Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1882 — TRAVEL IN SIBERIA. [ARTICLE]

TRAVEL IN SIBERIA.

An interesting Descripton of tlie Trials attending the .Jeannette Aretic Expedition. Col:* Thomas W. Knox has written the following letter in regard to the search for the Jeannette sufferers: “Lieut. Danenhower and his comrades are about to leave Irkutsk for St. Petersburg on their way to the United Stated, and two officers of our navy have just been ordered to Siberia to assist iu the search for Capt. DeLong aud the missing men. It has therefore been suggested to me that a brief discription of the Siberian post road which these parties will travel would be specially interesting at this time. “In November, 1666, I' left Irkutsk for St. Petersburg; the terminus of tbe railway was then at Nijui Novgorod, 3400 miles from the former city. Winter is the best time for travel iu Siberia, as the roads are smoother than at other seasons of the year, and one is not annoyed by dust and mosquitoes. If you travel bv the post vehicles belonging to tbe station masters > r ou must change at every station, aud trahsfe of yourself and baggage fouj* or fiive times a day, with the thermometer below zero, is the reverse of pleasant. Consequently most persons prefer to buy a carriage or a sleigh at starting, and sell it for what it will bring as the end of the route. I became tne owuer of a ‘kibitka,’ or one half-open sleigh, which somewhat resembles a New England chaise, greatly elongated. There wasabundant room for two of us. aud we could be at lull length on our furs and baggage, or sit half upright with pillows enough to wedge us closely into our places. At uight or iu a storm we could lower a hood at the top aud fasten it to a thick apron from below,so that we were fairly proeteettd from severe weather. Baggage is iu flat valises of soft leather, and spread over the bottom of the sleigh; the crevices and chinks are filled with straw, a layer of furs or sheepskins covers the whole, and on this you sit or lie at your pleasure. It is judicious to lash it with ropes to preveu its tumbling out on top of you iu case of an upset. The post stations are from 10 to 20 miles apart, aud trom Irkutsk to Nijui Novgorod I changed horses aud drivers 206 times, and was drawn by not far from 1000 horses altogether. On arriving at a station you present your paderojiua, or road pass, to the station master, and demand horses ;if your pa-s is of a high order you will get them at once, but if there is no reason why he should expedite you, he may keep you waiting several hours, or until you bribe him into supplying your wants. The road pass is only obtainable from the authorities, and as horses cannot be supplied without it, there is no chane of an ‘irregular’ person traveling about the country. Tne pass states your name and residence, the number of hoises you are entitled to demand and pay for,* and also states very explicitly your destination. The ordinary team is three horses, aud each horse is to be paid ior at the rate of a kopeck a and half per verst—about a cent and hall per mile. Tue driver expects a small fee at the end of his course, so that the expense of being drawn ever a Siberian road is about five cents a mile for two persons. If the roads are good you are carried aloug at fine speed, especially if you hiut that a liberal fee will be forthcoming. It is not unusual to make tenor twelve miles an hour, aud not unfrequently thirteen miles would be covered iu that time. The performance of a Russjau driver is something rather trying to a nervous person; he descends hills at a breakneck speed and is utterly regardless of sbaKiug you up. Late iu winter the roads are full of nollows, or “hog-wallows,” especially on the hill side-, and when a team is driven over them at a gallop the sleigh jumps in a manner a great deal moie than exhilerating. As ldng as the v. hide preserves its integrity the driver pays it no attention. This sort of thing brings on what the Russians call the road fever; the pulse is high, aud every bound of the sleigh forces the blood through the veins at a fearful pressure. Your head seems ready to burst, and the :eeling at each jar of the vehicle, is very much as though somebody was trying to drive a railroad spike into your skull. The fever generally subsides in two or three da\s, but sometimes it is so severe that the traveler becomes delirious and must take several hours of rest at each stage. “I followed the Russian plan in preparing for the journey. I had fur socks over my ordinary ones,fur stockings outside the socks, and fur boots inclosing all. Over my ordinary clothing I wore a sheepskin coat with the wool inside aud fastening tight around the neck. Outside of this was a deerskin coat that touched the ground when I stood erect, and was large enough inside for a man aud a boy; its collar was a foot wide, aud the sleeves, six inches longer than the arms inside, were very inconvenient when I tried to pick up "any thing. Fur clothing in such amount is a personal incumbrance, but without it the traveler would suffer from the severe cold* The lowest temperature I experienced on the road was 40° below zero. A bottle of champagne became perfectly solid tbe first day of the sleigh ride, and I discovered a tendency to crystallization iu a bottle of poor brandy that belonged to my companion. “Thousrh the frost cannot penetrate a traveler's furs, it constautiy assails his face aud congeals the moisture of his breath; beard and furs frequently freeze together and render sudden movements inconvenient. A moustache becomes a double ended icicle in a short time, and a lady will soon tell you that her veil is soon converted into a good counterfeit of a wire screen. -It was a season of fastiug when I made my journey, and the stations could not be relied on for any provisions, except bread and eggs, unless we include hot water for making tea. Russians drink vast quantities of tea while traveling,

