Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-08-30
A CHUcKCHEE DEER DRIVE.
\ Battue OF Twenty Nine Reindeer as the
lie. uIt ola Mornings Drive in Siberia.
By Clarence Pullen.


at is n the extreme northeastern
part of Siberia, between the Arctic
ocean and the Behring sea, that the
( Chuckchees live" said ex-Whaieman
Timothy G. Hazard Of New Bedford, in
relating his experience as a castaway
upon the Chuckchee peninsula. They
are a connecting link between the Aleu-
tian Islanders and the Yakoots OF in
land Siberia. The village in which l
stayed from August to November STOOD
on the shore, on a sand pit, and between
it and the main land was salt water
lagoon. The people lived in tents OF
seal andEreindeer skin, large double af-
fairs. a tent within a tent, the inner one
used for sleeping. The space between
the two the people used as a store
house. and here they did Their indoor
work and lounging about.
AS early as the LIST of October the
village people were busy laying in their
winters provision of food, putting away
train OIL in sealsk:n bags set upright
against the sides of the tent, and cut
ting up wild reindeer which they had
killed on the tundra. Just at that time
the principal business Of the men was
TO hunt these deer. Seal and walrus
could be hunted during the winter, but
the wild reindeer were already travelling
south and soon it would be too late to
take them.
cone day a Chuckchee hunter, who
had been of on a scout for game, came
in with the report that he had seen q
herd of wild reindeer off beyond some
black hills some ten miles away. Pre-
parations were at once begun to go afteE
/ them the next day, and the party was
GLAD to have me go along with i with
my gun. Shortly after midnight the
hunters turned out, to the number OF
eighteen or twenty, and met outside the
tent of Yatanga, the principal man in
the village. Ii WI be long before | for
get that chilly tramp through the dark
ness. with the polar star shining down
! from almost directly overhead, the
northern lights playing across the
northern sky, and the slow approach Of
dawn which it seemed never would ar
rive.
How. on foot, on a level plain, with
no cover to mask our approach, we were
CIV
| shyest of animals. was more than l
could see. But my companions seemed
to see no difficulty in the situation. and,
after a brief consultation, they set to
work in a very matter Of course and
systematic way The reindeer, after
/ the habit Of their species, were all feed
| ing with their heads TO the windward,
which in this case was north and va
tanga, who acted as master of the hunt,
/ sent one Chuckchee to make q long cir
cult around to get beyond them in that
! direction. When the man had got
about a quarter of a mile away another
hunter was sent after the first with or
ders to keep the same distance between
them. Then the others, one by one,
with no appearance of noticing or at
tempting to draw nearer to the rein
| deer. strOlled out upon the tundra to the
leeward Of the grazing animals.
when the man first sent TO the wind
ward had worked around so far to the
north that going a little farther would
| bring him to where the reindeer would
scent him, Ya,alga s.gnaled and all the
hunters to the east and south of the
herd walked steadily toward the rein
deer, closing their line which extended
to the bog as they advanced. They were
within 300 yards Of the herd before the
reindeer seemed to perceive them and
| stopped their feeding to gaze at them
and snuff the air At that the two men
to windward went farther along, and
the reindeer, about TO bolt that way,
| catching their scent whirled and start
| ell to the southwark toward the advanc-
| ing Inc Of hunters. as if they meant to
break through the Gordon. When they
wore within a hundred yards Of the