So dense is the forest that in summer, a man can see no more than 10 or 12 feet in any direction. Yet in winter, the explorer’s lot is no easier; for, although the deciduous trees then stand leafless, the ground is covered by three feet or more of snow. And in the early fall, violent cloudbursts often flood the taiga, making travel impossible.
Such was the inhospitable region in which the Ussuri, or (as it is now known in the U.S.S.R.) Sikhote-Alin meteorite, had chanced to fall. For any search parties traveling on the ground, the likelihood that they could find the fallen meteorite in that wilderness would have been very small.
The impact point of the Ussuri meteorite was discovered in the only way really practical: from the air. Fortunately, the center of impact lay almost directly below the airlane connecting the towns of Iman and Ulunga, so that the devastation produced by the meteorite fall in the taiga was clearly visible to aviators following this active air route.
The accounts several fliers gave concerning the widespread cratering and destruction they had seen from the air in the impact area led to the organization of two separate ground-search parties, one at Khabarovsk, the other at Vladivostok. The Khabarovsk group, made up of four members of the Geological Society, flew to the village of Kharkovo, the inhabited point nearest the site of fall. After a rough and dangerous landing on the small, snow-covered airfield at Kharkovo, the geologists began their trek into the taiga on foot. Throughout the entire trip, the men, burdened with supplies and equipment, waded through waist-deep snow and camped in the open despite the arctic cold.
At almost the same time, a geologist from Vladivostok set out from the railway line up the Ussuri valley to track down the fallen meteorite. His progress was even more difficult than that of the Khabarovsk party. In addition to following a much longer route, he did not have the invaluable information that the first party had got from the aviators. He had to make his way slowly from village to village, questioning eyewitnesses as he went and gradually determining the probable end-point of the meteorite fall.
COURTESY OF E. L. KRINOV Splintered and broken trees at the site of the Ussuri fall.
The route followed by the Vladivostok geologist lay through the heart of the trackless snow-covered taiga. Fortunately, he had with him two hunters who were well acquainted with the rigors of travel through the taiga and knew how to live off the land.
They slept in hunters’ huts or under overhanging trees, drank melted snow water, and ate fried quail. But they had not gone far when they found that their footwear was completely useless for a trek through the wet, snowy taiga, because their felt hiking boots quickly soaked up water and became very heavy. So they swathed their feet in warm dry grass over which they tied large pieces of untanned leather. After that, the walking was much easier. They were able to cover the ground so rapidly that they reached Kharkovo only a day after the Khabarovsk geologists had landed there at the small airfield.
At Kharkovo, the three feasted on pork, milk, and honey. Then loading a few provisions on a borrowed horse, they started out to overtake the Khabarovsk party. They made such good time that the two groups were able to join forces and to enter the impact area as one expedition, on February 24, 1947.