276 



NATURE 



\_Feb. 3, 1876 



mats of furs. The bed consisted of a couch near the roof, so 

 extensive that it occupied a third or a half of the room, and so 

 far from the floor that a man could go under it upright. Food 

 was prepared in large baking ovens, which were daily fired for 

 this purpo>e, and warmed the hut at the same time. New bread 

 was to be had every day ; and even for the poor a large brass 

 tea urn was a necessary household article. We were always 

 sure of meeting with a hearty and friendly reception wherever we 

 stepped over the threshold, and if we stayed a short time we had 

 generally to drink a glass of tea with our hosts whatever time of 

 the day it might be. The dress everywhere somewhat resembled 

 the common Russian ; for the better classes for instance wide 

 velvet trousers stuck into the boots, a shirt grandly embroidered 

 with silver, and a wide caftan often trimmed with fur ; for the 

 poor, in case he was not too ragged, the same cut, but inferior, 

 dirty, and torn material. During the winter, however, the 

 Samoyede fur dress is worn out of doors both by high and low, 

 by Russian and native, by settled and nomad. 



For the present there were in these regions only very few 

 persons who had been banished hither for political reasons, but 

 on the contrary many exiled criminals, and among them also 

 some few Finns, and even a Swede, or at least one who accord- 

 ing to his own statement in broken Swedish had formerly served 

 in the King's body-guard in Stockholm. Security for person 

 and property was in all cases complete, and it was remarkable 

 that there was no true difference of caste that could be observed 

 between the Russian- Siberian natives and those who had been 

 banished to those regions for crimes. Little interest even ap- 

 peared to be taken in knowing the crimes which had caused the 

 banishment. An inquiry on this point was generally met by the 

 sufficiently elastic reply " for bad conduct." 



I mentioned aliove that mammoth teeth here form an impor- 

 tant article of commerce. They are also belived to occur in 

 large quantity on the tundra, though the difficulty of communi- 

 cations often renders their removal impossible. Although this 

 is the mammoth region proper, the larger parts of the skeleton 

 are believed to be very rare, and still more mammoth with flesh, 

 hide and hair still remaining. It was, for instance, on the 

 peninsula between Obi and Jenisei, that the great mammoth 

 find by Trofimoff occurred, and in the neighbourhood of the same 

 place was found the mammoth which gave occasion to Schmitt's 

 expedition. It is probable, besides, that the nomad native has the 

 same indisposition to acquaint an official with a large mammoth 

 find as the peasants at home had in former times, and in certain 

 regions still have to give information about a supposed vein of 

 ore. 



On Sept. 4 the Alexandtr w^eighed anchor, and steamed south- 

 wards during splendid weather. 



The landscape now began by degrees to change its character 

 completely. In fact, on most maps the limit of wood is drawn 

 along the considerable bend which the river Jenisei makes 

 immediately west or north-west of Dudino, and indeed here for the 

 first time numerous pine trees are met with, but seldom more than 

 20 feet high. These cover the heights with a sparse and by no 

 means attractive vegetation, completely destitute of the beautiful 

 effect which distinguishes the willow and alder bushes farther 

 north. Already some few miles south of Dudino, however, the 

 pine forest became tall, though here we are still north of the 

 Arctic circle. It is here that the forest proper commences — the 

 largest forest of the globe — stretching with little interruption 

 across the whole of Siberia, in one direction, from Ural to the 

 Sea of Ochotsk, and in the other, south of the 58th or 59th 

 degree of latitude, and north of the Arctic circle, at some places, 

 for instance at the rivers Chatanga and Lena, beyond it on to 

 the neighbourhood of 72° N. lat., that is to say, to the mouths of 

 Chatanga and Lena, ten Swedish miles north of North Cape. 