aud many who are addicted to stimuJ lasing drinks while at home abstain from tuem altogether on tbe road and drink nothing but tea. We carried most of our provisions in a frozen state and thawed them out at the stations as we wauted them. Soup was in cakes like smail tricks,and|roast b€6f rpspmbled red granite. We had a bag of pil. mahia—a Russian preparation of little meat balls covered with au envelope of dough—and this Ibag was our great reliauce. The contents were like walnuts from the effects of the frost • a double handful dropped in a gallon’of water and boiled for five minutes made a substantial soup or stew, and we found this article of sustenance more convenient than any other. “Along the road there was little change of scenery. Tbe country is undulating, but not broken, aud in some places there are plains that resemble our western prairies. The landscape, or rather snowscape, is monotonous aud wearisome, except where it is crossed by rivers and the few ranges of hills along the route. The villages containingrthe stations were from ten to twenty miles apart, and generally built in a single street. Out-side of nearly every village was a block-house, where exiles are lodged on their way to the places of their banishment; the movements of these involuntary emgrauts are so timed that only a given number are lodged in any one bouse t the same time—not so much iu consideration of the comforts the exiles as through fear of attempts at revolt and escape. While the horses were changed at the stations, we had the option of entering the house or staying outside; we generally did the latter, except at meal times, as the change from several degrees below to sixty or seventy above is not altogether agreeable. The rooms of Russian houses are warmed by brick stoves, and among the peasants the top of the stove is the favorite sleeping place. At night we used to stir the drivers out from where they were being slowly baked; their toilets were quickly preformed, as it only included douniug a sheepskiu coat aud buckling a belt around the waist, and then they were ready for a drive of two or three hours through au arctic temperature. “The most perilous part of the journey is across the Baiahinsky Steppe in Western Siberia, a plain a thousand miles wide, and often swept by severe storms. The snow is whirled in blinding masses, the wind, if blowing from the north, is bitter cold, and not infrequently men and horses perish. Travel ceases during these storms, and sometimes those who venture to brave them never reach their desiiuation. Wolves abound here, and many stories are told of their ferocity, but they are less dangerous than in Western Russia, where the population is more dense and game less abundant than in Siberia; even there they never attack nten except in the severest wiuters when hunger has made them desperate. “A Siberian journey generally begins iu the evening, and is continued day and uight until its end. The government couriers will go from Irktusk to Moscow iu fourteen or fi teen days under favorable circ-amstauces, but a move diguified aud less fatiguing pace will cover the distance iu twenty-two or twenty five days. The larger the party the slower will be its progess, and it is not likely that Lieut. Dauenkovver aud his comrades will arrive at St' Petersburgb iu less than a month from their departure from Irktusk. They will be certain to receive all possible attention from Russians along the route, aud it is by no means improbable that they may bs detained a day or two. iu each of the half a dozen towns, in order t*>at the inhabitants can have have an opportunity of showing their sympathy for the survivors of the lost Jeauuette aud their good will for all Americans.