Chapter IV (2)

"We saw no inhabitants, but everywhere along the beach numerous traces of men--some of them barefoot--of reindeer, dogs and Samoyed sleighs, were visible. On the top of the strand-bank was found a place of sacrifice, consisting of forty-five bears' skulls of various ages placed in a heap, a large number of reindeer skulls, the lower jaw of a walrus, &c. From most of the bears' skulls the canine teeth were broken out, and the lower jaw was frequently entirely wanting. Some of the bones were overgrown with moss and lay sunk in the earth; others had, as the adhering flesh showed, been placed there during the present year. In the middle of the heap of bones stood four erect pieces of wood. Two consisted of sticks a metre in length with notches cut in them, serving to bear up the reindeer and bears' skulls, which were partly placed on the points of the sticks or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted on the sticks by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two others, which clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice, consisted of driftwood roots, on which some carvings had been made to distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces of wood, intended to represent the eyes and mouth, had recently been besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of bones the entrails of a newly-killed reindeer. Close beside were found the remains of a fireplace, and of a midden, consisting of reindeer bones of various kinds and the lower jaws of bears.

"As the sandy slopes of the beach offered no suitable breeding-place for looms, black guillemots, or other sea-fowl, and there were no islands along the coast which could serve as breeding-places for eiders and other species of geese which breed in colonies, the abundant bird-life of the Polar Sea was wanting here. At the mouth of the river, however, large flocks of eiders and long-tailed ducks flew about, and on the sandy banks along the shore, flocks of _Calidris arenaria_ and a Tringa or two ran about restlessly seeking their food. The solitude of the _tundra_ was broken only by a couple of larks and a pair of falcons (_Falco peregrinus_) with young. Traces of reindeer were also seen, and two fox-traps set on the strand-bank showed that foxes occur in these regions in sufficient numbers to be the object of capture.

"Later in the afternoon, when some solar altitudes had been taken, in order to determine the geographical position of the place, we rowed back to our vessel and sailed on, keeping at some distance from the coast, and at one place passing between the shore and a long series of blocks of ground-ice, which had stranded along the coast in a depth of nine to sixteen metres. During night we passed a place where five Samoyed tents were pitched, in whose neighbourhood a large number of reindeer pastured. The land was now quite low, and the sea had become considerably shallower. The course was therefore shaped for the N.W., in which direction deeper water was soon met with. Notwithstanding the slight salinity and high temperature (+ 7.7 deg.) of the surface water a _Clio borealis_ and a large number of Copepoda were taken at the surface."

The excursion now described and Almquist's and Hovgaard's landing in 1878 were, as far as I am aware, the only occasions on which naturalists have visited the northern part of that peninsula which separates the Kara Sea from the Obi. The Norwegian hunters also visit the place seldom, the main reasons being the inaccessibility of the shallow east coast, and the want of harbours. They now, however, land occasionally to take in water, and perhaps to barter the tobacco they have saved from their rations, knives they have no use for, and old-fashioned guns, gunpowder, lead, &c., for the products of the Samoyeds' reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing. At first the natives fled when they saw the Norwegians coming, and, when they could not make their escape, they saluted them with great humility, falling on their knees and bending their heads to the earth, and were unwilling to enter into any traffic with them or to show them their goods. But since the Samoyeds observed that the Norwegians never did them any harm, the mistrust and excessive humility have completely disappeared. Now a visit of Europeans is very agreeable to them, partly for the opportunity which it offers of obtaining by barter certain articles of necessity, luxury, or show, partly perhaps also for the interruption thereby caused in the monotony of the _tundra_ life. When the walrus-hunters row or sail along that open coast, it often happens that natives run backwards and forwards on the shore, and by signs eagerly invite the foreigners to land; if they do so, and there are any wealthy Samoyeds in the neighbourhood, there immediately begins a grand entertainment, according to the customs of the people, with more than one trait reminding us of the sketches from the traditionary periods of the civilised nations.

What I have stated here is about all that we know of Yalmal, and we see from this that a very promising, yet untouched field for researches in ethnography and natural history here lies before future travellers to the Yenisej.

