Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVIII. From the Anabar to the Katanga
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the most northern forest in the world. It consisted of
dwarf and stunted Siberian larch-trees, which here grow in
the valley of the Katanga as far as lat. 72° 50′ N., thanks to
the comparatively warm summers in these regions, caused
by the protection of the great peninsula of Taimyr extending
towards the north-west, and also, perhaps, by the warm
waters of the Katanga flowing from the south.
We now followed the Katanga southwards for some
distance, but soon found that there were neither people
nor reindeer, so we had perforce to leave the river and make
for the tundra again in search of native camps. Sometimes,
not succeeding in our search, we were compelled to stop
and sleep in the open air in from 30° to 40° below zero,
the poor natives having no tent for us.
At one place, where we had to stop a couple of days
waiting for reindeer, there came a deputation, headed by
a native chief, in the belief that we were “ambassadors of
the Great White Sun,” asking me to render them help and
protection against certain merchants who treated them
worse than slaves, forcing them to do transport service
for nothing, and compelling them to spend all their time
in trapping instead of tending their reindeer, though paying
them next to nothing for the fox-skins when they brought
them in.
At another miserable place, where a few poor people of
mixed race were living, we should have had to stop
perhaps for days, if a kindly Tungus had not chanced to arrive
with some reindeer, and consented to take us over the
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