Right opposite the village Nasimovskoj is a gold-digger's deserted "residence," named Yermakova after the first conqueror of Siberia. The building owed its origin to the discovery of sand-beds rich in gold, occupying a pretty extensive area east of the Yenisej, which for a time had the repute of being the richest gold territory in the world. Here in a short time enormous fortunes were made; and accounts of the hundreds of poods which one or another yearly reaped from the sand-beds, and the fast reckless life led by those to whom fortune dealt out the great prizes in the gold-digging lottery, still form a favourite topic of conversation in the region. A rise in the value of labour and a diminished production of the noble metal have, however, since led to the abandonment of a large number of the diggings that formerly were most productive; others now scarcely pay the expense of the working. Many of the gold-diggers who were formerly rich, in the attempt to win more have been impoverished, and have disappeared; others who have succeeded in retaining their "pood of gold"—that is the mint unit which the gold-diggers prefer to use in their conversation—have removed to Omsk, Krasnojarsk, Moscow, Petersburg, Paris, &c. The gold-diggers' residences stand, therefore, now deserted, and form on the eastern bank of the river a row of half-decayed wooden ruins surrounded by young trees, after which in no long time only the tradition of the former period of prosperity will be found remaining. In one respect indeed the gold-diggers have exerted a powerful influence on the future of the country. For it was through them that the first pioneers were scattered in the wilderness, the first seed sown of the cultivation of the region.
In 1875 there were only two steamers on the Yenisej. These were neither passenger nor cargo boats, but rather movable commercial stores, propelled by steam. The fore-saloon formed a shop provided with a desk, and shelves on which were to be seen cloths, iron wares, guns, ammunition, tobacco, tea, matches, sugar, brightly coloured copper engravings or lithographs, &c. In the after-saloon was enthroned, among brandy casks, purchased furs, and other precious or delicate wares, he who had the command on board, a kind and friendly merchant, who evidently did not concern himself much with the work of the sailors, but rather with trade and the making of bargains, and who was seldom called by the crew captain (kapitan), but generally master (hosain). After the steamer, or floating commercial store, there was towed one or two lodjas, which served as magazines, in which meal and salt and other heavy goods were stored, the purchased fish were salted and looked after, fresh bread baked for the numerous crew, &c. And as there was not a single jetty to be found the whole way between Yenisejsk and the sea, both the steamer and the lodjas, in order to be able to load and deliver goods at any point, had a large number of boats and lighters in tow. No place was set apart for passengers, but travellers were received in a friendly and hospitable manner when they came on board, where they were then allowed to look out for themselves as best they could. The nautical command was held by two mates or pilots of a stately and original appearance, who, clad in long caftans, sat each in his watch on a chair at the wheel, generally without steering, mostly smoking a cigarette made of coarse paper and, with the most careless appearance in the world, exchanging jests with those who were going down the river. The prohibition of taking away the attention of the steersman from his work by conversation was thus not in force hereabouts. A man stood constantly in the fore, uninterruptedly testing the depth with a long pole. For in order to avoid the strong current of the main stream the course was always shaped as near the shore as possible, often so near that one could almost jump ashore, and my own Nordland boat, which was towed by the side of the steamer, was occasionally drawn over land. It will be seen from this of how light draught the steamer was.
Siberia, especially the river territory of the Yenisej and the Lena, possesses rich coal seams, which probably extend under considerable portions of the Siberian plain, but are yet unworked and have attracted little attention. The river steamers accordingly are fired, not with coal, but with wood, of which, if I remember right, 180 fathoms went to the voyage of the steamer Alexander up the river. As the vessel could carry only a small portion of this quantity of wood at one time, frequent halts were necessary, not only for trading with the natives, but also for taking fuel on board. In addition to this, the weak engine, although the safety valves were overloaded when necessary with lead weights, was sometimes unable to make head with all the vessels in tow against a current which at some places was very rapid, and often, in the attempt to find still water near the river bank, the steamer ran aground, notwithstanding the continual "ladno" cry of the poling pilot standing in the fore. It made so slow progress on this account that the passage from Saostrovskoj to Yenisejsk occupied a whole month.
The two main arms into which the Yenisej is divided south of Yenisejsk are too rapid for the present Yenisej steamers to ascend them, while, as has been already stated, there is no difficulty in descending these rivers from the Selenga and the Baikal Lake on the one hand, and from the Minusinsk region abounding in grain on the other. The banks here consist, in many places, of high rocky ridges covered with fine forests, with wonderfully beautiful valleys between them, covered with luxuriant vegetation.
What I have said regarding the mode of travelling up the Yenisej refers to the year 1875, in which I went up the river accompanied by two Swedish naturalists and three Norwegian seamen. It was then by no means unknown, for scientific men such as HANSTEEN (1829), CASTRÉN (1846), MIDDENDORFF (winter journeys in 1843 and 1844), and SCHMIDT (1866), had travelled hither and communicated their observations to the scientific world in valuable works on the nature and people of the region. But the visits of the West-European still formed rare exceptions; no West-European commercial traveller had yet wandered to those regions, and into the calculations of the friendly masters of the Yenisej river steamers no import of goods from, or export of goods to, Europe had ever entered. All at once a new period seemed to begin. If the change has not gone on so fast as many expected, life here, however, is more than it was at one time, and every year the change is more and more noticeable. It is on this account that I consider these notes from the journey of 1875 worthy of being preserved.
FOOTNOTES:
[200] With this name, for want of another, I denote all the innumerable islands which lie in the Yenisej between 69° 45' and 71° N.L.
[201] The Moskwa was the first steamer which penetrated from the Atlantic to the town of Yenisejsk. The principal dates of this voyage may therefore be quoted here.
Baron Knoop, along with several Russian merchants, had chartered in 1878 a steamer, the Louise; but this vessel stranded on the coast of Norway. The Zaritza, another Norwegian steamer, was chartered instead to carry the Louise's goods to their destination. But this vessel too stranded at the mouth of the Yenisej, and was abandoned by the crew, who were rescued by a small steamer, the Moskwa, which accompanied the Zaritza. In this steamer Captain Dallmann, the Bremen merchant Helwig Schmidt, and Ehlertz, an official in the Russian finance office, now travelled up the river. The Moskwa had a successful voyage, arriving on the 4th September at Goltschicha, passing Turuchansk in consequence of a number of delays only on the 24th September, reaching Podkamenaja Tunguska on the 1st October, and on the 14th of the same month its destination, a winter harbour on the Tschorna river, some miles north of Yenisejsk. (Fahrt auf dem Yenisse; von der Mündung bis Yenisejsk im Sommer 1878; Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1879, p 81.)