What sort of winter is there at the mouth of the Yenisej? We have for the present no information on this point, as no scientific man has wintered there. But on the other hand we have a very exciting narrative of the wintering of the Fin, NUMMELIN, at the Briochov Islands in the Yenisej in lat. 70 deg. 48' north.

I visited the place on the 27th August 1875. It consisted of a fishing post, occupied only in summer, and at that season of the year very attractive, surrounded as it is by luxuriant vegetation of grass and bushes. The houses were situated on a sound running between the Briochov Islands, which form the northernmost group of the labyrinth of islands which occupy the channel of the Yenisej between 69-1/2 deg. and 71 deg. N.L. At the time of our visit the fishing was over for the season and the place deserted. But two small houses and a number of earth-huts (_jordgammor_), all in good repair, stood on the river bank and gave evidence, along with a number of large boats drawn up on land, and wooden vessels intended for salting fish, of the industry which had been carried on there earlier in the summer. It was at this place that Nummelin passed one of the severest winters that Arctic literature has to record.[101]

In 1876 M. Sidoroff, well known for the lively interest which he takes in navigation in the Siberian waters, had a ship _Severnoe Sianie_ (the _Aurora_) built and fitted out at Yeniseisk, in order to carry goods from the Yenisej to Europe. The vessel was placed under the command of a Russian sea-captain, Schwanenberg. Under him Nummelin served as mate, and the vessel had a crew of eighteen men, most of whom had been exiled to Siberia for crime. In consequence of various mishaps the vessel could not get farther the first year than to the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Yenisej, where it was left in winter quarters at the place which has been named above. Nummelin and four exiles remained on board, while Schwanenberg and the rest of the crew returned to Yeniseisk on the 28th September. Frost had already commenced. During the two following weeks the temperature kept in the neighbourhood of the freezing point; clear weather alternating with snow and rain.

On the 5th of October the crew withdrew to their winter quarters, having previously collected driftwood and placed it in heaps in order that they might easily find it under the snow.

On the 16th October the thermometer at eight o'clock in the morning showed -4.5 deg. and afterwards sank lower every day, until after the 21st October the mercury for some days was constantly under -10 deg.. On the 26th October the temperature was -18 deg., but in the beginning of November it rose again to -2 deg.. On the 6th November it sank again to -17 deg., but rose on the 11th to -3.5 deg.. On the 14th November the thermometer showed -23.5 deg., on the 21st -29.5 deg.. Next day in the morning it stood at -32 deg., and in the evening at -37 deg., but these figures were arrived at _by guess_, the instrument not indicating so low temperatures. This temperature of -30 deg. to -32 deg., varying with frozen mercury, continued till the end of November, when it rose again to -11.5 deg.. At Christmas there was again a temperature of -31 deg. and the six following days the mercury was frozen, with which the new year came in. The temperature then rose again to -20 deg., but soon sank so that from the 16th January the mercury was frozen for five days. On the 22nd January the reading was -9 deg.. On the 26th the mercury froze again, and on the 29th the temperature was -6 deg.. During the month of February the temperature never rose above -24 deg.; the mercury was frozen on the 20th, 25th, 26th, and 28th. This was the case on the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 14th, 16th, and 18th March; on the 22nd March the reading was -7 deg., on the 30th -29 deg.. April began with -31 deg., but the temperature afterwards rose, so that on the 16th it reached -11 deg. and varied between -21 deg. and -6 deg. (the 25th). On the 2nd May the reading in the morning and evening was -12 deg., at mid-day -2 deg. to -5 deg.. On the 8th May it was +0, on the 17th -10.5 deg., on the 31st +0.5 deg.. June began with +1.5 deg.. On the 8th the reading at mid-day was +11 deg., on the morning and evening of the same day +2 deg. to +3 deg.. During the remainder of June and the month of July the temperature varied between +2 deg. and +21 deg..

It was in such circumstances that Nummelin and his four companions lived in the ill-provided house of planks on the Little Briochov Island. They removed to it, as has been already said, on the 5th October; on the 20th the ice was so hard frozen that they could walk upon it. On the 26th snowstorms commenced, so that it was impossible to go out of the house.

The sun was visible for the last time on the 21st November, and it reappeared on the 19th January. On the 15th May the sun no longer set. The temperature was then under the freezing point of mercury. That the upper edge of the sun should be visible on the 19th January we must assume a horizontal refraction of nearly 1 deg.. The islands on the Yenisej are so low that there was probably a pretty open horizon towards the south.

