70 NOTESAND INSTITUTE NEWS

graphs of an RIP as it had been sitting on of the Institute of North America and thebottom for a year just south of Cape was funded by the Defence Research Board Clarendon, Melville Island. The exceptional of Canada, theU.S. Office of Naval Research, clarity of the waterpermitted observations the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and to be made by natural illumination to depths the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Ex- greater than 300 feet. Infact, off Melville tensive support was provided by the Depart- Island, the external fixtures of PISCES could ment of Transportand by theCanadian be clearly seen by natural illumination to a Forces (AIR). depth of 700 feet. Despite the transparency A. R. Milne of the waters, the viewof the underside of Defence Research Board of Canada the sea ice proved to be, disappointing. The Victoria, B.C. view upward and forward presented a view of the ice as a background of patchy shades of grey, as a consequence of the ice acting as IMilne, A. R. 1968. Noise Under Sea Ice is a secondary source of illumination. Against Studied. CanadianShipping and Marine this backgrsund, the occasional seal could be Engineering News, March, pp. 65-66. seen, but at no time could the PISCESap- proach a seal, nor did any under-sea mam- mal exhibit sufficient curiosity to approach PISCES, As a result, the mammal investiga- Indians in tions were more effectively carried out with the aid of the ship’s helicopters. In the very centre of Siberia, onthe vast It is a generally accepted hypothesis that snow-covered expanses that adjoin the great fail-safe mechanisms in submersibles will re- Siberian river of Yenisei where there are 62 sult in a rapid rise to the surface. However, square kilometres of land to every man, live when operatingnear sea ice the possibility Indian tribes that settled there manyyears of being inadvertently perched under a floe ago. Little is known of the history of these is not small. The accidental loss of a manip- Indians, called Evenks, before they were dis- ulator arm from PISCES off Melville Island, covered by the early in the seven- although the loss occurredat the surface, teenth century. produceda large increase in buoyancy. At The word “Evenk” means “hewho runs thistime the dive had been terminated by swifter than a ”. One cannot imagine the impending intrusion of a large polar floe an Evenk withouta reindeer (see frontis- into the dive area. Although normal under- piece), just as one cannot picture a bedouin water communications existed, and proce- without a camel. The reindeer is an indis- dures forcontrol were followed, it is clear pensablemeans of transportationinthe that homing and communication devices must snow-covered expanses of Siberia. Its hoofs be positioned on a submersible so as to re- are wide and it does notfall through the main effective while the submersible is thickest snow. Out of reindeer skin the pressed up under the sea ice. Rescue under Evenks make clothes and footwear that are theseconditions could then be effected by cold- and damp-resistant and are essential in the icebreaker mother ship. Under these cir- this area of the worldwhere the mercury cumstances, the release of a large volume of sometimesdrops to“60°C. They live in dye would be an effective way to indicate the tents made of reindeer skin that very much location of the submersible relative to cracks resemble Indian wigwams. Their favourite produced by the icebreaker. food is cooked reindeer meat and finely cut The operation of a small submarine in the pieces of raw frozen fish. summer sea ice was dependent on the correct At present there are about 25,000 Evenks choice of favourable conditions, which were inthe Soviet Union;they live mostlyin in turn subject to the whims of ice movement Central Siberia where they inhabit the Evenk and weather. PISCES proved to be a versa- NationalArea. Oncethis land was over- tile,manoeuverable and well-instrumented grown with giant sequoias and was washed work boat, and was effective in introducing by the warm Fern Sea. Later volcanic erup- the scientists to the undersea environment of tions covered it with an enormous amount of the . magma and now it has an unusualsurface resembling that of the moon. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A fish called taimen (the salmon trout) is the symbol of this land. From ancient times The rental of PISCES I, a product of In- the Evenks used to cut its image upon the ternational Hydrodynamics Co. Ltd. of Van- trees as a sacred sign. According to the be- couver, B.C., was arranged under the auspices liefs of the Evenks, the land itself is a raft NOTES AND INSTITUTENEWS 71

