Anna.--
Prontschischtschew.--Chariton and Demetrius Laptew.--An Arctic
Heroine.--Schalaurow.--Discoveries in the Sea of Bering and in
the Pacific Ocean.--The Lächow Islands.--Fossil Ivory.--New
Siberia.--The wooden Mountains.--The past Ages of Siberia.
In the beginning of the thirteenth century, the now huge Empire of
Russia was confined to part of her present European possessions, and
divided into several independent principalities, the scene of disunion
and almost perpetual warfare. Thus when the country was invaded, in
1236, by the Tartars, under Baaty Khan, a grandson of the famous Gengis
Khan, it fell an easy prey to its conquerors. The miseries of a foreign
yoke, aggravated by intestine discord, lasted about 250 years, until
Ivan Wasiljewitsch I. (1462–1505) became the deliverer of his country,
and laid the foundations of her future greatness. This able prince
subdued, in 1470, the _Great Novgorod_, a city until then so powerful
as to have maintained its independence, both against the Russian grand
princes and the Tartar khans; and, ten years later, he not only threw
off the yoke of the Khans of Khipsack, but destroyed their empire. The
conquest of Constantinople by the Turks placed the spiritual diadem of
the ancient Cæsars on his head, and caused him, as chief of the Greek
orthodox Church, to exchange his old title of Grand Prince for the more
significant and imposing one of Czar.
His grandson, Ivan Wasiljewitsch II., a cruel but energetic monarch,
conquered Kasan in 1552, and thus completely and permanently overthrew
the dominion of the Tartars. Two years later he subdued Astrakhan, and
planted the Greek cross on the borders of the Caspian Sea, where until
then only the Crescent had been seen.
In spite of the inhuman cruelty that disgraced his character,
and earned for him the name of _Terrible_, Ivan sought, like his
illustrious successor, Peter the Great, to introduce the arts and
sciences of Western Europe into his barbarous realm, and to improve the
Russian manufactures by encouraging German artists and mechanics to
settle in the country. It was in his reign that Chancellor discovered
the passage from England to the White Sea, and Ivan gladly seized the
opportunity thus afforded. Soon after this the port of Archangel was
built, and thus a new seat was opened to civilization at the northern
extremity of Europe.
After the conquest of Kasan, several Russians settled in that province;
among others, a merchant of the name of Strogonoff, who established
some salt-works on the banks of the Kama, and opened a trade with the
natives. Among these he noticed some strangers, and having heard that
they came from a country ruled by a Tartar Khan, who resided in a
capital called Sibir, he sent some of his people into their land. These
agents returned with the finest sable skins, which they had purchased
for a trifling sum; and Strogonoff, not so covetous as to wish to keep
all the advantage of his discovery to himself, immediately informed
the Government of the new trade he had opened. He was rewarded with
the gift of considerable estates at the confluence of the Kama and
Tschinsova, and his descendants, the Counts Strogonoff, are, as is well
known, reckoned among the richest of the Russian nobility.
Soon after Ivan sent some troops to Siberia, whose prince, Jediger,
acknowledged his supremacy, and promised to pay him an annual tribute
of a thousand sable skins. But this connection was not of long
duration, for a few years after Jediger was defeated by another Tartar
prince, named Kutchum Khan; and thus, after Russian influence had taken
the first step to establish itself beyond the Ural, it once more became
doubtful whether Northern Asia was to be Christian or Mohammedan. The
question was soon after decided by a fugitive robber.
The conquests of Ivan on the Caspian Sea had called into life a
considerable trade with Bokhara and Persia, which, however, was greatly
disturbed by the depredations of the Don Cossacks, who made it their
practice to plunder the caravans. But Ivan, not the man to be trifled
with by a horde of freebooters, immediately sent out a body of troops
against the Don Cossacks, who, not venturing to meet them, sought their
safety in flight. At the head of the fugitives, whose number amounted
to no less than 6000 men, was Yermak Timodajeff, a man who, like Cortez
or Pizarro, was destined to lay a new empire at the feet of his master.
