Tent Life in Siberia

George Kennan

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• Publié par: viom
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 56
• Langue: English

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Title: Tent Life in Siberia
Author: George Kennan
Release Date: May 12, 2004 [EBook #12328]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA ***
Produced by Josephine Paolucci and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.
TENT-LIFE IN
SIBERIA
By GEORGE KENNAN
[Illustration: George Kennan 1868]Tent Life in Siberia
A New Account of an Old Undertaking
Adventures among the Koraks and
Other Tribes In Kamchatka and Northern Asia
By
George Kennan
Author of "Siberia and the Exile System,"
"Campaigning in Cuba," "The
Tragedy of Pelee," "Folk Tales of Napoleon"
With 32 Illustrations and Maps
1910PREFACE TO REVISED
EDITION.
This narrative of Siberian life and adventure was
first given to the public in 1870—just forty years
ago. Since that time it has never been out of print,
and has never ceased to find readers; and the
original plates have been sent to the press so
many times that they are nearly worn out. This
persistent and long-continued demand for the book
seems to indicate that it has some sort of perennial
interest, and encourages me to hope that a
revised, illustrated, and greatly enlarged edition of
it will meet with a favourable reception.
Tent Life in Siberia was put to press for the first
time while I was absent in Russia. I wrote the
concluding chapters of it in St. Petersburg, and
sent them to the publishers from there in the early
part of 1870. I was then so anxious to get started
for the mountains of the Caucasus that I cut the
narrative as short as I possibly could, and omitted
much that I should have put in if I had had time
enough to work it into shape. The present edition
contains more than fifteen thousand words of new
matter, including "Our Narrowest Escape" and "The
Aurora of the Sea," and it also describes, for the
first time, the incidents and adventures of a winter
journey overland from the Okhotsk Sea to the
Volga River—a straightaway sleigh-ride of more
than five thousand miles.
The illustrations of the present edition, which will, I
hope, add greatly to its interest, are partly from
paintings by George A. Frost, who was with me on
both of my Siberian expeditions; and partly from
photographs taken by Messrs. Jochelson and
Bogoras, two Russian political exiles, who made
the scientific investigations for the Jesup North
Pacific Expedition on the Asiatic side of Bering
Strait.
I desire gratefully to acknowledge my indebtednessto The Century Company for permission to use
parts of two articles originally written for St.
Nicholas; to Mrs. A.D. Frost, of North Cambridge,
Mass., for photographs of her late husband's
paintings; and to the American Museum of Natural
History for the right to reproduce the Siberian
photographs of Messrs. Jochelson and Bogoras.
GEORGE KENNAN.
BEAUFORT, S.C.
February 16, 1910.PREFACE
The attempt which was made by the Western
Union Telegraph Company, in 1865-66 and 67, to
build an overland line to Europe via Alaska, Bering
Strait, and Siberia, was in some respects the most
remarkable undertaking of the nineteenth century.
Bold in its conception, and important in the ends at
which it aimed, it attracted at one time the attention
of the whole civilised world, and was regarded as
the greatest telegraphic enterprise which had ever
engaged American capital. Like all unsuccessful
ventures, however, in this progressive age, it has
been speedily forgotten, and the brilliant success of
the Atlantic cable has driven it entirely out of the
public mind. Most readers are familiar with the
principal facts in the history of this enterprise, from
its organisation to its ultimate abandonment; but
only a few, even of its original projectors, know
anything about the work which it accomplished in
British Columbia, Alaska, and Siberia; the
obstacles which were met and overcome by its
exploring and working parties; and the
contributions which it made to our knowledge of an
hitherto untravelled, unvisited region. Its