Soon after Christmas scurvy began to show itself. Nummelin's companions were condemned and punished criminals, in whom there was to be expected neither physical nor moral power of resistance to this disease. They all died, three of scurvy, and one in the attempt to cross from the Briochov Islands to a _simovie_ at Tolstoinos. In their stead Nummelin succeeded in procuring two men from Tolstoinos, and later on one from Goltschicha. On the 11th May a relief party arrived from the south. It consisted of three men under the mate Meyenwaldt, whom Sidoroff had sent to help to save the vessel. They had first to shovel away the snow which weighed it down. The snow lay nearly six metres deep on the river ice, which was three metres thick. When they at last had got the vessel nearly dug out, it was buried again by a new snowstorm.

In the middle of June the ice began to move, and the river water rose so high that Nummelin, Meyenwaldt, and four men, along with two dogs, were compelled to betake themselves to the roof of the hut, where they had laid in a small stock of provisions and fuel. Here they passed six days in constant peril of their lives.

The river had now risen five metres; the roof of the hut rose but a quarter of a metre above the surface of the swollen river, and was every instant in danger of being carried away by a floating piece of ice. In such a case a small boat tied to the roof was their only means of escape.

The whole landscape was overflowed. The other houses and huts were carried away by the water and the drifting ice, which also constantly threatened the only remaining building. The men on its roof were compelled to work night and day to keep the pieces of ice at a distance with poles.

The great inundation had even taken the migrating birds at unawares. For long stretches there was not a dry spot for them to rest upon, and thus it happened that exhausted ptarmigan alighted among the men on the roof; once a ptarmigan settled on Meyenwaldt's head, and a pair on the dogs.

On the 23rd June the water began to fall, and by the 25th it had sunk so low that Nummelin and his companions could leave the roof and remove to the deserted interior of the house.

The narrative of Nummelin's return to Europe by sea, in company with Schwanenberg, belongs to a following chapter.

[Footnote 87: _Les moeurs et usages des Ostiackes_, par Jean Bernard Muller, Capitaine de dragon au service de la Suede, pendant sa captivite en Siberie (_Recueil de Voiages au Nord._ T. VIII., Amsterdam, 1727, p. 389). ]

[Footnote 88: I come to this conclusion from the appearance of the strata as seen from the sea, and from their nature on Vaygats Island and the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. So far as I know, no geologist has landed on this part of the east coast. ]

[Footnote 89: Sometimes, however, icebergs are to be met with in the most northerly part of the Kara Sea and on the north coast of Novaya Zemlya, whither they may drive down from Franz Josef Land or from other yet unknown Polar lands lying farther north. ]

[Footnote 90: In most of the literary narratives of Polar journeys colossal icebergs play a very prominent part in the author's delineations both with the pencil and the pen. The actual fact, however, is that icebergs occur in far greater numbers in the seas which are yearly accessible than in those in which the advance of the Polar travellers' vessel is hindered by impenetrable masses of ice. If we may borrow a term from the geography of plants to indicate the distribution of icebergs, they may be said to be more _boreal_ than _polar_ forms of ice. All the fishers on the coast of Newfoundland, and most of the captains on the steamers between New York and Liverpool, have some time or other seen true icebergs, but to most north-east voyagers this formation is unknown, though the name iceberg is often in their narratives given to glacier ice-blocks of somewhat considerable dimensions. This, however, takes place on the same ground and with the same justification as that on which the dwellers on the Petchora consider Bolschoj-Kamen a very high mountain. But although no true icebergs are ever formed at the glaciers so common on Spitzbergen and also on North Novaya Zemlya, it however often happens that large blocks of ice fall down from them and give rise to a swell, which may be very dangerous to vessels in their neighbourhood. Thus a wave caused by the falling of a piece of ice from a glacier on the 23rd (13th) of June, 1619, broke the masts of a vessel anchored at Bell Sound on Spitzbergen, threw a cannon overboard, killed three men, and wounded many more (Purchas, iii., p. 734). Several similar adventures, if on a smaller scale, I could relate from my own experience and that of the walrus-hunters. Care is taken on this account to avoid anchoring too near the perpendicular faces of glaciers. ]