But while the troops of the Czar were following his track, Yermak
was not yet dreaming of future conquests; his only aim was to escape
the executioner; and he considered himself extremely fortunate when,
leaving his pursuers far behind, he at length arrived on the estates
of Strogonoff. Here he was well received--better, no doubt, than if
he had come single-handed and defenseless; and Strogonoff having made
him acquainted with Siberian affairs, he at once resolved to try
his fortunes on this new scene of action. As the tyranny of Kutchum
Khan had rendered him odious to his subjects, he hoped it would be
an easy task to overthrow his power; the prospect of a rich booty of
sable skins was also extremely attractive; and, finally, there could
be no doubt that the greatest dangers were in his rear, and that any
choice was better than to fall into the hands of Ivan the Terrible.
Strogonoff, on his part, had excellent reasons for encouraging the
adventure. If it succeeded, a considerable part of the profits was
likely to fall to his share; if not, he at least was rid of his
unbidden guest.
Thus Yermak, in the summer of 1578, advanced with his Cossacks along
the banks of the Tschinsova into Siberia. But, either from a want
of knowledge of the country, or from not having taken the necessary
precautions, he was overtaken by winter before he could make any
progress; and when spring appeared, famine compelled him to return
to his old quarters, where, as may easily be imagined, his reception
was none of the most cordial. But, far from losing courage from this
first disappointment, Yermak was firmly resolved to persevere. He had
gained experience--his self-confidence was steeled by adversity; and
when Strogonoff attempted to refuse him further assistance, he pointed
to his Cossacks with the air of a man who has the means of enforcing
obedience to his orders. This time Yermak took better measures for
insuring success; he compelled Strogonoff to furnish him with an ample
supply of provisions and ammunition, and in the June of the following
year we again find him, with his faithful Cossacks, on the march to
Siberia. But such were the impediments which the pathless swamps and
forests, the severity of the climate, and the hostility of the natives
opposed to his progress, that towards the end of 1580 his force (now
reduced to 1500 men) had reached no farther than the banks of the Tara.
The subsequent advance of this little band was a constant succession of
hardships and skirmishes, which caused it to melt away like snow in the
sunshine; so that scarcely 500 remained when, at the confluence of the
Tobol and the Irtysch, they at length reached the camp of Kutchum Khan,
whose overwhelming numbers seemed to mock their audacity.
But Yermak felt as little fear at sight of the innumerable tents of the
Tartar host, as the wolf when meeting a herd of sheep. He knew that
his Cossacks, armed with their matchlocks, had long since disdained
to count their enemies, and, fully determined to conquer or to die,
he gave the order to attack. A dreadful battle ensued, for though the
Tartars only fought with their bows and arrows, yet they were no less
brave than their adversaries, and their vast superiority of numbers
made up for the inferior quality of their weapons. The struggle was
long doubtful--the Tartars repeating attack upon attack like the waves
of a storm-tide, and the Cossacks receiving their assaults as firmly
and immovably as rocks; until, finally, the hordes of Kutchum Khan gave
way to their stubborn obstinacy, and his camp and all its treasures
fell into the hands of the conquerors.
The subsequent conduct of Yermak proved that he had all the qualities
of a general and a statesman, and that his talents were not unequal to
his fortunes. Without losing a single moment, he, immediately after
this decisive battle, sent part of his small band to occupy the capital
of the vanquished Kutchum, for he well knew that a victory is but half
gained if one delays to reap its fruits. The Cossacks found the place
evacuated, and soon after Yermak made his triumphal entry into Sibir.
His weakness now became a source of strength, for, daunted by the
wonderful success of this handful of strangers, the people far and wide
came to render him homage. The Ostiaks of the Soswa freely consented
to yield an annual tribute of 280 sable skins, and other tribes of the
same nation, who were more backward in their submission, were compelled
by his menaces to pay him a tax, or _jassak_, of eleven skins for every
archer.
