Occupied with the chase, with bartering, and with conversing with
their new friends, the summer gradually came around. The snow melted,
the hills became a series of cascades, in every direction water
poured toward the sea. But the hut remained solid and firm, a little
earth only being cast over the snow. Flocks of ducks and geese soon
appeared, a slight vegetation was visible, and the sea was in motion.
But what principally drew all eyes were the vast heaps of fossil ivory
exposed to view on the banks of the stream, laid bare more and more
every year by the torrents of spring. A few days sufficed to collect
a heap greater than they could take away on the sledges in a dozen
journeys. Ivan gazed at his treasure in mute despair. Were all that
at Yakoutsk, he was the richest merchant in Siberia; but to take it
thither seemed impossible. But in stepped the adventurous Tchouktchas.
They offered, for a stipulated sum in tobacco and other valuables, to
land a large portion of the ivory at a certain spot on the shores of
Siberia, by means of their boats. Ivan, though again surprised at the
daring of these wild men, accepted the proposal, and engaged to give
them his whole stock. The matter was then settled, and our adventurers
and their new friends dispersed to their summer avocations.
These consisted in fishing and hunting, and repairing boats and
sledges. Their canoes were made of skins and whalebone, and bits of
wood; but they were large, and capable of sustaining great weight.
They proposed to start as soon as the ice was broken up, and to brave
all the dangers of so fearful a navigation. They were used to impel
themselves along in every open space, and to take shelter on icebergs
from danger. When one of these icy mountains went in the right
direction, they stuck to it; but at others they paddled away, amid
dangers of which they seemed wholly unconscious.
A month was taken up in fishing, in drying the fish, or in putting
it in holes where there was eternal frost. An immense stock was laid
in: and then one morning the Tchouktchas took their departure, and
the adventurers remained alone. Their hut was broken up, and all made
ready for their second journey. The sledges were enlarged, to bear
the heaviest possible load at starting. A few days' overloading were
not minded, as the provisions would soon decrease. Still not half so
much could be taken as they wished, and yet Ivan had nearly a ton of
ivory, and thirty tons was the greatest produce of any one year in all
Siberia.
But the sledges were ready long before the sea was so. The interval
was spent in continued hunting, to prevent any consumption of the
traveling store. All were heartily tired, long before it was over,
of a day nearly as long as two English months. Soon the winter set in
with intense rigor; the sea ceased to toss and heave; the icebergs and
fields moved more and more slowly; at last ocean and land were blended
into one--the night of a month came, and the sun was seen no more.
The dogs were now roused up; the sledges harnessed; and the instant
the sea was firm enough to sustain them, the party started. Sakalar's
intention was to try forced marches in a straight line. Fortune
favored them. Not an accident occurred for days. At first they did not
move exactly in the same direction as when they came, but they soon
found traces of their previous journey, proving that a plain of ice
had been forced away at least fifty miles during the thaw.
The road was now again rugged and difficult, firing was getting
scarce, the dogs were devouring the fish with rapidity, and only one
half the ocean-journey was over. But on they pushed with desperate
energy, each eye once more keenly on the look-out for game. Every one
drove his team in sullen silence, for all were on short allowance, and
all were hungry. They sat on what was to them more valuable than gold,
and yet they had not what was necessary for subsistence. The dogs were
urged every day to the utmost limits of their strength. But so much
space had been taken up by the ivory, that at last there remained
neither food nor fuel. None knew at what distance they were from the
shore, and their position seemed desperate. There were even whispers
of killing some of the dogs; and Sakalar and Ivan were upbraided for
the avarice which had brought them to such straits.
"See!" said the old hunter suddenly, with a delighted smile, pointing
toward the south.
The whole party looked eagerly. A thick column of smoke rose in the
air at no very considerable distance. This was the signal agreed on
with the Tchouktchas, who were to camp where there was plenty of wood.
Every hand was raised to urge on the dogs to this point, and at last,
from the summit of a hill of ice they saw the shore and the blaze of
the fire. The wind was toward them, and the atmosphere heavy. The dogs
smelled the distant camp, and darted almost recklessly forward. At
last they sank near to the Tchouktcha huts, panting and exhausted.
Their allies of the spring were true; they gave them food, of
which both man and beast ate greedily, and then sought repose. The
Tchouktchas had then formed their journey with wonderful success and
rapidity, and had found time to lay in a pretty fair stock of fish.
This they freely shared with Ivan and his party, and were delighted
when he abandoned to them all his tobacco and rum, and part of his
tea.
The Tchouktchas had been four years absent in their wanderings, and
were eager to get home once more to the land of the reindeer, and to
their friends. They were perhaps the greatest travelers of a tribe
noted for its facility of locomotion. And so, with warm expressions
of esteem and friendship on both sides, the two parties separated--the
men of the east making their way on foot, toward the Straits of
Behring.
* * * * *