Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1892-04-29
ON AN ICE FLOE.
The Experience of an Ivory-Hunter
.l. In the Far North.

The Experience of an Ivory Hunter
in the Far North.
Years ago, in northeastern Siberia, !
made the acquaintance of a Russian
who bad been a member of an expedi-
ton sent out by commercial COM
pany to collect the tusks of mammoths
from the Lialhov islands, in the Arctic
ocean. The Liakhov islands lie off the
north coast of Siberia, and are so far in
the arctic regions that they are desti-
tutc of vegetation, with the exception
! sofF afew lichens and MOSES. In ages
gone by they must have been much
warmer than at present as they were
covered with forests, in which the
mammoth roamed at will. He was in
such numbers that the collection of his
ytusl6s has been profitable industry
for long time past The tusks are found
embedded in the frozen earth, or are
cast up from the depths of the ocean
by THE waves during the severe storms
in summer
"Wereachcd the islands without much
difficulty" said my Russian friend, land
gathered good stock of ivory that had
been cast up by the sea. In cliff of
frozen earth that had broken off since
thesprevious season, | found tusk sol.
idly embedded, and it took me two or
three hours to chop it free. There was
great satisfaction in discovering 1t,
not only because it was valuable
tGud, r., an, a mn, -, oro;a1 ,,~;p+ ~ ,,;or,
but because l was bringing to light
J something that had been concealed for
a period variously estimated from ten
thousand to twenty-one Thousand
I, years. The ivory is not as good as that
x from Africa, where it is taken from
J, ! the elephant killed on the spot It is
winter and more brittle, from it's long
exposure to frosts, but is a very good
article for many purposes.
when we were ready to go back
again to the mainland we found that a
storm had broken up the ice for con-
siderable part of the way where we
had found firm road only little
while before; there were many
lanes Of open water where we would
need boats to ferry us over, if no other
means of transit could be found. The
sea was full of great hummocks and
floes--in fact, there was great deal Of
ice to q small quantity of water, as one
looked at it from the shore.
"As the passage under such circum-
stances would be very dangerous for
our dog sledges, we decided to wait
until the frost had closed the lanes of
water and restored the route to a pass
able condition. So we returned to- the
work of hunting for ivory, and found
three or four tusks; as we already had
as much as we could undertake to
carry with safety, we concealed our
latest finds where we thought they
would be safe until the following year.
The islands are visited very rarely, and
there was little likelihood that our
ivory would be disturbed
'sThe weather grew much colder in a
few days, and the frost closed the open
water as we had hoped and expected.
One of our men went out several miles
on the ice, and, as his report was favor
able, we started on our return to the
coast We could not travel fast, except
on the young ice, as the old ice was
very rough, and much of the way we
were obliged to chop down the hum
mocks and otherwise smooth the way
for the dogs and sledges. A mile all
hour was a good average for us as long
as we were in the hummocky ice; when
we found young ice recently frozen, we
went along at the best speed of the
dogs as they seemed to enjoy getting
over the road rapidly wherever they
could So
1.-THE days were long and the nights
short; in fact, there was very little
night, and had it been earlier in the
season we should have found the day.
light continuous We halted occasion.
ally to rest ourselves and the dogs
and, of course, we halted during tine
nights, or from ten o'clock until two
when the sun rose. Unfortunately fol
us, on the second day the wind rose
with the sun. and very soon it blew q
gale.
1.-THE effect of the wind upon the ice
was alarming. We were tossed almos,
as though we had been in boats on the
water, and the cracking and crashing
of the ice was deafening. Great fis
sures opened in all directions, and We
found ourselves on cake perhaps {
quarter of mile long by one-half tha
width. As long as the cake held to
gether we were in no immediate dan
ger, but if the wind continued 1t wa.
very likely that our refuge would b
destroyed. Far as we could sec was {
mass of mingled ice and water, tossing
and heaving with the effect of the higl
wind.
"Wbile we were considering what W,
should do, there was crash almost a
our feet, and the ice foe on which W,
stood was broken into dozen cakes
We had three dog teams and drive
to each team, and when the crash cam,
two of the teams were ON one cake o
ice, while the third was upon another
The drivers were Tungusian natives
and had passed their whole lives in tn,
arctic circle. and all had previously
made the trip to the Liakhov islands
Though they had passed through man,
adventures and pefils, they had neve
been in place of such great danger a
they now found themselves.
'You may think they deserted thei
teams and tried to find safety TO
themselves; they did nothing of tn
kind, but stuck manfully TO the ami
mails, though It is possible they did s.
through belief that the dogs woul,
be help rather than an incumbranc
in bringing them to place of safety.
There were three Russians of us
and each of US accompanied one of tn
dog teams and directed its movements
Il Il Al 4 z