Overland Back to St. Petersburg

Across Siberia to America – Part 20.

Petersburg across European Russia and Siberia to Irkutsk, Yakutsk, and Okhotsk, sailed across the North Pacific to Kodiak Island, wintered there, and sailed back to Okhotsk. Now they are ready to return home. On their way to America, they crossed Siberia in summer; now they will be making the trip in winter. Conditions were about as harsh as you would imagine, but the travel was faster, especially along the Lena River between Yakutsk and Irkutsk. Horse-drawn sleighs, or kibitkas, traveled up the frozen river much faster than their boats had floated down it the previous summer.

The previous episode:

Finally Back to the Mainland at Okhotsk

Just as a reminder, a verst is about a kilometer (0.6 miles or so), an arshin is about 28 inches, and a pood is about 36 pounds.

DAVYDOV’S NARRATIVE (Concluded)

CHAPTER V (Concluded).

5 September [1803].

On this day fell a rather heavy snow, and we rode on dogs.

23 September.

In the evening, accompanied by five of our friends, we left Okhotsk and spent the night by the Okhota River, before reaching the coal pits. The night was very cold.

24 September.

At nine o'clock in the morning we saddled our horses, said goodbye to our friends, and set off on our onward journey. We spent the night on the Mete.

They covered quite a distance, didn’t they?

25 September.

We stopped for the night sixteen versts beyond the Uratsk ferry, at the Urak river, in a grove of poplar, whose fallen leaves serve as the best fodder for horses in this season. When the snow falls so much that these animals cannot get fodder from under it, then they cut down willows and all sorts of small shrubs for them, and failing that, they let them gnaw the bark from the trees. Snow fell all day.

26 September.

We forded the river Berezovka between the Kislev and Porozhny fords [on the eastbound trip, Davydov noted that the Porozhny, or empty, ford is so called because it is between two small rapids –JT.] on the Urak, and after the latter we stopped to spend the night. In the morning there was snow and frost, then fog, and finally the day became rather warm. We shot partridges on the way.

27 September.

For a little less than 20 versts to Plotbishcha [another place they had passed on the way east –JT.], I rode ahead with the Cossack. We got ourselves some fish and berries, and after riding another 12 versts we stopped for the night. The farther we rode, the more snow we encountered, which made our path very difficult. The merchant convoys that left Okhotsk before us lost many of their horses because of it.

28 September.

We spent the night 18 versts short of the Yudoma cross. Lake Sis-kul has completely frozen. The snow was very deep in places.

In the morning we had a long delay, since the horses had scattered in all directions. However, today we caught up with our liveryman; we traded our poor horses for good ones. We forded the Yudoma River, along which there was a lot of slush and ice. The dog that was with us could not follow us, and it remained on the other side. We spent the night on a second burnt area, in snow more than half an arshin deep. The tract between the dirty river and the first burnt area is called Silya-yyabyt (he hung up his pants).

29 September.

So far the days have been cold, but mostly clear; today it was snowing heavily, blinding the eyes as we passed through the clearings. We crossed the Taskh-Talon ridge (stone field) and two or three times the Akachan River, which flows into the Yudoma. The Ognenna [Fiery], Lamkova, and the river where we had horses drowned last year – in a word, the entire road along which we  rode last summer to avoid fording the flooded Akachan – remained on our right. Having passed the small Kogon Ityt, we stopped for the night on the large one, in snow about an arshin deep.

1 October.

In the morning we were delayed searching for the scattered horses, for which reason we were forced to leave a Yakut behind. Thick wet snow continued to fall.

2 October.

Having passed the lakes called small, medium and large Chzhergatalakh, we entered the valley of Myrs Saibat (Myrs’s storehouse), named after the Yakut Myrs, who, returning in late autumn from Okhotsk, was caught by such deep snow that he could not find a way through this gorge. He slaughtered his horses, put the meat in a storehouse and wintered here. This tract is called Kere-be-talon (brown mare’s field); because the Yakuts returning from Okhotsk one late autumn left a stubborn brown mare, which was unexpectedly found alive the next year.

