The Voyage Author(s): Jonas Lied Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 43, No. 5 (May, 1914), pp. 481-488 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1778296 Accessed: 14-06-2016 05:08 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:08:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Geographical Journal. No. 5. MAY, 1914. Vol. XLIII. THE SEA-ROUTE TO SIBERIA.* By Dr. FBIDTJOF NANSEN, Q.O.Y.O., and JONAS LIED. I. The Voyage. By Jonas Lied. The subject of my paper is really " The Kara Sea Koute to Siberia," but in order to let my audience better understand the possibilities and im- portance of this subject, I shall, with your kind permission, make a few remarks on Siberia in general. The great development that has taken place in Siberia during the last ten or fifteen years is, of eourse, for the greatest part, due to the opening of the Siberian railway. This railway traverses Russia and Siberia in almost a straight line from the Baltic sea to the Pacific, and is approximately 6000 miles in length with eight hundred stations. This is about twice the length of the Canadian Pacific railway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. Compared with even the best European railways, the rolling stock and service of the express trains are very good. It takes nine days to cover the distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. My time here this evening would be too short to deal in detail with the whole of Siberia, and therefore I shall confine myself mainly to Central Siberia?the district around the Obi and Yenisei rivers. Central Siberia plays a most important rdh in the problem of opening up the northern sea route. It will be seen from the map that that part is situated dis- advantageously in regard to an outlet for produce. The distance either way to the Baltic, as well as to the Pacific, is approximately 3000 miles, which has to be covered for the greatest part by railway. Naturally, * Royal Geographical Society, February 23, 1914. Map, p. 604. No. V.?May, 1914.] 2 This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:08:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 482 THE SEA-ROUTE TO SIBElilA. railway transport over such a stretch is very expensive, and this is the reason for the northern sea route having been taken up again. The means of communication in Central Siberia become very primitive if you depart from the railway line. The natural means of communication are, of course, the rivers which nearly all run parallel from the south to the north, and the traffic goes by river boats. On the Obi there are more than 100 steamers of various sizes, and the Yenisei has about 30. Naviga- tion is kept up during more than five months of the summer right from the mouth as far as above Minussinsk on the Yenisei, and on the Obi from the mouth to Biisk. The Yenisei river is the fifth longest river in the world, with a length of about 2900 miles. It is very rarely narrower than half a mile, and at the mouth, for a distance of about 300 miles, it varies in width from 10 to 30 miles. At Krasnoyarsk the current has an average speed of about 4 miles an hour. On the lower reaches the goods are transported in barges towed by tugs. From the upper parts of the river, rafts are sent down simply drifting with the current. There is a kind of barge which is used for drifting purposes, and these are usually sent from the more cultivated dis- tricts on the upper part of the river loaded with various necessaries of life and broken up at their destination, which is north of the tree-boundary. The material thus obtained is used for the erection of houses. At the mouth of these two rivers, several villages are built entirelyof such maJeriaL Before the frost comes on, the steamers are brought into a kind of harbour where they freeze in. If repairs are necessary, they are simply lifted out by jacks and put on the ice and treated as though they were in dry dock. In the winter, in the southern parts, transport is done by horse and sledge. Very often caravans of several hundred horses may be seen going to the mining districts. The ordinary troika really means treble, i.e. is drawn by three horses. The average speed of such a troika is about 7 miles an hour, changing of horses included. It is not a very smart turnout, but it is in accordance with the requirements of the country. In the northern parts, reindeer and also dogs are employed. The people belong to various races. In the south are to be found Tartars, round the railway line you have the Siberians and Russians, who are very much alike. Then, further down the river you meet the Tungus, the Uraks, the Ostiaks, and the Dolgans. Of all industries in Central Siberia, mining is the oldest. In the Yeniseisk district about thirty gold-dredgers are employed. Coal is also found in large quantities, and there is a pit-head of a mine near Minussinsk. The greatest resource of this part of the country is, of course, agri- culture, and in this direction lies the future of Siberia. Fifteen years ago comparatively little was done on the part of the Government in regard to colonization, but to-day the position is quite different. An army of This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:08:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE SEA-BOTJTE TO SIBERIA. 483 officials is in the field preparing and allotting ground for the emigrant. During each of the last two years, about 300,000 have come into Siberia, and it is calculated that about 10 per cent. have returned, and still the emigration is increasing steadily. The population in Siberia is at present about 13,000,000, and it is almost safe to say that it should be doubled during the next fifteen or twenty years. At present a settler receives about 45 acres of free land and is helped by the Government to necessary capital for building houses and to agricultural machinery from the Government stores situated in various towns. The most important agricultural centre on the Yenisei is Mmussinsk. In a good year, the district round Minussinsk can export at present half a milJion quarters of grain, mostly wheat and rye. Besides grain, pretty large quantities of hemp and flax are raised. Very important articles are hides and skins. A rather amusing article is the homs of the so-called wild maral deer. It is kept in captivity exclusively for the horns, which are cut every year and sent to China, where they are used for a life elixir. The horns are worth about 40s. per pound, and a deer in captivity is worth about ?50. In the summer time at the mouth, about 4000 people are employed for the fisheries. The people come from the south and remain during the summer time, drawingtheir nets all day and salting the fish as they catch it. In the autumn, the steamers come and take away the salted fish and the people, including all their gear. The fur trade is of eourse an important item in Central Siberia, and a very large part of the furs is obtained by bartering. In Yeniseisk, which lies 240 miles north of the railway line, the traders concentrate about June to dispose of the furs gathered during the preceding winter. They come in the so-called elimkas, a wooden craft sometimes furnished with a big sail and drifting with the current. Such a small elimka sometimes contains, on arrival at Yeniseisk, furs to a value of ?20,000. The turn-over m furs in the Yeniseisk provineeis very large. Two years ago, one merchant alone collected over one million squirrels. The Yeniseisk district has very valuable f orests, composed principally of the so-called Siberian cedar. Then there is pine and larch. The territory watered by the ri ver Yenisei and its tributaries is five times the area of Ger- rnany. Enormous stretches are covered with valuable forest. There has never been any export on a scale worth mentioning, and certainly not to foreign countries. There are saw-mills in the big centres supplying local needs. The only really big customer for timber at present is the fire, which is responsible for a lot. Every year big fires occur, and in some cases it is so bad that the smoke on the rivers delay steamers for hours. The best timber is to be found north of the railway line, and, therefore, if no other means of transport are established, the timber would have to be trans- ported against the current, a very expensive matter, before the railway 2 m 2 This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:08:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 484 THE SEA-ROtJTE TO SIBERIA.