The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-10-29
THE COLDEST PLACE.
Thermometer Drops to Eighty Below
Zero at VerkhoyanSk. Siberia.

The Siberian natives of the vast
Siberian province of Iaktask, en-
tending clear into the Arctic ocean,
in the section around Verkhoyansk,
dwell in what is probably the earth S
coldest region Here the sol Is
eternally frozen for hundreds of feet
downwards and the mercury often
records so degrees below zero. At
the height of summer only yard of
unfrozen soil veneers the admixture
OF earth and ice, affording foothold
for the gray tundra moss and oc-
casional patches of bilberry. dwarf
willow and grass.
Though the spot is dignified by
having it's name on the map and is
usually referred to as a town, it is
more correctly struggling village of
Yakut yurtas, or semi-underground
kuts, and a few one-story cottages,
inhabivated by Russian administrat-
i've officials.
For ten months the country is a
dreary trackless sea of snow. Dur
ing the brief summer thaw of two
months the tundra, as the open coun-
try is called, is an impossible swamp.
The chief possessions of the ma
tives are reindeer, dogs and breed
Of very robust ponies. Through the
long winter the reindeer and ponies
subsisc on the moss beneath the
snow, which they dig up with their
hoofs.
Most of the natives live in ''yur-
ras." crude wooden hutS, the Sloping
walls of which are covered with a
thick layer of turf and stones. For
window glass" they use OK blad-
ders il summer and sheets of thick
glass of poor quality in winter.
Along the walls inside the dwelling
run low mares, or benches, that serve
as seats by day and beds by night.
The yurta is. divided into two
parts. To the right. as you enter,
are the quarters of the women, chill
dren and cattle; to the left dwell
the men. The natives cannot read
nor write, and money is practically
unknown. All the trade is done by
barter. The valuable fur pelts are
obtained by white Russian traders
who give brick, Russian tea, tobac-
co, firearms, cooking utensils, knives
and other much coveted and useful
products of civilization to the primi-
tive natives in exchange.
The usual way of capturing the
sable is as follows: AS soon as the
first snow falls, the trapper sets out,
generally mounted on hardy Sibe-
rian pony and attended by his faith
full cog. Sometimes the trapper
knows before hand where the animal
is to be found, but as rule, he is
guided by the tracks of the squirrel.
SQUIRRELS undertake very wide jour-
neys in search Of their favorite cedar
nuts and other food, so that OCCASION
ally there is a veritable migration Of
the animals, and the sables follow
them. The trapper is warned of the
presence of sable by the dog, which
drives the quarry up a tree. The
trapper proceeds to set a fine horse
hair net all around the tree at dis
tance Of 20 to 80 yeards. The trap
per and his dog then withdraw to a
little distance. The sable soon de-
scends and quickly becomes entangled
in the web. Small bells are attached
to the top of the net, and their ring
ing warns the trapper of capture.
Funerals among these people are
most weird and primitive. AS the
ground is usually so frozen that the
digging of graves is impossible. the
corpse is wrapped in reindeer skins
and transported by reindeer-drawn
sledge to some spot on the snow-cov-
cred tundra and simply deposited on
the surflce.-Technical World Maga-