648 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



to tlie sea. The city is aliout nini? miles in cir- 

 cumference. It eUinJs eniiiely on piles, driven in 

 the mud— has about 27,000 houses, over 200^000 

 inhabiiants, 22,000 of \vho(n arc Jews. Tiie 

 Royal Palace is a grand builditifr, 2S2 feet long, 

 222 feet deep, 116 leet liijfh, wiihoul llie Tower, 

 which is 67 feet hiizh. The building stands on 

 13.695 piles. The view from the Tower is grand 

 beyond description. The city at your feet, the 

 Zuider Zee, Lake of Haarlem, shipping, wind- 

 mills, canals, bridges, trees, houses, town and 

 villages in the distance, presenting at one view, 

 in a few words, a little of every thing. 



GIBERIAN LIFE ON THE KOLYMA. 



From Wraiigcl's Survey of the Nnitli-East coast of Silieria. 



To form a just conception of life on the banks 

 of the Kolyma, one must have spent some 

 time with the inhabitants. One must have seen 

 them in their winter dwellings and in their sum- 

 mer balagans ; one must have shot down their 

 rapid streams in the light canoe, must have climb- 

 ed mountains and rocks with them, or dashed in 

 their light dog-drawn sledges through the most 

 piercing cold over the boundless tundra ; one must 

 in short have become one of themselves. Such 

 was our life durin;? the three years we spent here. 

 We lived with them, dressed like them, fed on 

 their dried fish, and shared witli them the hard- 

 ships and privations inseparable from the climate, 

 and the frequent want even ol food which it brings 

 along with it. 



Let us begin with the spring. The fishery 

 forms their most important pursuit ; indeed the 

 very existence of the whole po|)nlation di-pends 

 upon it. The locality of Nishney-Koiymsk, how- 

 ever, is unliivorable, and the inhabitants ate 

 obliged to migrate at this season to more suitable 

 parts of the river. As soon as the winter ceases, 

 they accordingly abandon their dwellings in search 

 of some convenient spot, where they forihwith 

 consltuct a balagan, or light suuimer hut, and 

 immediately conmience their hostilities upon the 

 piscatory tribe. JMost of the Nishney-Kolym- 

 ekileshave regular country-houses of this descrip- 

 tion at the mouths of the several creeks and rivu- 

 lets, which they begin to visit in April, in onier to 

 prepare lor the campaign. In the trnddle of i^lay, 

 when the merchants arrive from the fair of Os- 

 trownoye, on their return to Yakoutsk, the whole 

 piipulaiion abandons the little place, leaving the 

 whole town to the guardianship of one Cossack 

 scnlinel, and perhaps one or two old women, 

 whom age prevents (rom joining in the general 

 pursuit. 



" Spring is the most trying season of the whole 

 year. The store collected during thesummer and 

 autumn has usually been consumed lor some time; 

 the fish do not aUvays make their appearance im- 

 mediately, and the dogs, e.xhausted l)y their winter 

 work, and yet iTiore by the severe fast to which 

 they have tor some time t)een subjected, are too 

 i'eehle to allow their masters to avail themselves of 

 the nast,* to catch a lew elks and wild reindeer. 

 Famine then appears in its most iiorrible form. 



* Wlien the warmth of the spring S'Ui thaws the 

 siirraco of the snow, it froezes a;;ain liuring the niglit, 

 wficrcby a thin crust of ice ic furmtd. strong cnoiij^di 



Crowds of Tungusians and Yukaheers come flock- 

 ing into the Russian villages in search of some 

 sufisisieiice. Pale and ghost-like, lliey stagger 

 al)out and greedily devour every species of gar- 

 bage that falls in their way. Bones, skins, thongs 

 of ieaiher. every thing in short that the stomach 

 will receive is eagerly converted into food. But 

 small is the relief they find ; for the unthrilty 

 townspeople are by this time almost as ill off 

 themselves, and living upon the scanty remnant 

 of fodder stored up lor the use of the dogs, so that 

 many of these faithful and valual)le animals perish 

 nearly every year of hunger. There is a store- 

 house established by the government, where rye- 

 fiouris sold to every comer; but (he e.xpense of 

 conveying it from so enorntous a distance enhances 

 the price to such a degree that lijw are able to 

 avail themselves of the iticility thus afforded them. 

 Although the additional accommodation is granted 

 them of not paying before autumn, still there are 

 not many who can afford to give twenty rubles 

 for a pood of f^our which moreover has often been 

 damaged during the protracted journey it has had 

 to perlbrm. Three of these periods of horror did 

 I witness, during three succeeding springs, and 

 even now I shudder when 1 reflect on the scenes 

 of suffering which I beheld, and of which it would 

 be utterly impossible lor me to attemj)t a descrip- 

 tion. 



It is just when /amine is at its worst that relief 

 arrives. Suddenly countless swarms of birds make 

 their appearance. Swans, geese, ducks and seve- 

 ral descriptions of snipes. These are the first 

 heralds of spring, and at their coming hunger and 

 want are at an end. Old and 3-oung, men and 

 women, all that can walk or run, now rush out 

 with guns, bows, and slicks, to kill as many as 

 they may. In June the ice breaks up, a profusion 

 offish comes crowding into the river, and all hands 

 are in movement to avail themselves of the short 

 season of grace to provide a store lor the coming 

 year. But here a new mislortime often assails 

 them. The stream is not strong enouah to float 

 away with sufFirient rapidity the mighty mass of 

 ice. These accumulate in the narrows and shoals, 

 and the water, arrested in its course, quickly over- 

 flows the whole of the low country, and, if the in- 

 habitants are not quick enough in driving their 

 horses to the hills, the poor animals are infallibly 

 lost. In the summer of 1822 we had such an inun- 

 dation at Nishney-Kolymsk, which came upon 

 us so suddenly that we had only just time to take 

 refuge with a few ofour most indispensable articles 

 upon the fiat rools of our huts, where we were 

 forced to remain for upwards of a week. The 

 water rushed with fearful rapidity between the 

 housrs, and the whole place looked like a little 

 archipelago of house-tops, among which the in- 

 habitants were merrily rowing about in their 

 canoes, paying one another friendly visits and 

 catching fish. 



" More or less these inundations occur every 

 year, and when the water 3ub.-::ides the main fishery 

 with nets begins. Fish form the chief food of man 



to bear a sledge with its team of dogs. In this con- 

 dition the snow is called nasi, over which the elks and 

 reindeer are pursued during the night, and as, owing 

 to their greater weight, they are constantly breaking 

 through the ice, thev are ciinght by the hunters with 

 little trouble. 



I 