supported by taimens. Maybe it was on such bly unable to comprehend civilization and a raftthat the ancestors of the Evenks this had a disastrous effect upon these peo- crossed the Bering Strait tothe American ple. Thehome life of the Tungus (as the continent where, asno skeletons of anthropoid Evenks were calledin atthe time) apes have so far been discovered, the popula- served as a sort of standard of wild life: at tion is assumed to be of foreign origin. It the industrial exhibitions a Tungus tent was is interesting to note that the investigations usually put up for general observationand conducted by the Department of Anthropol- in it a Tungus family would live with their ogy of the Institute of Ethnography of the belongings. U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, and by the Tura,the capital of the Evenk National Chair of Anthropology of Moscow Univer- Area, is situated atthe junction of two sity, have proved that there exists not only a rivers: the Podkamennaya Tunguska and the similarity in appearance between the Evenks Kuchum. It is asmall Siberian town with and the American Indians, but also that the wooden housesbuilt on piles driven deep Evenks of Central Siberia, like the Indians, into the frozen ground. The town cannot be have very few people of the B blood group, judged by the usual standards, for only some and that they have many common customs 40 years ago on its present site stood a lonely and a very similar mentality. hut inhabited by a merchant who traded with Atthe beginning of the present century the hunters. It was from here that the rebirth a new mystery was added tothe previous of the peoples inhabiting northern Russia mysteries of this land: a fiery ball resembling started. The first cultural centre in the the sun swept through the sky on 30 July, Area was built here with a boarding-school, 1909, making the superstitious Evenks fall a veterinary clinic, a library, a laundry with to their knees as if at the sight of a deity. a bath anda hostel with a club. Then athundering explosion was heard in This cultural centre became an outpost of the . “As if theearth had broken civilization in theremote taiga where the through,” the Evenks who witnessed the Evenks learnt everything beginning with how event recall. The explosion broke age-old to use soap and how to read and write. At trees as if theywere matches in an area present Tura is the administrative centre of with a radius of 20 kilometres. Seismological the Area with a medical college of the peo- apparatus recorded that the airblast encir- ples of the , a people’s theatre and cled the earth twice. Up to the present day a branch of the Scientific-Research Institute scientists continue to dispute the natureof the of Agriculture of the Far North that deals Tungus meteorite - whether it was a meteor- with problems of hunting and trapping, a base ite,a comet, or maybea spaceship from for large geological expeditions that investi- another planet. gate the Evenk area. At present a new hotel The majority of ancient Evenk songs told is being built in the town,a wide-screen of unhappy love, poorhunting or diseases. cinema and a TV centre. Thirty new Evenk They reflected the tragedy of a people ex- settlementshave been built. Tura is con- hausted by combating severe nature. Ac- nected with them byregular air routes. cording to incomplete data, three quarters of Nadezhda Kombagir, deputy chairman of the Evenk tribes died out during thelast the District Executive Committee, is the century. There were no schools, andnot a daughter of ahunter. She graduated from single populated locality upon the enormous a teacher’s training college and worked as a territory that covered anarea onlya little teacher for several years. Nadezhda cited smaller than England andFrance put to- several interesting figures that testify to the gether. They used to write in the papers in progress made by the people. The average thosedays that “life was just glimmering length of life of the Evenks used to be 35 faintly” there. yearsbefore the Revolution. Now it is 70. At the time when Louis Morgan, an out- The birth-rate here - 34.5 babies to every standingAmerican scientist and humanist, thousand people- is higher than the aver- wrote that America would have to answer age birth-rate of the country. tothe civilized world for itstreatment of Completely illiterate formerly, the Evenks the Indians, the Russian public also sounded have now caught up ineducation with the the alarm concerning the fate of the Evenks inhabitants of the other regions of the coun- who were becoming extinct. try. They now havetheir own alphabet, Tsar Nikolai the Second excused this in- literature and art. The Evenk FolkDance difference to the sufferings of this small peo- Ensemble has recently given anumber of ple by the aphorism: “Russia is ruined by its successful concertsin Moscow. great distances”. The tsarist officials put for- The Evenks possess a fine understanding of ward a theory that the Evenks were ostensi- nature and a keen sense of colour and there- 72 NOTESAND INSTITUTE NEWS

