REINDEER, DOGS, AND SNOWSHOES.*
WE had thought the history of the Russo-American Telegraph and Exploring Expeditions was nearly exhausted, but in reading Mr. Bush's narrative, if we gain little information that is posi- tively fresh, we have at least the advantage of looking at the old scenes from another point of view. Most of our readers are familiar with the broad facts of the case,—how an enterprising party of men under Colonel Charles Balkley set out in July, 180, to explore a route for telegraphic communication between the Old World and the New,—in feet, "connect Victoria, at the mouth of the Frazer river, in British Columbia, with the Russian town of Nikolayefsk, at the mouth of the Amoor river, in Asia, via Beltring's Straits." A glance at the map will convince the most unpractised eye of the difficulty of such an exploration, through several thousand miles of an unknown and inhospitable region, * Reitarker, Dm, and Snow-Shoo. By Richard J. Bush, London: Sampaon Low, Son, and Marston. 1871.
inhabited only by savage tribes. Yet had the Atlantic Cable proved, as it then seemed likely to prove, a failure, the world would have been the gainer by the enterprise of this handful of brave men, for they have proved the practicability of the scheme they had at heart. But just as success seemed all but within their grasp, news of the final triumph of the Atlantic Cable reached them, and of course all their plans were at once abandoned, and they returned to their homes rich only in much experience.
Whether the desolate regions through which they passed will ever in the course of the long ages become fit for civilized man is a question outside our present subject. Those regions as they now
stand present sufficiently perplexing problems to the philan- thropist or the naturalist. Mr. Bush tells his story extremely well. He, like Mr. Kennan (who, it may be remembered, also a. short time since gave to the world hisnarrative of this expedition), was delighted with Kamtchatka, and records his astonishment at finding what he expected to be a bleak and desolate country "a scene of majestic wildness, in many respects surpassingly beautiful." He does not mention the clotted cream and preserve of crushed rose-leaves which so impressed Mr. Kennan's imagina- tion as forming part of their first meal in Katutchatka ; but he describes Mr. Flenger's house, in Petropaulovski, which he says is the counterpart of the other better houses in the place, and says, "The rooms were all high and comfortable, well papered and carpeted, and furnished with a view more to ease than elegance ; " and he also alludes to the profusion of wild flowers which adorned the hill-sides, and to his surprise at finding whortleberries and blackberries, and learning that raspberries, gooseberries, and cranberries grew in the greatest profusion in some localities. But the Kamtchatkan summer is short, and it is difficult to realize the strength of the inducement which makes men like Mr. Flenger forego all that is commonly thought most worth having in civilized life, and in voluntary exile endure, as in the instance before us, a three years' suspension of all intercourse with European life. It was three years, Mr. Bush says, since a mail had arrived from St. Petersburgh, rid Siberia. And the only informa- tion of the external world which had reached the station during that time, " was from one or two vessels that call annually at the harbour."
Mr. Bush gives an amusing description of a ride to the environs of Petropauloveki, and a sketch of the station of Avatcha, where, he writes, "we were greeted with one of the most magnificent sights I ever behold,—range above range of hills receding from the shore, and far above them all, towering eleven thousand feet in height, the magnificent volcanic peak of Avetcha." " Though distant thirty miles, its snowy summit, glittering in the sunlight, was so keenly cut against the bright azure of the sky it did not appear a mile away
" This peak is a perfect cone, and so steep that one constantly expects the huge masses of anew and ice to come dashing down its sides to the snow limit, and drop off into boundless space ; below the snow-line, the bare distant mountain was blended with and lost in the sky and haze, leaving the snowy summit apparently suspended from the heavens by some invisible oord. Far to the south rose its noble rival, old Villein- chinski, a spire of burnished silver. To the left, in the immediate foreground, in a graceful curve, extended the white beach, circling the head of the bay; and just before us, at the mouth of a small river that winds its way through the deep grass and clusters of white birches on the plain beyond, lay the small group of huts—picturesque in the dis- tance—that compose the town of Avatelia. When the view first broke upon our vision we all involuntarily stopped, awe-stricken by the grandeur and sublimity of the scone. Not a word was spoken for some minutes ; but, with oyes and mouth open, each ono stood, dreading to speak for fear of dispelling the vision."
