HUNTING.
At the end of a fortnight one of the Ostjaks started with the large
sledge for the huts, taking with him all the skins that had been
collected. These had mounted up to a considerable number, the Ostjaks
considering their luck to have been extraordinary, and putting it down
in a great degree to their white companion, for whom they began to have
an almost superstitious respect, since the way he had supplied their
village with food for the winter seemed to them almost miraculous. The
reindeer with the light sledge would accomplish the return journey in
two days with ease, although the distance had taken them five days on
their way out. It was to return with a fresh supply of provisions,
especially for the dogs. The night after the sledge had left, the dogs
barked fiercely for some time. They slept in the tent. Some of the
Ostjaks made pillows of them, others allowed them to lie upon them, and
they helped to keep the tent warm; the din when they began barking was
prodigious.
"What is it all about?" Godfrey shouted in Luka's ear.
"I think it must be a bear," Luka shouted back.
"Why don't they let the dogs out?"
"They would drive the bears away, and it is too dark to see to shoot
them. In the morning they will follow their track."
The dogs presently ceased barking and with low growls lay down again. As
soon as it was light the Ostjaks turned out and found great footmarks
round the tent. Before starting from the huts Godfrey had exchanged the
heads of their fishing-spears for the iron spear-heads they had
purchased. Loading his gun with ball, Godfrey with Luka and four of the
Ostjaks started in pursuit, taking six of the dogs, and a sledge, with
them. On his long runners he would soon have left the Ostjaks behind;
but Luka translated their warning that they must all keep together, for
as there were two bears it would be dangerous to attack them in lesser
numbers.
In about an hour they arrived at a dense thicket, and it was evident
that this was the lair of the bears until they took up their permanent
winter quarters in a hollow tree. The dogs were urged to attack them,
but could not be persuaded to enter far, confining themselves to barking
fiercely. "How are we going to get at them?" Godfrey asked.
The Ostjaks consulted together, and then they collected some dry pine
needles and twigs, and two of them went to the windward side of the
thicket and made a fire, upon which, as soon as it was fairly alight,
they threw some dead leaves mixed with snow.
"If they were to light the bushes themselves, it would drive them out
quicker than that smoke," Godfrey said.
"Not good, not good," Luka said earnestly. "Once catch fire, big flame
run through forest, burn miles and miles."
"I did not think of that," Godfrey said. "That would be a foolish
trick."
However, the smoke had the desired effect, and in a minute or two, two
bears burst out on the other side, growling angrily. The dogs rushed at
them, barking loudly but taking care to keep at a safe distance from
their paws. The bears both raised themselves on their haunches. The
Ostjak bows twanged and Godfrey fired. One of the bears rolled over, the
other charged at his assailants. Godfrey fired his second barrel, then
dropping his gun and grasping his spear, stood ready to meet the charge.
But the bear did not reach him, for as it rose on its hind-legs the
Ostjaks and Luka again shot their arrows, and the bear rolled over dead.
The two animals were placed on the sledge, the reindeer harnessed, and,
the Ostjaks taking ropes to aid it with its heavy burden, they returned
to the tent.
They had scarcely reached it when one of the other hunters returned with
news that they had come upon the track of an elk. The bears were at once
dragged into the tent, the entrance securely fastened to prevent a
passing wolf or ounce from tearing them; then, taking with them this
time all the dogs and the three sledges, they started, and in half an
hour came to where the chief and his remaining followers were awaiting
them.
"They came along here yesterday afternoon," the chief said to Luka.
"There is one big stag, and one young one, and three females."
After three hours' walking they came to a spot where the snow was much
trampled, and there were marks of animals having lain down.
"That is where they slept," the chief said. "They are travelling south,
but they will probably stop to feed before they have gone far; we may
catch them then." He ordered one of the men to stop with the sledges,
and the rest proceeded onwards.
[Illustration: GODFREY BRINGS DOWN AN ELK.]
Not a word was spoken now, and as they went they took the greatest pains
not to brush against any branch or twig.