It was not without reason that Yermak thus sought to collect as many
of these valuable furs as he possibly could, for his aim was to obtain
from Ivan a pardon of his former delinquencies, by presenting him
with the richest spoils of his victories, and he well knew that it
would be impossible for him to maintain his conquests without further
assistance from the Czar. Great was Ivan’s astonishment when an envoy
of the fugitive robber brought him the welcome gift of 2400 sable
skins, and informed him that Yermak had added a new province to his
realm. He at once comprehended that the hero who with small means had
achieved such great successes, was the fittest man to consolidate or
enlarge his acquisitions; he consequently not only pardoned all his
former offenses, but confirmed him in the dignity of governor and
commander-in-chief in the countries which he had subdued. Thus Yermak’s
envoy, having been received with the greatest distinction at Moscow,
returned to his fortunate master with a robe of honor which had been
worn by the Czar himself, and the still more welcome intelligence that
re-enforcements were on the march to join him.
Meanwhile Yermak had continued to advance into the valley of the
Obi beyond its confluence with the Irtysch; and when at length his
force was augmented by the arrival of 500 Russians, he pursued his
expeditions with increasing audacity. On his return from one of these
forays, he encamped on a small island in the Irtysch. The night was
dark and rainy, and the Russians, fatigued by their march, relied
too much upon the badness of the weather or the terror of their
name. But Kutchum Khan, having been informed by his spies of their
want of vigilance, crossed a ford in the river, and falling upon the
unsuspecting Russians, killed them all except one single soldier,
who brought the fatal intelligence to Sibir. Yermak, when he saw his
warriors fall around him like grass before the scythe, without losing
his presence of mind for a moment, cut his way through the Tartars, and
endeavored to save himself in a boat. But in the medley he fell into
the water and was drowned.
By the orders of Kutchum, the body of the hero was exposed to every
indignity which the rage of a barbarian can think of; but after this
first explosion of impotent fury, his followers, feeling ashamed of
the ignoble conduct of their chief, buried his remains with princely
pomp, and ascribed miraculous powers to the grave in which they were
deposited. The Russians have also erected a monument to Yermak in the
town of Tobolsk, which was built on the very spot where he gained his
first decisive victory over Kutchum. It is inscribed with the dates
of that memorable event, and of the unfortunate day when he found his
death in the floods of the Irtysch. His real monument, however, is all
Siberia from the Ural to the Pacific; for as long as the Russian nation
continues to exist, it will remember the name of Yermak Timodajeff. The
value of the man became at once apparent after his death, for scarcely
had the news of the disaster arrived, when the Russians immediately
evacuated Sibir, and left the country. But they well knew that this
retreat was to be but temporary, and that the present ebb of their
fortunes would soon be followed by a fresh tide of success. After a
few years they once more returned, as the definitive masters of the
country. Their first settlement was Tjumen, on the Tara, and before
the end of 1587 Tobolsk was founded. They had, indeed, still many a
conflict with the Woguls and Tartars, but every effort of the natives
to shake off the yoke proved fruitless.
As gold had been the all-powerful magnet which led the Spaniards from
Hispaniola to Mexico and Peru, so a small fur-bearing animal (the
sable) attracted the Cossacks farther and farther to the east; and
although the possession of fire-arms gave them an immense advantage
over the wild inhabitants of Siberia, yet it is as astonishing with
what trifling means they subdued whole nations, and perhaps history
affords no other example of such a vast extent of territory having been
conquered by so small a number of adventurers.
As they advanced, small wooden forts (or _ostrogs_) were built in
suitable places, and became in their turn the starting-posts for new
expeditions. The following dates give the best proof of the uncommon
rapidity with which the tide of conquest rolled onward to the east.
Tomsk was founded in 1604; and the ostrog Jeniseisk, where the
neighboring nomads brought their sable skins to market, in 1621. The
snow-shoes of the Tunguse, which they sometimes saw ornamented with
this costly fur, induced the Cossacks to follow their hordes, of which
many had come from the middle and inferior Tunguska, and thus, in
1630, Wassiljew reached the banks of the Lena. In 1636 Jelissei Busa
was commissioned to ascend that mighty river, and to impose _jassak_
on all the natives of those quarters. He reached the western mouth
of the Lena, and after navigating the sea for twenty-four hours came
to the Olekma, which he ascended. In 1638 he discovered the Tana, on
whose banks he spent another winter; and in 1639, resuming his voyage
eastward by sea, he reached the Tchendoma, and wintering for two years
among the Jukahirs, made them also tributary to Russia.