fore reveal a great aptitude for the fine arts. The Evenk NationalArea has a great Evenk pencil artists can be found in almost future before it; it is extremely rich in min- every settlement. The ancientEvenk art of erals. Underthe basaltplateau lies the embroidery is being revived too. Tungus coal basin, which is the largest in the Recently the paper Soviet Evenkia, which world. Its reserves are estimated in astronom- is published in both the Russian and Evenk ical figures. Thereare also considerable languages, together withthe localbroad- reserves of non-ferrous metals, iron,salt, castingstudio, the Evenk Scientific-research building materials and oil. Institute of Language, Literatureand His- The graphite works, the first-born of Evenk tory, andthe local sociologists circulated a industry, alreadyproduces casting graphite. questionnaireamong the inhabitants of the The deposits of Iceland spar, which are also District. The answers they received testified the largest in the world, are being developed. to the change in the mentality of the Evenks. The northernmost hydro-electric power plant Every inhabitant of the Area watches 42 is being erected onthe polar river of films a year at an average, 868 papers and Khantaika. Surveying work is being conduct- magazines are subscribed to by every thou- ed at present with a view to building two sand people; thereare 15books to every more hydro-electric power plants. One, the inhabitant atthe state and collective farm Nizhne-Tungusskaya, will have a capacity of libraries. The great Russian poet Alexander 7 million kilowatts, while the Igarskaya will Pushkin (1799-1837) used to dream of the produce 5 million kilowatts. Both plants will time when his works would be read by “the supply electric power for developing industry. now wild Tungus”. At present the Evenks Jean Katser read Pushkinboth in Russian andtheir Novosti Press Agency native language. The chief occupations of the Evenks are, as before, hunting and reindeer-breeding. The Area is actually looked upon as the fur fac- tory of the country. The sable, the polar fox Eskimo Bird Names at and the squirrel are hunted and on the farms Chesterfield Inlet and the silver fox, the mink and the muskrat are bred. An Evenk hunter or reindeer-breeder Baker Lake, Keewatin, earnsan average of 1,500roubles a year Northwest Territories (1 roubleamounts to $1.10). In the settle- ments the Evenks live in wooden houses. The The list below was compiled during a stay state gives 10-year loans to those who build of .about two months, 27 Mayto 21 July their own homes, and the sum is paid back in 1967, at Chesterfield Inlet and during a few monthly instalments that amount to theprice days spent at Baker Lake in the course of the of a hunter’s knife ! homeward journey. At Chesterfield Inlet my Many children from hunters’ and reindeer- principalnative informants on birdnames breeders’ families spend theirchildhood in were Krakok, a manabout forty-five years crkches and boarding-schools where they are old who had lived part of his earlier life at completely provided for by the state. At the Daly Bay (about 50 miles further north) and large educational institutions of the country, a twelve-year-old boy Koluar, who early in such as Moscow University, places are re- his childhood had been brought from Iglulik served specially for Evenkyouth whocan to Chesterfield by his father and who often enter the institutes without having to com- accompanied me on bird-watching walks. pete. Koluar, through his father, had learnt some In every Evenk settlement there is a hos- Iglulik versions of bird names but also knew pital and a club with a cinema and library. those in use locally. The Baker Lake names If qualified medical assistance is required it were collected from a man about fifty years is offered free of charge, and specialists fly old, Kchlaiyuk, with one of his sons acting out on planes from Tura to all parts of the asinterpreter. Area. According to Boas1 these people belong to The Evenks have their own representative the tribe he called the Kinepitu or Agutit. in the Soviet parliament. He is Vasili Uve- I conceive the principal virtue of the list chan, a former hunter and shepherd who has here given to lie in the explanations of the received an education in Moscow and is now hasic meaning of the native names for which Master of Sciences (History) and the author I am indebted to the scholarship of Father of morethan 30 works onthe history of E. Fafard, O.M.I. From the meanings of the the peoples af the North. He speaks several bird names it will be evident that in the case foreign languages fluently. of many only the context in which they are Iosif Popov, winner of the deer race during the Baiga, national festival of deer-breeders, Evenk National Area. Photographby V. Belokolodov. See Indians in Siberia, pp. 70-72.