The Ostjaks were now walking their fastest, and Godfrey had to exert
himself to keep up with them. Their footfall was so light as to be
scarce audible. After two hours' travelling they saw an opening among
the trees, and here some young pines were growing thickly. The chief
pointed significantly towards them, and Godfrey understood that the
animals would probably be feeding there. They now went slowly, and the
chief whispered orders that they were to make a circle round the opening
and close round on the other side as noiselessly as possible. He himself
would enter the thicket from the side on which he now was. The crackling
of the pine twigs would drive them out on the other side. Very quietly
they worked round and took up their stations, each standing behind a
fir-tree, and then waited.
They could hear the stamping of heavy hoofs and the occasional breaking
of twigs. Presently there was a louder and more continuous sound of
breaking bushes, and then with a sudden rush a great elk, followed by
four others, burst out of the thicket. As they came along the Ostjaks
stepped out from their hiding-places and let fly their deadly arrows.
The leading elk came close to the tree behind which Godfrey was
standing, and as it passed he fired both barrels, hitting it just behind
the shoulder. The elk ran a few paces and then fell. Three out of the
other four had been brought down by the Ostjak arrows; the young male
escaped. The satisfaction of the Ostjaks was great; for here, in
addition to the value of the skins, was food for themselves and the dogs
for some time to come.
A man was at once sent back for the sledges. While waiting for these the
rest set out on various tracks of ermine they had passed on the way, and
three of these and a marten were killed before the sledges came up. The
big elk was placed on one sledge, one of the females on each of the
others. The fourth was skinned, cut up, and divided among the three
sledges. Lightly as the sledges ran over the snow the men were all
obliged to harness themselves to ropes to assist the deer, and it was
late in the evening before they arrived at the hut. The fire was lighted
at once. Godfrey undertook the cooking, while the rest skinned the bears
and elk, cut them up, and hung up the carcasses on boughs beyond the
reach of the dogs. These had a grand feast off the offal while the men
were regaling themselves with fresh elk steaks.
For two months the hunting was continued with much success, then the
Ostjaks said they would return home. Godfrey, however, was anxious to
continue hunting; he had a small tent that had been made for him and
Luka, and the Ostjak leader offered to leave one of the sledges with six
dogs that had been trained to draught work. As soon as the Ostjaks had
started on their return journey the tent, a store of provisions and
furs, were packed in the sledge, and a fresh start made, as they had
been in their present position for over a week. As they went along two
of the poles were arranged so that they made a deep groove in the snow,
by which they could find their way back to the starting-point. Two days'
journey took them into a hilly country. They established themselves in a
sheltered valley, and made that the centre from which they hunted.
They were now twelve days' journey from the Yenesei and well beyond the
range of ordinary hunting parties. They had soon reason to congratulate
themselves on entering the more mountainous country, for here the game
was much more abundant than it had been before. The dogs had by this
time become attached to them, for Godfrey was fond of animals, and had
petted them in a manner to which they were quite unaccustomed from their
Ostjak masters. One of them especially, a young dog, had taken regularly
to accompany Godfrey when hunting, and he found the animal of the
greatest utility, as it was able to follow the back track with
undeviating certainty. This was of importance, for there was but a short
twilight each twenty-four hours, the sun being below the horizon except
for an hour or two at noon, and they were obliged to carry torches while
following the tracks of the smaller animals.
Ermines were found in considerable numbers, and in the first week four
fine sables were killed, as well as two martens and a bear; the latter
was specially prized. They had brought a fortnight's provisions for
themselves and the dogs, but they were anxious to eke these stores out
as long as possible, as they could no longer depend upon getting fresh
supplies from home. The bodies of the ermines were but a mouthful for
one of the dogs, while the sables and martens gave them a mouthful all
round. The bear, however, contained a large quantity of excellent food,
and setting aside the hams for their own consumption they hung up the
rest of the meat on a tree to serve out gradually among the dogs. They
soon found, however, that they need be under no anxiety as to food, as
foxes abounded, principally red, though two of the valuable black foxes
fell to Godfrey's gun. They found many paths in the woods completely
trodden down by animals. Here they used the Ostjak method of catching
them: putting up a screen of branches across the track. Looking at these
objects with suspicion, the animals invariably refused to try either to
jump over or crawl through them, but went round at one end or the other.
Here accordingly traps were fixed and many animals were taken.