In that same year another party of Cossacks crossed the Altai
Mountains, and, traversing forests and swamps, arrived at the coasts of
the inhospitable Sea of Ochotsk; while a third expedition discovered
the Amoor, and built a strong ostrog, called Albasin, on its left
bank. The report soon spread that the river rolled over gold-sand, and
colonists came flocking to the spot, both to collect these treasures,
and to enjoy the fruits of a milder climate and of a more fruitful
soil. But the Chinese destroyed the fort in 1680, and carried the
garrison prisoners to Peking.
Albasin was soon after rebuilt; but as Russia at that time had no
inclination to engage in constant quarrels with the Celestial Empire
about the possession of a remote desert, all its pretensions to
the Amoor were given up by the treaty of Nertschinsk (1689). This
agreement, however, like so many others, was doomed to last no longer
than it pleased the more powerful of the contracting parties to
keep it, and came to nothing as soon as the possession of the Amoor
territory became an object of importance, and the increasing weakness
of China was no longer able to dispute its possession. Thus, when
Count Nicholas Mourawieff was appointed Governor-general of Eastern
Siberia in 1847, one of his first cares was to appropriate or annex the
Amoor. He immediately sent a surveying expedition to the mouth of the
river, where, in 1851, regardless of the remonstrances of the Chinese
Government, he ordered the stations of Nicolayevsk and Mariinsk to be
built; and in 1854 he himself sailed down the Amoor, with a numerous
flotilla of boats and rafts, for the purpose of personally opening this
new channel of intercourse with the Pacific. Other expeditions soon
followed, and the Chinese, finding resistance hopeless, ceded to Russia
in the year 1858, by the treaty of Aigun, the left bank of the Amoor as
far as the influx of the Ussuri, and both its banks below the latter
river. Thus the Czar found some consolation for the losses of the
Crimean campaign in the acquisition of a vast territory in the distant
East, which, though at present a mere wilderness, may in time become a
flourishing colony.
[Illustration: 80. THE BEACH AT NICOLAYEVSK.]
In 1644, a few years after the discovery of the Amoor, the Cossack
Michael Staduchin formed a winter establishment on the delta of the
Kolyma, which has expanded into the town of Nishnei-Kolymsk, and
afterwards navigated the sea eastward to Cape Schelagskoi, which may be
considered as the north-eastern cape of Siberia.
[Illustration: 81. ON THE AMOOR.]
In 1648 Semen Deschnew sailed from the Kolyma with the intention of
reaching the Anadyr by sea, and by this remarkable voyage--which no
one else, either before or after him, has ever performed--_discovered_
and passed through the strait, which properly should bear his name,
instead of Bering’s, who, sailing from Kamchatka northward in 1728, did
not go beyond East Cape, being satisfied with the westerly trending
of the cape beyond the promontory. Some of Deschnew’s companions
subsequently reached Kamchatka, and were put to death by the people of
that peninsula, which was conquered, in 1699, by Atlassoff, a Cossack
officer who came from Jakutsk.
After having thus rapidly glanced at the progress of the Russian
dominion from the Ural to the Sea of Ochotsk, it may not be
uninteresting to inquire whether the natives had reason to bless the
arrival of their new masters, or to curse the day when they were first
made to understand the meaning of the word _jassak_, or tribute.
Unfortunately, history tells us that, while the conquerors of Siberia
were fully as bold and persevering as the companions of Cortez and
Pizarro, they also equalled them in avarice and cruelty. Under their
iron yoke whole nations, such as the Schelagi, Aniujili, and Omoki,
melted away; others, as the Woguls, Jukahires, Koriaks, and Itälmenes,
were reduced to a scanty remnant.
The history of the subjugation of the Itälmenes, or natives of
Kamchatka, as described by Steller, may suffice to show how the
Cossacks made and how they abused their conquests.
[Illustration: 82. VILLAGE ON THE AMOOR.]
