Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-27

| etS OIL the WHaler, mad not heS1tated TO &C
cept his share Of the food He showed him.
self, besides, skillful fisherman and ex-
celled in the preparation of fish soup.
A few days afterwards, the fugitives kill
ed, also with sticks, dozen swans. These
birds moult later than geese.
They met herd of reindeer which allow
ed them to approach it. This led them to
believe that the reindeer were private prop
erty. They were right The Tchouktchis
to whom the animals belonged had, doubt
less, hidden themselves on perceiving the
little caravan Of white people
They crossed with infinite trouble and
great danger the mountainous region leading
to the sources of the Anadyr. The country
had the widest possible look.
Threatening rocks rose perpendicularly
along deep valleys; the tempestuous wind,
driven into the boys and ravines, whirled
about there and escaped with a hiss, rem
! dering the passage of the defiles toilsome
and perilous.
| Sometimes, they were forced to quit the
! sledges and walk beside them along steep
! paths on the edges Of preciplces, into which
| the least false step would have suficed to
! precipitate them. The dogs had great diff
| Guilty in advancing.
Happily for the travellers, the snow COW
cred the slopes and prevented them from
slipping. At other times. thick fogs sud-
| denly surrounded them, shutting off the
| sight of their road, until the summit upon
which they happened to be seemed like an
| island rising from the midst of an agitated
| sea.
Finally, they reached the Anadyr, which
flows, parallel to the chain of mountains
cutting the Tchouktchi peninsula, from
north to south and afterwards TO the north
east. They followed the banks Of this river,
and, many times, had occasion to use, to
cross the broad streams which flow into it,
the light skin boat which they had with
them, the materials of which had been
brought from the hut on Cape Baranoff by
the Yakoutes.
They halted for a few days at the mouth
of the Krasnaia, one of the aff1uents Of the
Anadyr, two hundred miles from the sea.
It was a spot favorable for hunting. Be-
sides, the dogs had bleeding paws and re-
quired rest.
| When the fugitives resumed their Jour
ney, they arrived in less than ten days at
| the place where the Anadyr ceases to be q
river and becomes the Bay of Onemene
1t was now necessary for them to shun
the ostrog of Anadyr. They went along the
! coast towards the south, advancing cautious
| ly; they kept near enough to the sea to
watch it and far enough from the shore to
| escape observation.
The sea was yet encountered with ice
blocks. They would have to wait until all
! these frozen masses were in motion and the
spaces of water had increased before they
could hope to sea a sail.
One day. from the summit of lofty
promontory the fugitives witnessed that i'm
| menSe breaking up of the ice, which is the
| grandest and most terrifying spectacle that
| one can imagine The icebergS at first move
| labOriOuSly from their places. Cracked by
| the thaW and mined by the sea, they crum-
| BILE upon themselves with great din. 9th
| ers advance, turning about in the free waters
already agitated by the wind from the main
| sea: they have menacing look with their
sharp angled profles and their lettering
sloping submits.
The last snow that has fallen, swept by
the wind, arises in dust towards the sky
| which 1t darkens. From time to time, enor-
nous blocks detach themselves from the
principal masses, with a defamation like the
| discharge OF several pieces Of artillery.
The foaming waves stimulate this work OF
| disaggregation The collision Of the floating
| ice blocks is incessant; they hurl chem
| selves one upon another until the repeated
| shocks have reduced them to powder
! Everything twists and sinks in an immense
| break up
This time, the sun sent forth warm rays
which colored with pink shades the white
sheet of snow and the blue surface Of the
ice. The blush green waters, angered at
their long impotence, rushed every were,
striking, overturning, destroying, an mum
| dating with foam the fields of ice.
The old ice remained attached to the shore
all along the Bay of Onemene, and the
hummocks yet iutted far out into the sea;
but, on the main ocean, the blue of the
waters rivalled the blue of the sky and the
waves rolled Their great arches from the
Asiatic to the American SHORTCOMINGS
| Strait was open.
In proportion as the sky and the sea
lighted up, Yermac became more gloomy.
He felt that the decisive hour when he
would lose his prey was approaching. for
! there were moments when he imagined that
! he was following the fugitives; he compre-
hended that, pitiless as he wished to be, he
would have to display audacity and energy,
and he was pained in spite of all, for, amid
sufferings borne in common, he had at last
become attached to these unfortunates,
who strong in their innocence, were seek
ing to escape from degradation and infamy.
| The fugitives were awaiting a iberating
ship; Yermac was also awaiting this ship,
but with the design Of arresting them in
their flight. memorable justice, which he
| personified so completely, ordained it and
he would not shrink from the task imposed
upon him, no matter how cruel it might be.
The fugitives had established themselves
| at the extremity of ravine, where, against
rock of red granite several hundred feet in
| height, they had hastily erected hut in
| which to hide rather than live. Every mo-
ment not devoted to hunting in the sur
| rounding larch forests, or to fishing on the
banks of brook which ran along the hollow
of the ravine, they passed upon the promon-
tories, occupied in watching the sea. Yer
mac did not fix his eyes on the agitated sur
faces of the waves with less avidity than
| his companions.
| But June approached and no whalers
June passed! July came, and still no whal-
| erS
4egor In despair, began to form projects
| more lmpracticable one than another-to
| ascend the Anadyr, cross the mountains
| which occupy the region and descend to-
| wards the Sea of O1hotsk at the Gulf of
| Penilnsk; to go to the Aleutian Islands, or.
! better, to Kamtchatka, and from there. fol-
lowing the example of the exile Beniowslzi.
sail for Canton; to go in a boat-the skin
baydare-to the Spice Islands to pass from
there to Russian America, as the Tchoulst-