Intense as the cold was Godfrey felt it even less than he had
anticipated. The wide-spreading woods broke the force of the winds, and
while they could sometimes see the tops of the trees swaying beneath its
force they scarcely felt a breath below. Luka knew nothing of the
Esquimaux fashion of making snow-huts, and said he had never heard of it
among the Ostjaks or Samoyedes. At each of the halts, however, Godfrey
piled the snow high over the low tent of reindeer-skin which he had got
the women to make for him according to his own plan. It resembled a tent
_d'abri_, or shelter tent, seven feet long and as much wide, was
permanently closed at one end, and had flaps crossing each other at the
entrance. Instead of depending entirely upon the two uprights and the
ridge-pole between them, Godfrey when erecting it put eight or ten poles
on each side, stretching from the ridge out to the side of the tent, so
as to support the skin under the snow they piled over it.
The bottom was covered with a thick mat of furs, the sides were lined
with them, and others were hung across the entrance, so that the cold
was effectually kept out. A large fire was kept burning in front of the
tent, and from this, from time to time, red embers were taken out and
placed in a cooking-pot inside. At night two or three lamps, fed by oil
melted down from the fat of the animals they killed, were kept alight,
and in this way lying snugly in their sleeping-bags they felt perfectly
warm and comfortable, although the temperature outside was from forty to
fifty degrees below zero. The dogs slept outside, with the exception of
the one of which Godfrey had made a special pet, it being allowed to
share the tent with them. A high bank of snow was erected on each side
of the entrance to the tent. This served further to break the force of
the wind and to retain and reflect back the heat of the fire. The dogs
therefore, being provided with a good supply of meat from the proceeds
of the chase, did very well.
One afternoon the sky was very thick and overcast, and Luka said he
thought that they were going to have snow.
"In that case, Luka," Godfrey said, "we will set to work to make things
comfortable. If there is a heavy fall we might be almost buried here.
Ordinarily it is sheltered, but if there is a wind, and I can see that
it is blowing now, it might drift very deep in this hollow, and we might
find ourselves completely snowed up. I think the tent is strong enough
to stand any pressure, but it does not contain much air. We will cut
down some strong poles and lay them side by side across the snow walls
in front of the tent. The smoke will find its way out through them, and
if a deep snow comes on it will save the dogs from being snowed up;
besides, it will give us a lot of additional air, which we may want. Two
or three hours will do it. The time won't be thrown away anyhow, for the
branches we cut off and the poles themselves will do for firewood."
The snow-flakes began to fall just as they finished the work--the result
being a sort of flat-roofed shelter with snow walls ten feet long and
six feet high, in front of the tent. A large quantity of firewood was
piled up at the entrance to the shelter.
"That is a capital idea, Luka," Godfrey said as they retired into the
tent. "We can sit with the entrance of the tent open now if we like and
get the benefit of the fire outside, for the air having to pass close by
it on its way to us gets comparatively warm."
When they went out to build up the fire for the last time before lying
down, snow was falling steadily, and was already deep in front of the
entrance to the shelter. The dogs had been well fed and lay thickly
clustered round the fire, evidently greatly contented with the unusual
luxury of a roof over them. Godfrey crawled into the tent again, closed
the flaps, hung up a skin before them, and getting into his
sleeping-bag lay there comfortably smoking his pipe and talking to Luka.
"We are as snug here as if we were in a palace, Luka; but I should not
like to be caught out in the woods to-night. Have you ever heard of any
of the Ostjaks or Samoyedes being frozen to death?"
"Couldn't be frozen if they had a hatchet and matches with them," he
replied. "Can always chop down branches and make a hut and a fire in the
middle to keep it warm. Then snow comes and covers it up and keeps out
the wind. Out on the plains a man might get frozen if stupid, but he
ought never to be if he knew what to do. He should look for a hollow
where the snow had drifted deep, then make a hole in the side of the
drift and crawl in. He ought to be quite warm there if furs are good.
But they do not often get lost; they never go very far from huts when
snow in the sky. Directly it comes on they would make for home. Can
always get along in snow-shoes."
"The Isvostchiks are often frozen in St. Petersburg in their sledges at
night," Godfrey said.
"They can't build huts in a town," Luka remarked; "they can't find snow
deep enough to get into; town not good in winter."
"Are there many wolves here, Luka? Do they often attack people?"