Here we were forced to abandon one horse. On the road lay a lot of carrion. Having passed Bus-kul we stopped for the night.

3 October.

The night was very cold, and during the day the cold forced me to get off my horse and go on foot. The rivers were covered with thick ice in all the deep places, but thick slush was still carried along the rapids. We spent the night at Dylga-Asylyk (“feeding place” in the Kochki language), twenty versts from the Allakh-Yuna river.

We forded the Allakh-Yuna, although in many places it was already covered with ice that could hold horses. We arrived at the post station early in the day, but we stopped so that our tired horses, which could barely move their legs, could be rested and fed; for the snow near these places was thin and under it there was a fair amount of grass. The Yakuts asked us to stay here one more day, and wanted to go the other way along the Berezovka river, since they had no hope that the snow would let us pass along the summer route through the seven ridges and other high mountains. We found the station empty: the horses had been taken to a different place, because this road has been abandoned and people have begun to ride through Ammyakon. We stayed in the Yakut kitchen. Although our chambers consisted of four moss-free walls, with a roof made of bark, in which a hole was made for the smoke to escape, it seemed to us very good after spending so many nights in the cold.

5 October.

In the afternoon, two Tungus came to us, saying that their nomadic yurts with their wives, children and deer stood about twenty versts on the other side of the Allakh-Yuna; and that they had come here for a jaunt. A most Tunguskan ramble! We gave them tobacco, and they gave us two bags of kaparga musk.

6 October.

Kaparga belongs to the genus of wild goats found most in the mountains. Their hair is black or with white speckles, and long like goats’. With its wool the kaparga looks like a big dog. The horns are small and erect, there is no tail, the legs are very thin, and the meat is very tasty. Under the belly against the navel under the skin, there is a gland that produces a musk that is exported to Russia. The Yakuts, Tungus and the local Russians drink this musk dried with oil; they smear this composition on skin rashes and successfully revive worn out horses with it. The Yakuts and Tungus call the kaparga by the same name, Byusan. These animals always travel in groups.

Our Yakuts decided against going by way of the Berezovka River, because there was no path there, so it would have been very difficult to cross one high ridge, on which of course there was already deep snow. Accordingly, we set off along the summer road after all, where a trail had been cut by merchant convoys ahead of us. A sharp cold wind, or Khiuz, as the inhabitants of eastern Siberia call it, was blowing along our seven ridges. This wind blew snow with great force from the tops of the mountains, which seemed to be smoking.

Polevoy caught up with us at our campsite, and from then on we began to sleep better; for we were able to sleep not in tents, but under square canvases set at a slight angle to the ground, near which we kept a large fire all night, very pleasant in such a severe climate. I am extremely sorry that I did not have a thermometer with me to accurately determine the cold, which of course was in high places up to twenty-five or twenty-eight degrees [below zero: this would be about -35ºC, or about -37ºF –JT.], according to the Reaumur thermometer. Arriving for the night, we usually shovel the snow under the place where we want to pitch the canopy and start a fire, which otherwise, melting the snow, would ruin our clothes. We also take care to put the canopy along the length of the pass, located between the mountains, so that the smoke never gets into our eyes.

7 October.

Starting at noon the sky became cloudy, snow began to fall, and by evening it became very heavy. Having traveled about thirty versts to the river Kunkui, we stopped for the night. Kunkui means a narrow place, and the name of the river comes from the fact that it flows in very narrow mountain gorges. Kunkui has good forage, there is a lot of grass for the horsetail genus, called Yakuts Sibikhtya, from which horses very soon regain their bulk. Sibikhtya is green in winter. For this reason, from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn, people always travel along the Kunkui all the way to its source; in the summer they avoid this road because on the Kunkui the rains can force people to stay in one place for more than a month. By the beginning of spring in this climate, I mean the time when the rivers have not yet cleared of ice.