When Atlassoff, with only sixteen men, came to the river of Kamchatka,
the Itälmene chieftain inquired, through a Koriak interpreter, what
they wanted, and whence they came; and received for answer that the
powerful sovereign, to whom the whole land belonged, had sent them to
levy the tribute which they owed him as his subjects. The chieftain was
naturally astonished at this information, and offering the strangers
a present of costly furs, he requested them to leave the country, and
not to repeat their visit. But the Cossacks thought proper to remain,
and built a small wooden fort, Verchnei Ostrog, whence they fell on the
neighboring villages, robbing or destroying all they could lay hands
upon. Exasperated by these acts, the Itälmenes resolved to attack the
fort; but as the wary Cossacks had kept up a friendly intercourse with
some of them, and had moreover ingratiated themselves with the women,
the plans of their enemies were always revealed to them in proper time,
and led to a still greater tyranny. At length the savages appeared
before the ostrog in such overwhelming numbers that the Cossacks began
to lose courage; yet by their superior tactics they finally managed
to gain a complete victory, and those who escaped their bullets were
either drowned or taken prisoners, and then put to death in the most
cruel manner.
[Illustration: 83. KORIAK YOURT.]
Convinced that a lasting security was impossible as long as the natives
retained their numbers, the Cossacks lost no opportunity of goading
them to revolt, and then butchering as many of them as they could.
Thus, in less than forty years, the Kamchatkans were reduced to a
twelfth part of their original numbers; and the Cossacks, having made a
solitude, called it peace.
In former times the nomads of the North used freely to wander with
their reindeer herds over the tundra, but after the conquest they were
loaded with taxes, and confined to certain districts. The consequence
was that their reindeer gradually perished, and that a great number of
wandering herdsmen were now compelled to adopt a fisherman’s life--a
change fatal to many.
It would, however, be unjust to accuse the Russian Government of having
willfully sought the ruin of the aboriginal tribes; on the contrary, it
has constantly endeavored to protect them against the exactions of the
Cossacks, and in order to secure their existence, has even granted them
the exclusive possession of the districts assigned to them. Thus the
Ostiaks and Samoïedes, the Koriaks and the Jakuts, have their own land,
their own rivers, forests, and tundri. But if it is a common saying in
European Russia “that heaven is high, and the Czar distant,” it may
easily be imagined that beyond the Ural the weak indigenous tribes
found the law but a very inefficient barrier against the rapacity of
their conquerors.
Thus, in spite of the Government, the _jassak_ was not unfrequently
raised, under various pretenses, to six or ten times its original
amount; and the natives were, besides, obliged to bring the best of
their produce, from considerable distances, to the ostrog.
Nor could the Government prevent the accumulation of usurious debts,
nor the leasing of the best pasturages or fishing-stations for a
trifling sum quite out of proportion to their value; so that the
natives no longer had the means of feeding their herds, and sank deeper
and deeper into poverty.
And if we consider, finally, of what elements Yermak’s band was
originally composed, we can easily conceive that, under such masters,
the lot of the Siberian natives was by no means to be envied.
* * * * *
The year 1734 opens a new epoch in the history of Siberian discoveries.
Until then they had been merely undertaken for purposes of traffic;
bold Cossacks and Promyschlenniki (or fur-hunters) had gradually
extended their excursions to the Sea of Bering; but now, for the first
time, scientific expeditions were sent out, for the more accurate
investigation of the northern coasts of Siberia.
Prontschischtschew, who sailed westward from the Lena to circumnavigate
the icy capes of Taimurland, was accompanied by his youthful wife, who
wintered with him at the Olenek, in 72° 54´ of latitude, and in the
following summer took part in his fruitless endeavors to double those
most northerly points of Asia. He died in consequence of the fatigues
he had to undergo, and a few days after she followed him to the grave.
A similar example of female devotion is not to be met with in the
annals of Arctic discovery.
After Prontschischtschew’s death, Lieutenant Chariton Laptew was
appointed to carry out the project in which the former had failed.