But it was not among visions of loveliness that the days of our exploring party were to be passed. A few days later, and their winter journey fairly began. But before taking leave of Kamtchatka, Mr. Bush mentions the fact that Kamtchatkan furs are the finest produced in the whole Russian dominious, and that the annual taxes imposed by Government upon the natives are always collected in furs, the collector having the right to select for the Government the best, which are usually reserved for the private use of the royal family. The furs thus obtained are kept in Government magazines, and without much danger from depre- dators, as the penalty of stealing from Government is death. " pity," says Mr. Bush, in a parenthesis, with very conscious sarcasm, "a pity that such a law could nob be established and enforced in America." The first natives with whom they became at all intimately acquainted were the Gilaks, said to be a branch of the Tungusians. "They were the original inhabitants of the country of the Lower Atnoor at the time of the first visit of the whites." They number now some eight thousand souls. The strongest anti-Darwinian would find himself puzzled if brought face to fitxce with some of these tribes, and find a few
questions not easy of solution rise involuntarily to his mind. The Gilaks seem a filthy race, without forethought, without generous impulses of any kind. The improvidence of all the tribes is so great that famine in winter is the ordinary rule, men and dogs perishing for want of food, which in summer is so abundant as to demand scarcely more than the extra labour of a week to store it against the necessities of winter. But the extra labour is rarely bestowed. The same state of degradation, of the dragging out of a miserable and forlorn existence, seems true of the l'ungusians. And the whole question of the influence of climate upon character presents itself. The obstacles to Tungusian improvement seem insuperable in the dreary regions in which he passes his days ; and yet side by side with him dwells the great tribe of the Yakouts, subject to like influences, yet possessed of very considerable intelli- gence, dwelling in permanent abodes, rudely but comfortably fur- nished. They can manufacture jewelry and metal work, and carve ivory after the manner, says Mr. Bush, of the Chinese and Japanese, and he adds, "many of their designs are very beautiful." The town of Yakoutsk was built by them 800 years ago, and now con- tains 6,000 inhabitants. Mr. Bush's testimony would go to prove that they have greatly improved from their intercourse with the Russians, who conquered them, and whose religion, language, and customs they at length adopted. They are, in fact, says our American author, the Yankees of Siberia. In nothing perhaps were the travellers more disappointed than in the stations or little Russian villages upon which they came from time to time. Generally a few officials making the best or worst of their exile, a degraded priest, and a dilapidated church were the most visible signs of anything like civilized life. Hospitality was never lack- ing. But if a place like Okhotsk can be described as Mr. Bush has described it, we may imagine what would be the condition of minor stations. He says, on approaching Okhotsk, "Never was devout Mussulman on his approach to Mecca more elated at the prospect of fulfilling his life's dream and terminating his pilgrimage, than I was at finding that only twenty-five versts intervened between me and my destination," and proceeds :—
" It is hardly necessary to say that I was disgusted. As we approached nearer, my Mecca gradually disclosed itself, and I at length was enabled to make out airman collection of low, dirty log houses, in the midst of which stood a small church of the same material, surmounted by a dome and tower, but not a tree or shrub was within miles, or any object what- ever to shelter it from the fury of the winds, no matter from what direction they might blow. I never beheld anything more thoroughly desolate in its aspect. NVe approached the town from the south-west, but, owing to bad ice on the Okhota river, were obliged to take a very circuitous course, and enter it from the north; and shortly afterward my driver drove up to a very plain, low log house, in front of which were two or three ideas, and twenty or thirty fine team-dogs. Once dismounted, and my journey was at an end. Neither Major Abase nor Mahood were expecting mo until the following day. Okhotsk was once a town of comparatively great importance, but when Nikolayefsk was founded it was almost deserted. From here Behring started out on his voyages of discovery, his vessels having boon built and launched at this point. The town consists of about thirty houses, heaped together with- out any regularity, in tho midst of which, on an open space, stands the ehurch, an unimposing log structure. Moat of the former houses have been torn down and burned for firewood. The place contains about three hundred inhabitants, consisting of Russians, Cossacks, and Yakouts. An ispravnik also resides hero; he, with two or three fur- traders, comprising the aristocracy. The streets, if they can be so oalled, were literally alive with crows and magpies. No other shelter Was afforded for these birds within a scope of miles."
But one of the most interesting features of Mr. Bush's narrative is the vividness with which he pictures the utter wildness of the landscape through which he passed and such natural phenomena as he encountered,—his journey, say, over vast tundras, of one of which he writes :— "We foun I ourselves wending our way over the trackless waste, which extended on all sides in undulating swoops, bounded only by the
horizon. The dreary solitude and awful silence that reigned over this rigid, lifoloes expanse produced a feeling of strangeness that I could not overcome—a feeling as if some dread calamity was about to be launched upon 118. I experienced a longing sensation, and felt that if I could only see some motion, if nothing more than the fluttering of a dry leaf, or if a dead, knotty stump would only present itself jutting from the snow, how great a relief it would be ! Bat no ; there it lay, cold, stark stiff, and motionless, the very corpse of Nature, over whose lifeless form we were noiselessly picking our way. For more than two hours I did not hear a word spoken, or a Sound from man or beast. All seemed to be under the influence of the spell."
It was eight hours more before a frozen stream broke for a imoinent the monotony of the scene. It was the month of June when he found himself on the Anadyr river, the ice scarcely yet broken except in patches, while the long day with the incessant sunlight must have been in strange contrast with the still partially )e-bound river, One thing the travellers noticed was the singular regularity with which birds and beasts observed the hours of rest and rising, when there was no visible night to guide
their determination, and while human beings were choosing the nights with their pleasant coolness as fitter for toil. On the whole, we think, after carefully studying the various records given by different members of this Arctic expedition, though its object was defeated, their labour was not entirely lost, and Mr. Bush has given additional interest to his own narrative by the clearness of his illustrations.
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