8 October.

By midday the snow had stopped and it became clear. At first we crossed the Kunkui on the ice, but at times we had to wade.

9 October.

It snowed at times. On the Belaya River, several horses fell through the ice, and we were barely able to save them.

10 October.

The mountains became noticeably lower: a sign that we were approaching the Aldan. The weather was clear with severe cold.

11 October.

It continued to be just as cold. Before the sun went down, we arrived at the Aldan River, covered with thick blocks of ice, which in the middle were moving a little, which made crossing the river with horses impossible. For this reason, we had to stay here for more than a day. Many other travelers from Okhotsk gathered at this station, and everyone had to crowd into only two Cossack yurts. At this time, the Yakuts deliberately come to the Aldan ferry, where they sell meat, butter and other food supplies at a great profit. In local yurts, as well as in Yakut ones, ice blocks are inserted in the windows instead of glass.

15 October.

In the morning, the river overflowed the banks, so we concluded that the river had frozen somewhere below this place. In the evening, we heard the cracking of the spiraling ice floes, which subsided at about midnight. The river opposite the station also froze.

16 October.

Snow fell and it was cold. The ice opposite the station could not yet hold a person, which is why the Yakuts went upstream and, finding a place where it was thicker, pierced it in many places, so that the water would come through and freeze, making the ice thicker still.

In the evening, a Yakut woman came to our yurt, who, seeing that one man made some unusual movement, did the same, and screamed and rushed at him. Afterwards, she imitated anyone who did anything, screaming and throwing herself at him with a stick or her fists. Finally, she became so enraged that, having sat down on the floor, she began to grimace and sing, as if conjuring. They took her away, and she screamed until she wore herself out. Among the Yakuts, they often see such women who are called Ameryachki. They claim that this is a disease; but I think that at the beginning they pretend, and in time it becomes an ingrained habit.

17 October.

In the morning the Yakuts transferred one packhorse on the ice across the Aldan, and at about noon we began to cross the same way. The ice was still thin in some places, sagged under us and cracked; but we crossed safely, and only the last horse fell through, and with great difficulty and danger we were able to pull it out. From the Aldan we took post horses and, having crossed the Nokha river, stopped for the night at the station of that name.

18 October.

At 5 o’clock in the morning we set off. At first it snowed, but it stopped as soon as the sun, around which a rainbow was visible, rose somewhat from the horizon. At the Amga station, we found beautiful carps. We spent the night at Melzhegei.

19 October.

We arrived at Chuporsu for the night. The evening was very cold.

20 October.

Until noon it was snowing heavily, and then a sharp wind blew right in our faces; due to which were only able to make 64 versts.

21 October.

We got up early from the Chuchigi station, where we spent the night, and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon arrived in the city of Yakutsk. We should have to stay here until a good road is established along the Lena River, by which we can go to the Kachug pier [the head of navigation on the Lena, not too far from Irkutsk –JT.]. After autumn, the Lena usually becomes very rough, and until the way is cleared, it is extremely restless, from the protruding ice floes, which they call hummocks here.

9 November.

[Notice the long delay at Yakutsk, waiting for the Lena to freeze hard –JT.]

In the evening we left the city and set off with Mr. Polevoy, in three wagons in all. Most of the settlers living from Yakutsk to Alekminsk, or even further, nowadays eat almost nothing but porridge made from milk and pine bark, some add a little flour, and others have nothing but pine bark and water. They strip the bark in the fall, dry it and pound it into flour. The effect of such food is noticeable on the face of every person, because none of them have any color or other visible sign of strength and health. In one place we saw a twelve-year-old girl who seemed to us to be an old woman. The passing merchants help these unfortunates, giving them a little from their travel supplies, which for this purpose they deliberately stock with surplus. Our fellow traveler Mr. Polevoy, a generous and virtuous man, loaded his and our carts with crusts of bread and all sorts of food supplies to distribute to the poor people who, therefore, know him very well. He often travels from Irkutsk to Okhotsk and always makes the same gifts to these unfortunates. It would be good for more Polevoys to travel this way!