"No, there is plenty of game in the woods. In Russia the game now, so I
hear, is scarce, so the wolves must take to eating men; but here there
is plenty of game, and so they do not often attack people. I have heard
of hunters going out and never coming back again. Then people say wolves
eat them, but not often so. May be killed by elk, or hurt by a falling
tree, or climb hills and fall down. I do not think it is often the
wolves. Wolves great cowards."
"I am glad to hear it, Luka: I have heard them howl sometimes at night
and wondered whether they would come this way."
"Not come here," Luka said decidedly, "we keep plenty of big fire. All
beasts afraid of fire. Then we have got dogs and guns. Much easier for
wolves to attack elk; but even that they seldom do unless it is wounded
or has injured itself."
"Well, I think I will go off to sleep; my pipe is out and the hot tea
has made me sleepy."
After sleeping for some hours, Godfrey awoke with a strange feeling of
oppression. Outside he could hear the dogs whimpering.
"Wake up, Luka," he said, "it is very close in here. I fancy the snow
must have drifted very deep and covered us up completely. Let us get up
and see about it."
It was quite dark outside, except that the embers of the fire threw a
dull red light on the snow. The shelter seemed but half its former
dimensions. The snow had drifted in at its entrance and lay in a bank
piled up to the roof.
"Bring your spear, Luka, and mine, and shove them up between these
poles. We must make a few holes up through the snow if we can to let a
little air in."
The spears were pushed up and then worked a little to and fro to try to
enlarge the hole. They were eight feet long, but Godfrey did not feel at
all sure that they penetrated through the cover of snow. However, when
they had made a dozen of these holes there was a distinct change in the
air.
"They have gone nearly through, if not quite, and anyhow they are near
enough to the surface for the air to find its way out. Now we had better
set to work at once to dig a passage out. That is one advantage of this
shelter, there is a place to throw the snow back into."
Going down on their hands and knees they soon scraped the snow away
until they reached the entrance to the shelter. Here the snow weighted
by the pressure above was much denser and harder, and they could cut out
blocks with their hatchets.
"Now," Godfrey said, "we must make a tunnel sloping upwards. It must be
as steep as it can so that we are able to climb up, making steps to give
us foothold. I will begin, for we only just want it wide enough for one.
I will hand the blocks down to you as I cut them, and you pile them
regularly along the sides here. As we fill the shelter up you must drive
the dogs back into the tent. We shall want every inch of room for the
snow before we get out."
For hours they worked steadily, taking it by turns to cut and to pile.
The last four feet were much more difficult than the first, the snow,
being lighter and less packed, falling in upon them as they dug. Once
Luka was completely buried, and Godfrey had to haul him back by the
legs. The atmosphere inside, however, improved as they got upwards,
being able to penetrate between the particles of the light snow. It was
six hours before they both struggled out, followed by the dogs in an
impetuous rush. It took them another couple of hours to clear away and
beat down the snow sufficiently to make an easy entrance to the shelter.
A fire was lighted outside and a meal cooked, for the lamps were quite
sufficient to keep the tent sufficiently warm, and they would have been
well-nigh stifled with smoke had they attempted to light the fire in the
shelter. The snow was still falling and drifting, and the sky showed no
signs of change.
"The entrance will fill up again by to-morrow," Luka said, "and we shall
have more trouble than ever to get out."
"We must provide against that, Luka; we must build a sort of roof over
the entrance here, and then we shall only have to start from this point
again. Let us set to work and chop down some poles at once."
After three hours' more work a cover was built over the entrance, and
roofed with pine branches so as to prevent the snow from drifting in.
"Now, Luka, there is one more job, and unfortunately a long one, but we
must do that. We must get the snow that we have packed in the shelter
below out of the way, for if by any chance this passage fell through, we
should have nowhere to pile the snow; besides, we may have another
passage as deep as the present one to dig to-morrow, for the snow is
drifting down in clouds. It has deepened a couple of feet since we began
to make the roof over the entrance."
Luka, who was always ready to work, set to cheerfully, but the short
twilight had faded into deep darkness before the work was completed.
"If we had had a couple of good shovels with us, Luka, we should have
made short work of this," Godfrey said as they retired below into their
tent. "We could do as much work in an hour as one can in five with these
tools. It is heart-breaking to shovel out snow with a hatchet. I am as
tired as a dog. This is harder work than the gold-mines at Kara by a
long way."