Having been repulsed by the drift-ice, he was obliged to winter on the
Chatanga (1739–40); but renewed the attempt in the following summer,
which however exposed him to still severer trials. The vessel was
wrecked in the ice; the crew reached the shore with difficulty, and
many of them perished from fatigue and famine before the rivers were
sufficiently frozen to enable the feeble survivors to return to their
former winter-station at Chatanga. Notwithstanding the hardships which
he and his party had endured, Laptew prosecuted the survey of the
promontory in the following spring.
Setting out with a sledge-party across the Tundra on April 24, 1741,
he reached Taimur Lake on the 30th; and following the Taimur River, as
it flows from the lake, ascertained its mouth to be situated in lat.
75° 36´ N. On August 29 he safely returned to Jeniseisk, after one of
the most difficult voyages ever performed by man. The resolution with
which he overcame difficulties, and his perseverance amid the severest
distresses, entitle him to a high rank among Arctic discoverers.
While Chariton Laptew was thus gaining distinction in the wilds
of Taimurland, his brother, Dimitri Laptew, was busy extending
geographical knowledge to the east of the Lena. He doubled the
_Sviatoi-noss_, wintered on the banks of the Indigirka, surveyed the
Bear Islands, passed a second winter on the borders of the Kolyma, and
in a fourth season extended his survey of the coast to the Baranow
Rock, which he vainly endeavored to double during two successive
summers. After having passed seven years on the coasts of the Polar
Ocean, he returned to Jakutsk in 1743.
Fourteen years later, Schalaurow, a merchant of Jakutsk, who sailed
from the Jana in a vessel built at his own expense, at length
succeeded in doubling the Baranow Rock, and proceeded eastward as
far as Cape Schelagskoi, which prevented his farther progress. After
twice wintering on the dreary Kolyma, he resolved, with admirable
perseverance, to make a third attempt, but his crew would no longer
follow him. From a second sea-journey, which he undertook in 1764 to
that cape, he did not return. “His unfortunate death is the more to be
lamented,” says Wrangell, “as he sacrificed his property and life to a
disinterested aim, and united intelligence and energy in a remarkable
degree.” On his map, the whole coast from the Jana to Cape Schelagskoi
is marked, with an accuracy which does him the greatest honor. In 1785
Billings and Sarytchew were equally unsuccessful in the endeavor to
sail round the cape which had defeated all Schalaurow’s endeavors; nor
has the voyage been accomplished to the present day.
[Illustration: 84. KAMCHATKA SABLES]
As the sable had gradually led the Russian fur-hunters to Kamchatka,
so the still more valuable sea-otter gave the chief impulse to the
discovery of the Aleutic chain and the opposite continent of America.
When Atlassow and his band arrived at Kamchatka by the end of the
seventeenth century, they found the sea-otter abounding on its coasts;
but the fur-hunters chased it so eagerly that, before the middle of the
eighteenth century, they had entirely extirpated it in that country.
On Bering’s second voyage of discovery (1741–42), it was again found
in considerable numbers. Tschirigow is said to have brought back 900
skins, and on Bering’s Island 700 sea-otters--whose skins, according
to present prices, would be worth about £20,000--were killed almost
without trouble. These facts, of course, encouraged the merchants of
Jakutsk and Irkutsk to undertake new expeditions.
Generally, several of them formed an association, which fitted out
some hardly seaworthy vessel at Ochotsk, where also the captain and
the crew, consisting of fur-hunters and other adventurers, were hired.
The expenses of such an expedition amounted to the considerable sum
of about 30,000 roubles, as pack-horses had to transport a great part
of the necessary outfit all the distance from Jakutsk, and the vessel
generally remained four or five years on the voyage. Passing through
one of the Kurile Straits, these expeditions sailed at first along the
east coast of Kamchatka, bartering sables and sea-otters for reindeer
skins and other articles; and as the precious furs became more rare,
ventured out farther into the Eastern Ocean. Thus Michael Nowodsikoff
discovered the Western Aleuts in 1745; Paikoff the Fox Islands in 1759;
Adrian Tolstych almost all the islands of the central group, which
still bear his name, in 1760; Stephen Glottoff the island of Kadiak in
1763, and Krenitzin the peninsula of Aljaska in 1768. When we consider
the scanty resources of these Russian navigators, the bad condition of
their miserable barks, their own imperfect nautical knowledge, and the
inhospitable nature of the seas which they traversed, we can not but
admire their intrepidity.