During our boat and steam voyage up the Jenisei we had 

 heretofore only landed either upon the eastern bank of the river, 

 which was always high, or on some of the numerous islands 

 which at some 'places occur in the river, which widens out 

 nearly to a lake. On Sept. 7 we had, for the first time, an 

 opportunity of landing on the western bank of the river, which, 

 like the western bank of most of the rivers flowing from the 

 south to the north, consists of low tracts of land which are in- 

 undated in spring. This meadow land was now covered partly 

 with an extraordinarily luxuriant carpet of grass, which of course 

 was untouched by the scythe, partly with an exceedingly peculiar 

 bush vegetation of equal height, in which we found a number 

 of herbs known among us in Sweden, but here six to eight feet 

 high. Compact thickets of a beautiful straight-stemmed willow 

 frequently alternated with even grass turf of a lively green with 



small streams, tributaries of the Jenisei.fin a way which gave the 

 impression of the most beautiful park, carefully kept and 

 watered, and kept clear of withered branches and grass. On 

 the eastern side, on the contrary, the ancient forest proper com- 

 menced close to the river bank. Here nature had quite a dif- 

 ferent stamp of grandeur and gloom. The forest consisted 

 principally of pines, which, even north of the Arctic Circle, were 

 often of the most colossal dimensions, but in such cases many 

 times grey and shortened to half their height by age. Between 

 these the ground was so covered with fallen stems, with branches 

 nearly fresh, half decayed or converted into a mass of wood 

 mould, which was kept together merely by the bark, that one 

 could force his way only with difficulty and with danger of 

 breaking his legs in the thicket. The fallen stems were besides 

 completely covered, many times even concealed by an uncom- 

 monly luxuriant moss vegetation ; the tree lichens, on the con- 

 trary, occur here only sparingly, in consequence of which the 

 spruce firs were devoid of the shaggy clothing common with us, 

 and the bark on the birches which glanced out here and there 

 among the spruce firs was distinguished by an uncommonly 

 blinding whiteness. When one made his way into this mono- 

 tonous wood a little distance from the river, it was necessary to 

 be well acquainted with the points of the compass ; a mistake in 

 this respect had carried us in a direction in which at a distance 

 of a hundred, perhaps two hundred (Swedish), miles, there was 

 no probability of meeting with an inhabited place. In speaking 

 of the vegetation in these regions it may be mentioned that in the 

 northern forest along the river bank there was abundance of wild 

 red and black currants exceedingly well tasted, and of dimensions 

 surpassing even the largest varieties of cultivated currants I have 

 had an opportunity of seeing. 



Since we left Jewremow-Kamen, near the mouth of the Jenisei, 

 we had not seen any solid rock at the river banks, but on the 

 8th we saw solid rocks on the eastern bank. We made here, as 

 at a number of the other places at which we landed, a rich col- 

 lection of land molluscs. By means of these collections, which 

 have been already handed over to our skilful moUuscologist, Dr. 

 C. A. Westerlund, at Ronneby, to be examined, the known 

 mollusc-fauna of North Siberia will be greatly increased, and 

 many erroneous views hitherto prevalent regarding the geo- 

 graphical distribution of this interesting group of animals will 

 be rectified. This holds good also of various land and fresh- 

 water invertebrates, of which considerable collections were made, 

 which have already been distributed to specialists for examina- 

 tion. 



After having remained for a longer or shorter time at about 

 ten different "simovies" or fishing-stations, we came on Sept. 

 12 to a "simovie," Silivauskoi, exclusively inhabited by Skop- 

 tist?. The orthodox Russian Church is, as is well known, 

 tolerant towards men of foreign faiths, Lutherans, Catholics, 

 Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhist?, &c., but, on the contrary, in 

 full accordance with what took place in former times within the 

 Protestant world, visits sectaries within its own bosom with 

 temporal punishments in this world and threatens them with 

 eternal in another. Especially in former times have a number 

 of sectaries been sent to Siberia, and there are accordingly 

 peculiar colonies in a very prosperous state to be met with occa- 

 sionally, exclusively inhabited by a certain sect. Such is the 

 Skopt colony at Silivauskoi, of which it may be remarked that 

 the nature of the religious delusion here excuses the stringency 

 of the law or the administration. For, on the ground of a text 

 in the Gospel of Matthew, interpreted in a peculiar way, all 

 Skoptists subject themselves to a self-mutilation, in consequence 

 of which the sect can exist only through new proselytes, and 

 remarkably enough, these madmen, in fact, notwithstanding, or 

 perhaps just on account of, all persecution, still find successors. 

 A number of Skoptists are Ingrians (Finns from Ingermanland), 

 on which recount I could converse with them without difficulty. 

 They related that they had " for righteousness' sake " been torn 

 from their homes, imprisoned, flogged, and sent to Siberia. 

 Here they had by industry and perseverance succeeded in attain- 

 ing for themselves a certain competence, were hospitable and 

 friendly, and bore with resignation their hard lot, assured that in 

 another life they would reap a rich reward for their self-denial, 

 suffering, and misfortunes here below. They did not kUl any 

 warm-blooded animal, " for it was a sin to kill what the Lord 

 had created," which did not prevent them from catching and 

 eating fish, nor from selling to us, who in any case were doonied 

 to perdhion, for 18 roubles a beautiful and fat ox, on condition 

 that our own people should slaughter it. Their indisposition to 

 use some animal foods had besides had the good result that their 



