Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. The Upper Lena
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with a certain Vasili Bugor at their head, came on
snowshoes in the year 1628 from the Yenisei and discovered
the great river Lena, on which lived at that time about
150,000 Yakuts. In Ust-Kutsk also lived for many years
the celebrated and adventurous beaver-trapper Yevropei
Pavlovitch Khabaroff, who with a handful of kindred spirits
conquered the immense territory of the Amur region
in 1649 and, provided with fire-arms, defeated entire
companies of Chinese soldiers. Soon, however, Khabaroff was
summoned to Moscow, from whence he returned to
Ust-Kutsk, where he had the mortification of learning that the
Amur region had been restored to China through the treaty
of Nertschinsk. Khabaroff established the salt-works of
Ust-Kutsk, and also made the first agricultural experiments
in that place.
At Ust-Kutsk our expedition arrived just in time to catch
an old and rickety mail-steamer, the Rabotnik, a craft with
flat bottom and paddle-wheels, and the after-part covered
with a wooden superstructure. Like the Lena steamers in
general, it had the appearance of a crawfish. The
first-and second-class passengers consisted of “gold-Barons” on
their way to Vitim, some merchants, and a couple of civil
officers. Everything—tickets, food, and drink—was
exorbitantly dear. There was, nevertheless, a good deal of
drinking, although a bottle of champagne cost from 12 to 15
roubles!
Although there is plenty of coal on the Lena, wood is
alone used for the steamers, the larger vessels consuming
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