Feb. 3, 1876] 



NATURE 



275 



ii 



PROF. NORDENSKJOLD ON THE JENISEI 



TN a letter from Prof. Nordenslcjold, of Stockholm, to Mr. 

 ■*■ Oscar Uick5on, Prof. Nordenskjold gives the following 

 further details of his expedition. 



In my preceding letters I narrated the progress of the Novaya 

 Zemlya Jenisei Expedition up to the time when we, after a boat 

 voyage of fifty to sixty Swedish miles, at Saostrowskoj on Aug. 

 31, fell in with the steamer Alexander, in which we afterwards 

 journeyed 150 Swedish miles further up the Jenisei during a 

 whole month to the town of Jeniseisk. 



I proceed now to finish the account of my journey, with a short 

 sketch of this steam voyage. 



The Alexander was neither a passenger nor a cargo steamer, 

 bit formed a moveable warehouse propelled by steam, which was 

 commanded not by seamen but by a friendly and affable merchant, 

 who clearly did not much concern himself with the navigation 

 of the vessel, but rather with trade and goods, and was seldom 

 by the crew called " captain " but generally " hosain " (master). 

 The arrangement of the vessel itself corresponded to this state 

 of things. The whole of the fore-saloon was fitted up as a shop 

 with shelves for goods along the walls, the usual desk, &c. ' The 

 after-saloon was employed as a counting-house, writing and 

 sleeping apartment for the master, and was besides filled to over- 

 flowing with wares of various kinds for sale, spirit casks, &c. 

 There was thus no room for passengers, and at the first when we 

 lay-to with the Swedish flag hoisted, our "hosain," Herr Ivan 

 Michailovitsch Jarmenieff"'s reception of us was by no means 

 specially friendly. He was even indisposed in the beginning to 

 take us along with him. But no sooner had I, with the help of 

 our pilot Teodor and a Swedish-Russian lexicon, succeeded in 

 explaining to him what sort of people we were and what journey 

 we had made, than all was completely changed, and from that 

 moment we had in our " hosain " the most agreeable and obliging 

 host we could desire. In order to make room for us on board, 

 a cabin before the wheel-house, which had been filled with goods, 

 was emptied and arranged for passengers. Its size was by no 

 means great. During the night, for instance, we could only with 

 difficulty lie alongside each other on a bedstead formed of boards, 

 which took up nearly the whole cabin. Our men at first got 

 places wherever they could, in the engine-room, where they were 

 kindly entertained by the engineer. Afterwards we obtained 

 another more roomy cabin, and our men got that which we had 

 in the beginning. 



The navigation of the vessel was managed by two mates, of a 

 stately and original appearance, who, clothed in long caftans, 

 each during his watch set on a chair at the wheel, generally 

 without steering, for the most part smoking a "papiross," and 

 with the most unconcerned expression in the world exchang- 

 ing jokes with those who were walking below. A man stood 

 constantly in the fore part of the vessel, unceasingly trying the 

 depth of the water with a long pole. In order to avoid 

 the strong current of the deep central stream the course 

 was taken not in the deepest part of the river, but as near the 

 bank as possible, often so near that we could almost jump to land, 

 and that our Nordland boat, which was towed alongside the 

 steamer, was often drawn over land. The Alexander besides 

 had in tow first one, afterwards two vessels (lodjor), nearly of 

 e same size as the steamer itself, intended to receive the fish 

 ought during the voyage, which was generally salted and pre- 

 pared on board. The whole way between Jeniseisk and the 

 sea there is not a single jetty, and on this account both the 

 earner and the two lodjor towed in addition a number of larger 

 r smaller barges and boats intended for communication with the 

 p.d. Siberia,* and especially the river territory of Jenisei, possesses 

 :h coal beds, which probably extend under a great part of the 

 - berian plain, but as yet are not worked, and attract Uttle atten- 

 lion. Like all the other steamers on the Siberian rivers, accord- 

 ingly the Alexander was fired not with coal but with wood of 

 vhich 180 fathoms, if I remember rightly, went to the voyage up ; 



e river. The steamer could carry only a small portion of this 

 ^uantity, on which account frequent delays were necessary, not 

 only for trading with the inhabitants, but also for taking fuel on . 

 board. The feeble engine, besides, notwithstanding that the : 

 safety valves were in case of need overloaded with lead weights, ! 