The kibitkas in which people travel along the Lena are very light, small and so poorly built that a rare one will remain intact if it hits an ice floe. You cannot put more than 10 or 12 poods in one. For lack of oats, they feed the horses only hay, and sometimes brushwood; therefore, they very quickly wear out, after a month from the beginning of the winter journey, they can barely drag their legs and the ride is very difficult.

12 November.

Frosts are becoming harsher day by day. For an experience, I drove between two post stations on the box and I can assure you that it is very difficult. When the face meets the first rush of air, it feels as if it is being scorched. When you exhale, you will hear a kind of thaw in the air; a column of steam rises over the horses, visible from a distance, and these animals cannot run quickly, suffocating from the heavy air. Every 4 or 5 versts you must stop the horses and clear the ice, which completely closes their nostrils; otherwise their breath is blocked and they stop on their own. Inhabitants of the Lena wear chin guards, nose guards, forehead guards, earmuffs and cheek guards on their faces, so that only the eyes and mouth remain uncovered. Squirrel tail collars are worn around the neck over their dress. The dress is made of hare or deer skins, on top of which the Yakut Sanaiakh is usually worn. Suturas and knee pads are put on the legs over the torbas. I described the suturas earlier. Mittens are made large from some kind of warm fur, the top of which consists of something harder; such as deer skin, or fox paws and the like.

13 November.

From Kharabalysk (44 versts) we rode the full time at a walking pace, and the drivers walked near the kibitkas. Finally, ten versts from Namina, I went on foot, and I was far ahead of my wagons.

14 November.

A little before reaching Alekminsk, a runner on our kibitka broke and we abandoned it. Not much later another overturned, and it also broke. My hands were nearly frostbitten while I was fixing it. Arriving in the city, we sent for the abandoned cart: the driver, who was with it, almost froze as well, for the cold was severe.

Here they confirmed to us what we had heard earlier about the horses bought on the Vilyui River – that after two years, after being released into the wild, they often go home, even if that was a thousand versts away. The good local forage is believed to be the reason for this. The Vilyui River abounds in fish, especially in summer, when they come into it from the sea. Saltwater fish never pass beyond Vitim, or rarely, and even then only in very small numbers. Vilyui iron is considered among the very best. The Yakuts make various excellent things out of it, and their knives are famous all over the north-eastern Siberia; for this metal is extremely soft, so that the knives bend as needed for different handicrafts and are easily straightened again.

20 November.

At Dubrovsk station, we found some Tungus, who had returned from sable trapping at Vitim. We brought them vodka, for which they wanted to give us a sable, but as we did not accept this gift from them, they, thinking that this was not enough for us, added another sable and a few squirrels, but seeing that we could not accept them even if we wanted to, they were extremely amazed at this, and could hardly believe that we had regaled them with vodka without any intention or thought of their sables. The Tunguses are accustomed to Russian merchants, who, before starting trade, usually ply them with vodka and gifts, creating an obligation for them to reciprocate.

25 November.

Starting from Kirensk, the horses were always good. In the evening we arrived in Irkutsk, having been on the road from Yakutsk for 16 days, with a layover of 13.

20 December.

Tonight we left Irkutsk. The ice was so thick along the Angara that crossing it became impossible. And as they said that the river had already become frozen 40 versts higher, we drove on the right side of the river to that place. We spent the night on the Urik, that is, 18 versts from Irkutsk.

21 December.

In the morning we set off and went to the outskirts of Malta on the high road.

23 December.

At 5am we arrived at Nizhne-Udinsk.

