Griggs courier., 1891-02-13
SIBERIAN ROADS.
Thelr DiAaculties in the Depths OF North
ern Winter.


A correspondent of the Novoe vremya
describes the horrors Of the Siberian
roads in vivid colors. There is only
road from Irkutsk to Yakutsk. You
have to cross the River Lena, in sum-
mer by boats, in winter over the ice;
but in spring and autumn there is no
means of crossing the river, and you
have to wait for q more suspicious
season. In the summer and winter,
however, the road is quite tolerable.
There are post stations on it at intervals
of from twenty-five to thirty versts.
One can always find something at such
stations to still hunger, although he
must never expect to get a piece of white
bread, a piece of meat or cup Of tea.
This is the state of affairs on the twen-
ty-eight days journey from Irkutsk to
YalSutsk
Quite different is it on the road from
Yakuts< to the cities of Verkhovyanka
and Sredne-Kolymsk. You have to
travel a distance of about three thou
sand versts through an uninhabited
country. If you find small village of
Yakoots on the road the people are so
poor that they can not help you. They
have no cattle, they produce no grain;
the importation of the necessaries of
life is quite insignificant. A dwelling is
mere shanty, with a fireplace in the
middle and hole in the ceiling for the
smoke. When the air is damp and sta
tionary the smoke will not esca, and
fingers in the yoorta. Doors are some
times wanting and windows are gener-
ally missing. Contagious diseases, diph-
liberia, smallpox, typhoid fever are
always to be found among the Yakoots
while medical help is nowhere to be
found.
Terrible as such yoortas are, one is
rejoiced if he reaches one, but they
occur very seldom on the road. The
traveller has to proceed seventy or a
hnadred versts before he finds not a
yoorta, but a povarnya, in which to rest.
A povarnya is an inclosure of four walls
with a roof to it. There are no windows.
no doors, no fire-places, and certainly
not a human being to lend one helping
hand within two hundred versts. Tired
out from travelling on a bad road, frozen
to the bones and pinched with hunger,
the traveller arriving at such povarnya
must dig out some wood under the snow
to build fire to melt snow. He is happy
when the fire gets ablaze and he can
warm <up his stiffened limbs, undress
and rest himself. But that rest becomes
a torture, for he must remain in that
lonely barn two or three days before he
can proceed There are no horses and
deer in such povarnyas and one must
wait until team that goes in the
direction he requires comes on, or until
his own animals are sufficiently recov-
cred to proceed. Those poor animals
must in the meantime be fed on what
ever can be dug up for them from under
the snow. The regular post stations on
that road, called the stanky, are at in
tervals of about two hundred versts
apart, and so poorly provided that one
Sc dom finds there either horses or deer
or fodder for his own animals, or even
food for himself. 1t sometime happens
that traveller stopping at such a sta
ton to wait for animals to carry him
onward, in case his own animals fall
from exhaustion or want of food, must
eat the flesh of his own dead brute if he
| is unwilling or unable to kee long
fast. With the rickety vehicles on tha
road and their frequent breakings, the
marshes to be crossed on thin ice or to
be waded if the wagon gets stuck-a
whole book could be filed with the de-
scription of such incidents.
Such is the travelling in the winter,
with the temperature varying between
zero and seventy degrees Celsius of col /.
In the summer you have to wait some
times for many days for a boat or raft
to take you across river. There are
no regular RATS crossing the rivers. but
you must wait for a party of Yakoots or
exiles who are swimming wood from
one city to another. In the autumn and
spring, again, there is practically NJ
travelling on those roads, and the unfor-
tunate wayfarer who happens tn arrive
in those parts at such seasons of the
year must do the best he can-stop at a
post station and whistle for hunger, and
wait for the best to Chicago
News,
THE HABERGAiS.