employees, in the course of two years, explored
nearly six thousand miles of unbroken wilderness,
extending from Vancouver Island on the American
coast to Bering Strait, and from Bering Strait to the
Chinese frontier in Asia. The traces of their
deserted camps may be found in the wildest
mountain fastnesses of Kamchatka, on the vast
desolate plains of north-eastern Siberia, and
throughout the gloomy pine forests of Alaska and
British Columbia. Mounted on reindeer, they
traversed the most rugged passes of the north
Asiatic mountains; they floated in skin canoes
down the great rivers of the north; slept in the
smoky pologs of the Siberian Chukchis (chook'-
chees); and camped out upon desolate northern
plains in temperatures of 50° and 60° below zero.
The poles which they erected and the houses
which they built now stand alone in an encircling
wilderness,—the only results of their three years'labour and suffering, and the only monuments of
an abandoned enterprise.
It is not my purpose to write a history of the
Russian-American telegraph. The success of its
rival, the Atlantic cable, has completely
overshadowed its early importance, and its own
failure has deprived it of all its interest for American
readers. Though its history, however, be
unimportant, the surveys and explorations which
were planned and executed under its auspices
have a value and an interest of their own, aside
from the object for which they were undertaken.
The territory which they covered is little known to
the reading world, and its nomadic inhabitants have
been rarely visited by civilised man. Only a few
adventurous traders and fur-hunters have ever
penetrated its almost unbroken solitudes, and it is
not probable that civilised men will ever follow in
their steps. The country holds out to the ordinary
traveller no inducement commensurate with the
risk and hardship which its exploration involves.
Two of the employees of the Russian-American
Telegraph Company, Messrs. Whymper and Dall,
have already published accounts of their travels in
various parts of British Columbia and Alaska; and
believing that a history of the Company's
explorations on the other side of Bering Strait will
possess equal interest, I have written the following
narrative of two years' life in north-eastern Siberia.
It makes no pretensions whatever to fulness of
scientific information, nor to any very extraordinary
researches of any kind. It is intended simply to
convey as clear and accurate an idea as possible
of the inhabitants, scenery, customs, and general
external features of a new and comparatively
unknown country. It is essentially a personal
narrative of life in Siberia and Kamchatka; and its
claim to attention lies rather in the freshness of the
subject, than in any special devotion to science or
skill of treatment.
[Illustration: Head covering used in stalking seals]CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER I
THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH LINE TO RUSSIA
—SAILING OF THE FIRST SIBERIAN
EXPLORING PARTY FROM SAN FRANCISCO
CHAPTER II
CROSSING THE NORTH PACIFIC—SEVEN
WEEKS IN A RUSSIAN BRIG
CHAPTER III
THE PICTURESQUE COAST OF KAMCHATKA—
ARRIVAL IN PETROPAVLOVSK
CHAPTER IV
THINGS RUSSIAN IN KAMCHATKA—A
VERDANT AND FLOWERY LAND—THE
VILLAGE OF TWO SAINTS
CHAPTER V
FIRST ATTEMPT TO LEARN RUSSIAN—PLAN
OF EXPLORATION—DIVISION OF PARTY
CHAPTER VI
A COSSACK WEDDING—THE PENINSULA OF
KAMCHATKACHAPTER VII
STARTING NORTHWARD—KAMCHATKAN
SCENERY, VILLAGES, AND PEOPLE
CHAPTER VIII
BRIDLE PATHS OF SOUTHERN KAMCHATKA—
HOUSES AND FOOD OF THE PEOPLE—
REINDEER TONGUES AND WILD-ROSE PETALS
—A KAMCHATKAN DRIVER'S CANTICLE
CHAPTER IX
THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF GENAL—WALLS
OF LITERATURE—SCARING UP A BEAR—END
OF HORSEBACK RIDE
CHAPTER X
THE KAMCHATKA RIVER—LIFE ON A CANOE
RAFT—RECEPTION AT MILKOVA—MISTAKEN
FOR THE TSAR
CHAPTER XI
ARRIVAL AT KLUCHEI—THE KLUCHEFSKOI
VOLCANO—A QUESTION OF ROUTE—A
RUSSIAN "BLACK BATH"
CHAPTER XII
CANOE TRAVEL ON THE YOLOFKA—
VOLCANIC CONVERSATION—"O SUSANNA!"—
TALKING "AMERICAN"—A DIFFICULT ASCENT
CHAPTER XIII
A DISMAL NIGHT—CROSSING THE