[Footnote 91: It may, however, be doubted whether the _whole_ of the Kara Sea is completely frozen over in winter. ]

[Footnote 92: Already in 1771 one of Pallas' companions, the student Sujeff, found large algae in the Kara Sea (Pallas, _Reise_. St. Petersburg, 1771--1776, ii. p. 34). ]

[Footnote 93: Dwellings intended both for winter and summer habitation. ]

[Footnote 94: The most northerly fixed dwelling-place, which is at present inhabited by Europeans, is the Danish commercial post Tasiusak, in north-western Greenland, situated in 73 deg. 24' N.L. How little is known, even in Russia, of the former dwellings at the mouth of the Yenisej may be seen from _Neueste Nachrichten ueber die noerdlichste Gegend von Sibirien zwischen den Fluessen Pjassida und Chatanga in Fragen und Autworten abgefasst. Mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen vom Herausgeber_ (K.E. v. Baer und Gr. v. Helmersen, _Beitraege sur Kenntniss des russischen Reiches_, vol. iv. p. 269. St. Petersburg, 1841). ]

[Footnote 95: The collections made here were after our return determined by Dr. Kjellman, who has communicated the following list:

Saxifraga stellaris L.
Saxifraga cernua L.
Saxifraga rivularis L.
Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR.
Stellaria humifusa ROTTB.
Sagina nivalis FR.
Arctophila pendulina (LAEST.) ANDS.
Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR.
Dupontia Fisheri R. BR.
Aira caespitosa L.
Hierochloa pauciflora R. BR.
Eriophorum russeolum FR.
Eriophorum Scheuchzeri HOPPE.
Carex salina WG.
Carex ursina DESV.
Luzula hyperborea R. BR.
Luzula arctica BL. ]

[Footnote 96: These according to Dr. Kjellman's determination are:

Saxifraga cernua L.
Saxifraga caespitosa L.
Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR.
Draba alpina L.
Ranunculus sulphureus SOL.
Ranunculus nivalis L.
Ranunculus pygmaeus WG.
Ranunculus lapponicus L.
Ranunculus borealis TRAUTV.
Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR.
Salix glauca L.
Arctophila pendulina (LAEST.) AND.
Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR.
Catabrosa concinna TH. FR.
Dupontia Fisheri R. BR.
Calamagrostis lapponica L.
Carex salina WG.
Carex rigida GOOD.
Eriophorum russeolum FR.
Luzula arcuata SM. f. hyperborea R. BR.
Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB.
]

[Footnote 97: On the maps in Linschoten's work already quoted, printed in 1601, and in Blavii _Atlas Major_ (1665, t. i. pp. 24, 25), this land is called "Nieu West Vrieslant" and "West Frisia Nova," names which indeed have priority _in print_, but yet cannot obtain a preference over the inhabitants' own beautiful name. ]

[Footnote 98: Paul von Krusenstern, _Skizzen aus seinem Seemannsleben_. Hirschberg in Silesia. Farther on I intend to give a more detailed account of von Krusenstern's two voyages in the Kara Sea. ]

[Footnote 99: _Deutsche Geogr. Blaetter_ von Lindemann Namens d. Geogr. Gesellsch., Bremen. I. 1877. II. 1878. O. Finsch, _Reise nach West-Sibirien im Jahre 1876_. Berlin, 1879. A bibliographical list has been drawn up by Count von Waldburg-Zeil under the title, _Litteratur-Nachweis fur das Gebiet des unteren, Ob_. ]

[Footnote 100: Nordenskioeld, _Redogoerelse for en expedition till mynningen af Jenisej och Sibirien ar 1875_, Bih. till Kongl. Vet.-Ak. Handl, vol. iv., No. 1, p. 38-42. ]

[Footnote 101: I give the particulars of this wintering partly after communications made to me in conversation by Nummelin, partly after _Goeteborgs Handelsoch Sjofartstidning_ for the 20th and 21st November, 1877. This _first_ and, as far as I know, only detailed narrative of the voyage in question, was dictated to the editor of that journal, _reference being made to the log_ by Schwanenberg and Nummelin. Schwanenberg had come to Gothenburg some days before with his Yeniseisk-built vessel. ]