"Yes," Luka said, "but there is no man with a gun."
"No, that makes a difference, Luka, this is free work and the other
isn't; not that one can call it exactly free when we have no choice but
to do it."
For another four days the snow continued to fall; but as the wind had
dropped, and the snow no longer drifted, their work each morning was
comparatively easy.
"I wish it would stop," Godfrey said, "for we begin to want food for the
dogs; our stock of dried fish has been exhausted since we were shut up.
There is half a deer hanging to a branch of that tree close to the tent,
but it is eight or ten feet below the snow, and as we can't calculate
the exact position now it would be a big job to try to get at it." There
was, however, no change in the aspect of the weather on the following
morning, and Luka announced that beyond the tea and a handful or two of
flour there was nothing whatever for breakfast, while the dogs had
fasted on the previous day.
"Well, Luka, there is nothing to do but to try and get at that venison.
I have been thinking that it will be easiest to try from below; it is
much quicker work chopping out the solid snow than it is trying to make
a hole in that loose stuff at the surface. The tree was just about in a
line with the front of the tent, wasn't it? and we hung the deer on a
branch that stretched out nearly as far as the tent. I should say we
hung it about half-way along that branch and not above twelve feet from
the tent."
Luka agreed as to the position.
"Very well, then, as we know exactly the direction, and as the distance
is but twelve feet, it ought not to take us very long to chop out a
passage just big enough and high enough for one to crawl through. When
we get near the place where we think it is, we must make the tunnel a
good bit higher, for the bottom of the meat was quite five feet from the
ground so that it should be well out of reach of the dogs. Now, will you
go first or shall I?"
"I will begin," Luka said. "We must make the passage wide enough to push
the snow past us as we get it down."
"Certainly we must, Luka. Make it pretty wide at the bottom, and make
the top arched so as to stand the pressure from above."
It was easy enough work at first, but became more difficult every foot
they advanced, as the one behind had to crawl backward each time with
the snow that the one at work passed back to him. At last the tunnel was
driven twelve feet long, and the last four feet it had been given an
upward direction, by which means less snow had to be removed than would
have been the case had the bottom remained level with the ground and the
height been increased.
"We are a good twelve feet in now, Luka, and certainly high enough.
Which way do you think we had better try?"
Luka replied by calling one of the dogs and taking it with him to the
end of the tunnel. The animal at once began to snuff about eagerly, and
then to scratch violently to the right.
"That will do," Luka said, pushing it back past him and taking its
place. He had driven but a foot in the direction in which the dog was
scratching when the hatchet struck something hard. It required some care
to dig round the meat and make a hole large enough for Luka to stand up
beside it and cut the cord by which it hung. The dogs yelped with joy
when he dragged it back to the other end of the passage. The fire was
made now in the passage under the roof they had made at the end of the
first day's work, for outside the snow fell so fast that it damped the
fire greatly, and as the smoke made its way out through the entrance it
was no inconvenience to them below. A good-sized piece of raw meat was
chopped off and given to each of the dogs. The ramrod was thrust through
another large piece and held by Luka over the fire, and then Godfrey
carried the rest of the joint outside and placed it in the fork of a
tree.
"It smells good, Luka," he said as he returned to the fire; "I wish it
would attract a bear."
Luka shook his head. "Bears are asleep, Godfrey; they are hunted in
summer, and sometimes they may be found in the early part of the winter,
but never when the snow is deep; they would die of hunger. There might
be wolves, but we don't want them. Wolf skins fetch very little, and
their flesh is only good for the dogs; we don't want wolves, but we must
be on our guard. In such weather as this food is very scarce. They
might come and attack us. Yesterday I heard howls once or twice. I think
when we have done breakfast it will be better to take that meat down
below."
"Why, they wouldn't smell it as much as this cooked meat, Luka."
"No, I was not thinking of that, but if they come we may want it."
"You mean they might besiege us, Luka?"
"Yes, shut us up here. Wolves very patient; wait a long time when they
scent food."
"Well, we will have the dogs sleep up here for the future. They will act
as sentries, and there is none too much air down there. That reminds me,
I will cut a long pole or two, fasten them together, and try and drive
them down through the snow to the roof of the shelter below."