We arrived in Krasnoyarsk. The road from Nizhne-Udinsk to this place was very unpleasant, first because of a blizzard that lasted for several days in a row; and second, because we were traveling on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, at which time many of the drivers are drunk, do not feed their horses, and harness them poorly, thereby causing various obstacles and stops.

Burial marker of Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, Krasnoyarsk. Library of Congress

28 December.

In the evening we arrived in Tomsk, and drove around the streets for a long time, unable to find a place to stay easily.

30 December.

We left Tomsk, and at midnight we arrived at the station called Krutye Logi. We celebrated the New Year on the Barabinskaya steppe.

3 January 1804.

At dawn we arrived at Kopyovo, where the Barabinskaya steppe ends; from here we turned to Tobolsk, leaving the Ishim road on our left hand. The same evening we passed the city of Tara. Frosts and blizzards continued and the road was extremely bad; or, to put it better, there was no road at all, but it disappeared altogether.

In Tobolsk Province, there was almost no rye bread anywhere, but wheat bread everywhere; for this year's rye scarcely came up at all, and a pood of it was sold a gryvnia more expensive than wheat.

From Tara to Tobolsk we drive along an alternate, shorter route, turning from the Aevsky station to the Tatar villages, where we count only 440 versts; along the same road where we had been traveling, 560.

About 300 versts on this side of Tobolsk, for 200 versts around, a great many pests appeared last summer, which the inhabitants call moles, but which, according to their description, should be a genus of rats, for their size is equal to the size of that animal, the same kind of tail covered with some pimples, the color of the coat is mostly black, but gray ones have also been seen. These pests ate almost all the grain, even pressed and stored on elevated pillars, and held on even when the snow had already fallen. In winter, a lot of ermines appeared, and the residents hope that they will exterminate these pests.

Due to the narrowness of the local road, we harnessed 4 or 5 horses goose-style, that is, one in front of the other. Such a team is not capable of a fast ride.

7 January.

In the evening we arrived in Tobolsk. The next day we dined with the Governor General Ivan Osipovich Selifontov, and the next day with the Governor Ivan Fedorovich Steingeil, and in the evening we continued our journey.

The appearance of Tobolsk, built on a steep mountain and under the mountain, is very beautiful from a distance; in the summer it should be even more beautiful, because the city stands at the junction of the Irtysh and Tobola rivers, meandering in the vicinity of it.

14 January.

We drove through Perm, stopping in the city only long enough to change horses.

17 January.

We drove into Kazan, where we stayed until the 24th. From this date to the 26th it was raining, which spoiled the road, which seemed even more tiresome because I was running a fever.

We spent one day in Moscow to repair the wagons. The journey became more enjoyable hour by hour; for in almost every city I find acquaintances, and meanwhile we were approaching the end of our travels. I cannot quite describe the joy I felt when I was finally in St. Petersburg, which happened on February 5 at 9 o’clock in the morning. How long have I thought, What do the past 20 months mean? How, long ago, when we left, our hearts were burdened with the suffering of separation from our relatives and friends? How long has our imagination presented us with immeasurable distances, countless dangers, a different light, a different sky? How long has the desperate thought that maybe we will never return, consumed the entire interior of our soul? Now all the previous fears have passed, we have satisfied our curiosity, achieved some merit, and with a pleasant memory of past difficulties, we fly to see our relatives, benefactors, friends, acquaintances. Everyone who has been absent has experienced this joy; but it is even more, to one in whom there was less hope of enjoying it even once.

END OF PART I.

Khvostov and Davydov returned to St. Petersburg after nearly 20 months of travel. They soon found themselves on the half-pay list, and Rezanov again recruited them to go to America. Part II of Davydov’s work mostly records his observations of the people and natural history of Kodiak and the Aleutians, so I’ll end my serialization of his travel account here. However, in coming weeks I will add, as kind of an encore, an extract from Khvostov’s log of the voyage of the Yunona from Novo Arkhangelsk to San Francisco in 1806.