* As an instance, may be mentioned some exceedingly rich coal seams, ' 

 r.ich crop out on the eastern bank of the Jenisei, a little to the south of the 

 •ATI Krasnojarsk, just in the neighbourhood of the place where the " Faci- 

 le Rail»-ay " of Siberia will probably some day go forward. When I %-isited 

 the place one of the coal seams was on fire. Nearer the mouth of the Jenisei, 

 too, coal seams of considerable extent occur, for instance, at the bank of a ! 

 tributary of the Jenisei, not far from Dudino. • 



was often enough nnable to make head with all it had in tow 

 against the current, which at some places was very powerful, 

 and in the attempt to find stream-free water near the banks, the 

 vessel often went too near land and ran aground, notwithstanding 

 the continual "ladno " cry of the pilot with the pole posted in 

 the forepart of the steamer. We went, therefore, so slowly, that 

 it was only after the lapse of a whole month that we reached 

 the destination of the steamer, the town Jeniseisk, situated about 

 150 Swedish miles from Dudino. 



In such circumstances most passengers by a steamer would be 

 impatient and in bad humour. To us, on the contrary, the delay 

 was welcome ; inasmuch as we had thus an opportunity of ex- 

 tending our examination of the flora and fauna of the territory of 

 the Jenisei even beyond the 60th degree of latitude. It is easy 

 to see that a portion of these researches will also have a practical 

 interest ; for instance, the examination which Dr. Lundstrom has 

 made of the flora of North Jenisei. 



Our knowledge of it has heretofore been grounded chiefly on 

 observations made by men of science (Middendorff, Schmitt, 

 &c.) who have visited these regions for other purposes, and only 

 in passing have had opportunities of turning attention to the 

 flora. Dr. Lundstrom's main object, on the contrary, was ex- 

 clusively botanical (he had before made himself well acquainted 

 with the Arctic plant world by botanical journeys in Lapland 

 and his native Nordland), and as he came during the voyage up 

 the river from the northerly regions, poor in species, to the 

 southerly, richer in species, it was easier for him than for one 

 who travelled in an opposite direction to give the northern limit 

 of a number of species of general occurrence common to Siberia 

 and Scandinavia. Abundance of botanical and climatological 

 material has been collected in this way, which naturally is not 

 yet worked up, but it is easy to see what new light a comparison 

 of the spreading of plants towards the north in our long-culti- 

 va»ed land and the desolate plains of Siberia will shed on the 

 possibility of cultivating the latter country. Already I may be 

 permitted here to mention that in opposition to what would have 

 appeared probable beforehand the northern limit of many plants 

 in Siberia is situated farther towards the north than in Sweden. 

 To a certain extent this may perhaps depend on the seed being 

 carried by the great river from more southerly southerly regions, 

 but it also appears that the severe ^vinter of Siberia has by no 

 means any specially injurious influence on the vegetation of the 

 summer. 



Immediately after we came on bDard the steamer weighel 

 anchor and steamed to the church village, Dudino, situated 

 some miles up the river, where its tributary, the Dudinka, falls 

 into it. The village consists of some few houses inhabited by an 

 influential merchant, SotnikofT, two priests, a ' ' smotritel " 

 (magistrate), a pair of exiles, and some workmen and natives. 

 Sotnikoff carries on an extensive and profitable trade with the 

 natives in the whole of the surrounding district, exchanging 

 grain, cloth, tea, sugar, iron wares, gunpowder, lead, brandy, 

 &c., for furs, fish, mammoth-teeth, &a, which last he sends 

 with the steamer, first up the Jenisei, and afterwards by different 

 methods of communication on to China, Moscow, Petersburg, 

 &c. In his account of his well-known expedition for disinterring 

 a mammoth foimd near the mouth of the Jenisei, the Petersburg 

 academician Schmitt praises Sotnikoff much for the unselfish 

 and energetic way in which the expedition was assisted by him. 

 To us too was this plain unpretentious merchant specially hos- 

 pitable and friendly, and it is incumbent on me to mention that 

 we also met with the same reception from all the other notabili- 

 ties of the place. The friendly clergyman, who was much inte- 

 rested in our journey, even performed a short thanksgiving 

 service for the successful issue of the expedition on board the 

 steamer and declined to accept any special honorarium on this 

 account. 



As in the more northerly situated "simovies," the houses in 

 all the villages situated on the Jenisei were built of logs in much 

 the same style as those of the well-to-do peasants in Russia, pretty 

 close together, with richly decorated gables to the street or road 

 of the village. The interior of the houses was, if we except the 

 innumerable cockroaches found everywhere, very clean, and the 

 walls were adorned with numerous, if not very artistically 

 finished photographs and engravings for the most part of the 

 Russian imperial family, remarkable Russi in notabilities, generally 

 in general's imiform, scenes from Russian history, &c. Richly 

 ornamented consecrated pictures were always placed in a comer, 

 and before these were always suspended some oil lamps or small 

 wax lights, which were lighted on holydays. Sometimes the 

 floor, at least in the principal room, was besides covered with 