Luka shook his head. "You might drive it down five or six feet, but you
would never get it down to the roof, and if you did you could never pull
it up again."
"I don't know, Luka. I once saw them driving down some bars in tough
clay when they were making a railway cutting at home. I think we might
do it in the same way."
Godfrey after breakfast cut a pole, chopping it off just below where two
or three small branches had shot from it, leaving a bulge. This bulge he
shaped and smoothed very carefully with his knife, so that it was in the
form of a peg-top.
"There," he said. "You see it is thicker here than it is anywhere else,
so that the hole it makes will be a little larger than the pole itself,
and instead of the snow holding the pole all the way down it will touch
it only on this shoulder."
This succeeded admirably. It was six feet long. They had cleared away
the loose snow to a depth of eighteen inches, and both holding it were
able to force the pole down as much more; then they hammered it with a
billet of wood until only a foot showed; then they spliced another to
it, and working it up and down jumped it in until they could again use
the mallet, and at last struck on something solid, which could only be
one of the beams forming the roof of the hut. Godfrey went below, and
soon discovered the spot where the pole came down, and with his knife
managed to clear away the snow round it. Then he went up and assisted
Luka to withdraw the pole, which left a hole of about three inches in
diameter.
"That is a capital chimney," he said. "Now we will throw a few fir
branches over it, to prevent the dogs treading here and shutting it up.
I think the air looks rather lighter, Luka, and that the storm is nearly
over. There is a howl again. I am afraid that we are going to have
trouble with the wolves. Is there anything we can do?"
Luka shook his head. "We might get up into trees," he said. "We should
be safe there, but then we should lose the dogs."
"That would never do, Luka; we should have to haul the sledge back a
hundred and fifty miles. No, I'll tell you what we will do: we will cut
down some young trees and block up our tunnel with beams, leaving three
or four inches between each to fire through or use our spears."
"That is a very good plan," Luka said. "We should be quite safe then."
It took them some hours' work to carry out the idea. The middle of the
tunnel was closed by a row of pointed stakes, some four inches in
diameter, driven deep into the snow and reaching up to the roof of the
shelter. An opening of a foot wide was left in the middle, another stake
being placed beside it in readiness to fill it up if required. The
operation was completed by the light of the fire, as it was pitch dark
by the time it was done. Then another meal was cooked and eaten, and the
brands carried below, where, at the bottom of the descent, the fire was
now kindled. The dogs had for some time been growling angrily in the
upper passage, and the fire was no sooner alight below than they broke
into a chorus of fierce barking.
"We had better bring them down here, Luka, and fill up the opening. I
think the wolves must be gathering in numbers."
Going up again they sent the dogs down, firmly lashed two cross-bars to
the others, and to these lashed the pole they had left in readiness,
thus completing the grating across the tunnel. As they worked the smoke
from the fire below curled up round them. A few months before Godfrey
would have found it almost insupportable, but by this time he had, like
the natives, become so accustomed to it that it affected him very
little. Still he said to Luka: "You had better break off the hot ends of
the sticks so as to have a red fire only for the present, the smoke
makes my eyes water so that I can scarcely see. Now the sooner those
fellows come to get their first lesson the better."
Kneeling by the grating, with his gun in his hand and his spear beside
him, Godfrey gazed out, and could presently distinguish the outline of a
number of moving figures.
"I can see their eyes at the entrance," he said. "Shall I give them a
shot, or will you send an arrow into them?"
"You fire," Luka replied. "Bow makes no noise, gun will frighten them;
besides, I have only twenty arrows and they would get broken. Better
keep them till there is need."
Godfrey levelled his gun, which was charged with buck-shot, and fired
both barrels. Terrific yells and howls followed, and the opening was
clear in a moment, though Godfrey could see two or three dark figures on
the snow. There was a sound of whimpering and snarling, and then of a
fierce fight outside.
[Illustration: THE SLAUGHTERED WOLVES.]
"They are killing and eating the wounded," Luka said; "when they have
done that they will come again. Let them get close up next time."