In the Polar Sea there are neither sables nor otters, and thus the
islands lying to the north of Siberia might have remained unknown
till the present day, if the search after mammoth-teeth had not, in a
similar manner, led to their discovery.
In March, 1770, while a merchant of the name of Lächow was busy
collecting fossil ivory about Cape Sviatoinoss, he saw a large herd of
deer coming over the ice from the north. Resolute and courageous, he
at once resolved to follow their tracks, and after a sledge-journey
of seventy versts, he came to an island, and twenty versts farther
reached a second island, at which, owing to the roughness of the ice,
his excursion terminated. He saw enough, however, of the richness of
the two islands in mammoth-teeth, to show him that another visit would
be a valuable speculation; and on making his report to the Russian
Government, he obtained an exclusive privilege to dig for mammoth-bones
on the islands which he had discovered, and to which his name had been
given. In the summer of 1773 he consequently returned, and ascertained
the existence of a third island, much larger than the others,
mountainous, and having its coasts covered with drift-wood. He then
went back to the first island, wintered there, and returned to Ustjansk
in spring with a valuable cargo of mammoth-tusks.
There hardly exists a more remarkable article of commerce than these
remains of an extinct animal. In North Siberia, along the Obi, the
Jenissei, the Lena, and their tributaries, from lat. 58° to 70°, or
along the shores of the Polar Ocean as far as the American side of
Bering Strait, the remains of a species of elephant are found imbedded
in the frozen soil, or become exposed, by the annual thawing and
crumbling of the river-banks. Dozens of tusks are frequently found
together, but the most astonishing deposit of mammoth-bones occurs in
the Lächow Islands, where, in some localities, they are accumulated
in such quantities as to form the chief substance of the soil. Year
after year the tusk-hunters work every summer at the cliffs, without
producing any sensible diminution of the stock. The solidly-frozen
matrix in which the bones lie thaws to a certain extent annually,
allowing the tusks to drop out or to be quarried. In 1821, 20,000 lbs.
of the fossil ivory were procured from the island of New Siberia.
The ice in which the mammoth remains are imbedded sometimes preserves
their entire bodies, in spite of the countless ages which must have
elapsed since they walked on earth. In 1799 the carcass of a mammoth
was discovered so fresh that the dogs ate the flesh for two summers.
The skeleton is preserved at St. Petersburg, and specimens of the
woolly hair--proving that the climate of Siberia, though then no doubt
much milder than at present, still required the protection of a warm
and shaggy coat--were presented to the chief museums of Europe.
The remains of a rhinoceros, very similar to the Indian species, are
likewise found in great numbers along the shores, or on the steep
and sandy river-banks of Northern Siberia, along with those of fossil
species of the horse, the musk-ox, and the bison, which have now
totally forsaken the Arctic wilds.
The Archipelago of New Siberia, situated to the north of the Lächow
Islands, was discovered by Sirowatsky in 1806, and since then
scientifically explored by Hedenström in 1808, and Anjou in 1823.
These islands are remarkable no less for the numerous bones of horses,
buffaloes, oxen, and sheep scattered over their desolate shores, than
for the vast quantities of fossil-wood imbedded in their soil. The
hills, which rise to a considerable altitude, consist of horizontal
beds of sandstone, alternating with bituminous beams or trunks of
trees. On ascending them, fossilized charcoal is everywhere met with,
incrusted with an ash-colored matter, which is so hard that it can
scarcely be scraped off with a knife. On the summit there is a long
row of beams resembling the former, but fixed perpendicularly in the
sandstone. The ends, which project from seven to ten inches, are for
the most part broken, and the whole has the appearance of a ruinous
dike. Thus a robust forest vegetation once flourished where now only
hardy lichens can be seen; and many herbivorous animals feasted on
grasses where now the reindeer finds but a scanty supply of moss, and
the polar bear is the sole lord of the dreary waste.
[Illustration: 85. TARTAR ENCAMPMENT.]