Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXI. Up the Yenisei
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virgin forest, afforded a very pleasant change. Covered
with snow, the taiga stood solemn and quiet, the silence
broken only by the sound of the bells on the necks of the
reindeer and the light friction of the sledge against the
soft snow.
No sign of life, except the tracks of wild animals, is
to be seen. Here we come upon the trail of a hare, pursued,
as is evident by the tracks that soon become mingled
with it, by a fox; a little further on two foxes have
been walking quietly side by side. I look around me on
these traces of social life in the taiga, I look upwards on
the grey sky; my eyelids become heavy, and close. The
impressions of present sights and sounds become merged
together in my thoughts, and from them arise new
combinations of images—of the horse-bells of my native land,
of Christmas-trees, of joyous laughter—when again the
horrible word: “Propal! Propal!” reverberates through the
forest, startling me out of my half-waking dream, and the
next moment I am sailing through the air with my sledge,
to land on the surface of a little ice-bound stream with a
crash!
Late in the evening we arrived at Turukansk in a
temperature of – 40° Fahr., and got lodging at the house
of the acting chief of police, where we slept on the floor.
This most northern “city” of Siberia was founded by
official command in 1672. It has been the central point
of commercial and official connection with the natives over
an immense region, but has long ago lost its
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