In a few minutes the entrance to the tunnel was darkened again, and then
cleared. The dead wolves had been pulled away. Another quarter of an
hour and the animals reappeared. As all was silent they gradually
approached. Godfrey could hear their panting, and presently heard a
noise against the bars. A moment later there was a rush and an outburst
of snarling growls, then he and Luka drove their spears again and again
between the bars, yells of pain following each stroke. The animals in
front were unable to retreat, and the others behind crowded in upon
them, maddened with the smell of blood, and all trying to get first at
their prey. They quarrelled and fought among themselves, while their
cries and growls were answered by the furious barking of the dogs in the
shelter below.
In two or three minutes Godfrey, who had reloaded his gun, fired both
barrels into the mass, and at the flash and sound the wolves again fled.
This time they did not venture to re-enter the passage. Occasionally one
showed itself, and was instantly shot by Godfrey or Luka, who took turns
on watch throughout the night. As soon as the dim light broke they
removed the bar and issued out with the dogs. A dozen wolves lay dead
outside the bars, seven were scattered round the entrance. Godfrey shot
two more who were lurking under the trees, while Luka sent an arrow
through another.
"There are plenty of them about still," Godfrey said. "Let us get three
or four of the dead ones upon a branch out of their reach as food for
the dogs, drag the rest away from the entrance to the tunnel, and bring
the others up from below. That will give them, with the three we have
shot now, enough for a big meal. Then I should think they would move
off."
This was accordingly done, and they went below and cooked breakfast,
while the dogs feasted on a dead wolf. Then they lay down for three
hours' sleep. When they went up again the dead wolves had disappeared,
only a few bones and the blood-marked snow showing where they had lain.
Godfrey fired a couple of shots to scare away any that might be
lingering in the neighbourhood, and then replacing the bars they went
out hunting, and from that time heard no farther of the wolves.
They continued their hunting, shifting their camp occasionally until it
was time to rejoin the Ostjaks, and then travelled east. They struck the
river some thirty miles below the camp, crossed at once and travelled up
the other side until they arrived at the huts. They were heartily
welcomed by the natives, and remained there for three days to rest the
dogs. They were very glad of getting a supply of fish again. These the
Ostjaks had in abundance, as they kept their frozen piles for food when
the keenness of the wind rendered the cold so bitter that they were
forced to remain in their huts. At other times they fished by
torch-light at holes that they kept broken in the ice, spearing the
fish, which were attracted by the light. The Ostjaks were surprised at
the large number of skins, some of them of the most valuable kind, that
Godfrey had brought back, and were impatient for a fresh start. They
were this time absent for only six weeks, returning at the beginning of
May. The hunt was marked by no adventure. They did fairly well, but were
not fortunate in securing any skins of the black fox and but few of the
sable.
Upon their return the furs that had been taken during the two hunts with
the Ostjaks were fairly divided, and Godfrey added his and Luka's
shares to those they had themselves obtained. There were over fifty in
all, including three black foxes, six sables, and ten martens, the rest
being of inferior value. Then a list was made of the necessaries that
Luka was to purchase at Turukhansk. These included ten pounds of brick
tea, some copper nails if he could obtain them, a store of ammunition,
some more fish-hooks, the largest kettle he could buy, a frying-pan, a
few pounds of sugar, ten pounds of salt, some stout sheeting, thirty
yards of duck canvas, three blocks, a coil or two of rope, needles and
twine, a saw, a couple of chisels, and some other tools.
"You must make the best bargain you can for the skins, Luka; I have no
idea how much they are worth."
The Ostjaks were, however, able to tell them the prices the traders pay
for the skins of each animal, provided that they were fine specimens and
in good condition. The black foxes were worth from fifty to a hundred
roubles, the sables from thirty to fifty, the martens some ten roubles
less; the other skins were worth from fifteen to thirty roubles.
Luka took the sledge and a reindeer and started alone, having gone over
the list of things required again and again until Godfrey was convinced
that he was perfect. He took his sleeping-bag but no tent. He calculated
that he should be away five days, as it would take him two to drive to
Turukhansk, and a day there to make his purchases.
On the fifth evening he returned, with everything he had been ordered to
get, and a few other things that he thought would be useful. He had
obtained in all six hundred and fifty roubles as the result of their six
months' hunting, and of these had expended a hundred and seventy
roubles.
"We are well set up for money now, Luka," Godfrey said, as he added the
notes to those he before possessed. "I have still four hundred roubles
out of what I received from the Buriat, so we have now nearly nine
hundred, which will be enough to pay our way to England from any point
we may land at."