The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-05-27

DEPTHS Of che woodlands and therefore
ignored. The impression upon the stranger
q one OF u~nspsakabls melancholy caused
" The ssnse Of immensity. for IL soon
becomes Impossible TO fancy that the for
NJ will sver end; II 10 linnitless. n yet
conveys the idea Of = prison. Further
On, between Marinsk and At~coinsk-the
great Siberian hig~hway-thsse character
istioa are slightly modified and improved;
ths coloring becomes richer and more In
tsnss; the trees life thsmsslves in more ser
xied ranks. and acquire size and breadth;
through spsnings in the moro luxurious
foliage glimpsss are at timss obtainable OF
ths distant eastern Siberian range
vaguely silhouetted on the deep.
cold blue OF the horizon. The road now
msanders through valleys and Rorges be-
tween steep activities thi ckly wooded, but
Il il, however, only near Krssniark that
the impressive and unutterable majesty,
power and stately gloom Of the ''taisa" is
felt in Ill its desolats grandeur. There it
becomes magnificent n strangely yer
dant; there il has broad open spaces bathed
In eternal twilight; impsnetrable thiekets.
shadows. " stretches in its fashionable
obscurity for thousands Of vsrsts to the
distsnt sea, I hundred Of these may
be passed over at q time without
seeing . single human creature; no
human foot has ever penetrated
70 the center Of the taiRa. The somter
csdara, the black pines, are rarely relieved
III the lighter branches of the aspen trees
81 nov and then by the red berries Of the
Wild shsrry, moro rarely still by the white
bloom Of strange looking tall lilies, and at
long intervals . noiaslsss stream courses
under the ~overhanging branches.
horse IL would be foolhardy in the extreme
70 venture even upon the trails n roads
vhieh are the most frsquented and the
better known: nc stranger could by any
possibility lind his way in those mysterious
and deludinR labyrinths; for days no sound
ling Of animal; daylight itsslf is changed
and vsilsl, and whom it grasses the clear
northern, night drops 4 chill, weird
whiteness over the ima.obile trunks
and motionless brand44es while it
seemed to evoke subtle, penetrating, and
aromatic pesfumos from the cedars and
il at that hsur that the taiga sends forth
%luQubrious signs that fall on the startled
ear like 4 mournful vail; nothing else can
rive an idea Of this nocturnal awakening
/. 81 the Siberian forest, which never changes
TO gladness. But even the dreariness Of
1uU90 0OuuO0 " NJ sA VIVA
pared with the terror of a storm
suddsnly breaking over it; at its furious
onsst even the stoutest heart might quail,
for II seems then as if the hitherto dumb
and forsaken depths were alive with wild
md fierce beasts, roaring and bowling in
times, like the famine-stricken peasant of
far-of Russia, the traveller wonders wheth-
or the shelter Of some subterranean mine
were not preferable to the Hateful freedom
OF the tempest-tossed taiga.
The Siberian forest has it's denizens and
visitors; they are the hardy hunters who
know that those apparently desert solitudes
are in some parts haunted by the reindeer.
affording q tempting victim to the bears,
who are the object Of their patient pursuit.
They track them with brave perseverance,
and at the peril of their lives. frequently
remaining absent from their homes so long
that when they return to their villages
their nature seems changed. and instead of
ths smiling, singing, laughing, good tenn
persd peasants they used to be. they have
become silent, morose n misanthropie.
A Siberian village differs greatly from q
Russian ono, and in nothing moro than the
absence of cultivation. The forest iRvades
tho single street and commences again at
the last of the struggling row OF houses;
there are no barns. no sheds, hardly q
patch Of kitchen garden; the houses are
built Of wood, and always in the
center or a. tho beginning Of the
building s,,itHs surrounded s.oun Di b, a ''e oeurty.r q,
Enclosed with tall. shar ply pointed stakes.
The stage il in fact the rxison d'etre of the
settlement. as it marks one step on the high
road to the mines, and is found regularly
at an interval of about thirty versts: it has
been established with no other object thar
gangs. This origin, curious in itself.
is still discernlble in the general
construction; the stage proper has
generally two stories, while the other
buildings have but one; it is also tho Oldest
looking house In the place, its palisades be-
ing blacksned with age and exposure. The
further the dwellings are from it the newer
they become. marking the growth of the viii
lace; they are also smaller, dwindlinR down
to mere cabins with only ono door and win
dow. and lapse into the forest proper. The
inhabitants are all more or less directly con-
nected with the stage and have either
seeded from it or outRrown it when no
longer actively concerned with it. They
are of all races and all types; Semitss and
Tziganes. Poles and Little Russians, noun
taineers from the Caucasus, and Germans
from the Baltic. n they belong to the
lives III u house with many windows, the
bashkis in a hut where the stove
is merely a hearth and the panes are blad-
deEs; thu natives wsar the eaftan and ma
tional furred boots, the Tartars have re-
tanned their short csats and tall headgear,
They lead distinct lives, faithful to their
national customs and habits; they prssetye
their forms of speech and address, and as
The traveller passes ON from village to vii
lage, II he eonvsrses with the POSITIONS.
the drivers and postmasters, he will soon
be able TO identify, classify and recognize
the real Siberian from his associates.
But after a while one cannot fail to be
struck BY . singular fact-with the excep-
ton of the officials, who remain strangers,
there IL net a single Russian element in ST.
IBERIA; nothing Russian ia ever seen or heard;
among all ths variously shaped dwellings
there 10 not o single one Of those izbas SO
common on the Russian frontier; anone
all the kaleidoscopic costumes there ID
not OF podvivka or sarafaue;
The freely flowing Russian oaths are not
uttered, nor the racy inveotivss familiar to
the moujik beyond the Trails. and yet there
- . want OF absolute national individual
ity among the born Siberisns which cannot
be more saectuslly instanced than by stat
anR that among q population whose natural
expression IL found in song, there il no
one air or tune which has not been heard
elaewhsrs, and must therefore have besr
imported by the alien.
However, there ID one characteristic feat
IRE OF the villages in the taiea which vii
80 them for Z lonn time mournfully apar