Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-02

and empty into a frozen ocean far with
Lena is LOO miles, while Cape
Chelyuskin, the northernmost point Of
| Siberia, is less than 900 miles from the
Pole. The rivers, through much OF
their course, are navigated during sum-
mer by steamboats,. Near the ocean
they freeze thick at the top, and the ice
sinking forms another thick layer at
| the bottom. This not melting soon
enough to make room for the spring
rise, there are often floods which cover
| all the country and compel the deser-
ton of villages. As there is little to be
/ lost, they can fortunately do small
| damage.
What the native tribes did from ne
cessity the Russians did from love of
gain. They were drawn thither in pur-
suit of the skins of fur-bearing animals,
which have been called the Golden
Fleece of the North. They built trading
| stations and established fairs to be held
| at regular intervals, where they gave in
exchange for furs sugar, tobabco, can
dy, tea, thread, and iron implements.
Wherever there was a village there had
to be a priest and few soldiers. The
Russians dress like the natives and have
in time come to resemble them in ex-
ternal appearance. The forests extend
to within an average distance of fifty
miles from the coast. The mouth of the
Lena, with some settlements, is north of
the forest limit. In region like this
there must necessarily be a continual
struggle for existence. Wrangel heard
of g. tribe called the Omoki, which had
| formerly been numerous and had had
many villages. 1t had entirely disap-
peared, as he supposed, by starvation.
Three months are in this region by
courtesy called summer. For only about
fifty days of this period is the sun visi-
BILE. 1t rises at midday short distance
above the horizon and approaches it at
night without entirely disappearing.
The summer sun thaws the earth to a
depth of few inches. 1t is impossible
to raise even the hardest vegetables.
Flowers, however, blossom in the brief
sunshine, and the mosquitoes appear in
numbers and bite with a venom I'M
known in the tropics. Every minute of
the brief summer is occupied by the in
habitants gathering supplies for the en-
! suing winter. Fortunately every kind
of wild fowl and edible sea fish abound,
berries are plentiful, and the reindeer
comes from the woods to the tundras
in large droves. As many as 1000
geese, 5000 ducks and 200 swans have
been killed in single day by few
hunters, while 10000 herring have been
| caught in single net in three or four
days. But the winter is long and the
native appetite so extraordinary that,
while it takes not more than ten fish
daily to satisfy white man, a Jakut or
Jakahiri is not content unless he has
eaten at least sixty. The game and fish
are preserved by freezing, drying or
smoking. The berries are frozen in
vessels partly filed with water, and put
| aside for winter luxuries.
The labor of gathering the food end
ed, the winter life begins. In the win
ter the men prepare indoors their bows,
arrows, spears or nets for next years
hunting or fishing, and the women
make garments of skins, or prepare the
food, which consists of reindeer meat,
fowl or some kind of fish. The houses
are usually made of drift-wood, saved
for the purpose through many years.
They are about eighteen feet square
and nine feet high. The roof is fiat and
covered with earth. Earth is thrown
up outside to the windows, which are a
few inches square, and made of ice or
fish membrane. Life is monotonous I'M
til Easter, when the bells ring, the wom-
en- 90 to church in their best attire, and
the priest visits each cottage and bless
es it, sprinkling it with holy water.
Wrangel describes his own house while
at Kolymsk. 1t had two rOoms-an outer
one, with a store for his assistants, used
also as kitchen, and an inner one, with
an open fireplace. used by himself. 4
bench for a bed, a rickety table and
wooden stool were his only furniture.
His chief diet was fish, like that of the
inhabitants. If the summer has been
favorable, and fish and game abundant,
the supply of food barely suflices till the
arrival of spring. Should the catch of
fish be diminished by winds or freshets,
the reindeer keep to the forests, and less
game be killed, a period of starvation
begins before the season opens. The
dogs are enfeebled and unable to chase
to the Russian villages and wander like
specters about the streets, picking up
the remains of skins, bones, or anything
that can alleviate hunger. Death is
frequent; sometimes the villages are de-
says: alt was my lot to pass here three
such dreadful springs, and l can not
now look back without shuddering on
the scenes of misery which I have wit
messed, but which 1 may not venture to
describe" Suddenly, when everyone
is in despair, large fiocks of birds arrive.
the streams are filled with fish, and
everywhere is abundance and rejoicing
This is descriptive of the extreme
north next the coast. But the country
is cold, wintry and repulsive nearly to
Jakutsk, one thousand miles to the south
ward Few Russians live north of that
city, and near it all signs of cultivation
disappear. In 1920 Jakutsk had pop
ulation of 1000, and was bare and des-
olate place, without trees, shrubbery OF
gardens. To the north of it there are
no roads, and parties going to the shores
of the Polar Sea are compelled to travel
in summer by boat or pack horses, and
in winter by sledges drawn by dogs.
Capta;p To ono ic 6oDhtloSS ubo~a