Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVII. Across the Tundra to the Anabar
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I was much afraid that we should not reach the mouth
of the Olenek in time to find any of the nomadic Tunguses,
who come there with their herds of reindeer in the summer
and return to the south in the autumn. Happily one of
these nomads, the Tungus chief Androssoff, was still camping
with a herd of about 1000 reindeer some twelve miles
west of Volkalak. Shortly after our arrival he paid us a
visit, bringing with him presents of reindeer-meat and frozen
reindeer-milk, which were very welcome to us after our
long diet on mouldy rye-bread and fish.
We now had a long parley with the chief as to the
ways and means of carrying out our plan of crossing the
tundras between the Olenek and the mouth of the Anabar, a
distance of about 320 miles over a frozen desert with no
natives and no yurtas. To this he demurred considerably,
as neither he himself nor any other natives that he knew
had ever passed over this immense tundra in winter-time.
In the summer, too, the custom is to follow the sea-coast,
where there is plenty of driftwood, but the country in this
part being so rough and so much intersected with ravines,
it would be impassable in the winter with sledges. He
was willing to take our expedition southwards to the
forest-region, and then westward to the Anabar, some 350 miles
south of the sea; but I wanted to go in as northerly a
direction as possible in order to meet the native nomads of
this part of coast of the Arctic Ocean, and learn whether
they had observed any traces of the Andrée expedition,
hoping to induce them, by promises of reward, to be on
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