ADVENTURES IN SIBERIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2175, 14 March 1891, Page 3

ADVENTURES IN SIBERIA.

The following praphic account is from the New York Tribune :

' Dr Otto Herz, well known for hia work id botany, mineraoloay, and ethnology, has just reached San Francisco after an expedition across Siberia which consumed two years and eight months. He explored the territory from the extreme West to Bebring Sea, and made a special study of fauna and lora. He penetrated a portion of Kamtschatka never before visited by Europeans, and made many important scientific discoveries. He left St Petersr burg March 25, 1888. Facilities were placed at his disposal as he bore the Grand Dake Michael's commission. He waited at Vitim, aboat, about 1000 miles from Irkutsk, until the ice in the Lena River broke ; he proceeded by steamer to the Siberiakoff mines. The first winter was spent at Yakutsk He started in March for the Vilyni river. There he found a rich scientific field, discovering rare minerals and beautiful opals in the bed of the river. Gangs of men were required by him to cut a way through the timber and underbrush. In mid-Janbary Dr Herz started for Okhotsk over 600 miles due East. The distance was made rapidly, but hardships began on ilia Jong overland |ourney from Okhotsk to Petropaulovski. Just beyond Tomsk he struck a snow-storm which lasted nineteen days. The doptor's route wob along the seashore, where the storm had full sweep. After spending a day in the underground cayes it was depided to brave the storm.

The doctor says of the hardships of bis journey :-—" The first day we only made eight miles and gamped in the open air, sleepiug as best we could in our furs. Un the evening of the second day we arrived at the river in a completlj exhausted condition, In all my recollections of travel I know of no experience to be com* pared to that of those two days spent in the wilds of Siberia, exposed to the fury of a biting snowstorm, compelled to push forward or die from exposure. Step by step our faithful dogs made their way over crusts of ice, bleeding at nose and eyes, so that they left bloody tracks on the snow. To m«ke matters warae, it snowed bo fyard tfyat it was almost dark, and the occupant of the sleigh kcew at no time whether his companions were alive or buried, or fell into one of the many yawning ice gulches constantly encountered. On the river Lukawa we dug a huge pit and roofed it with some tree branches wa fortunately found. Io this hut we cooked the first warm meal we tasted for five days." The doctoi's route lay along the Okhotsk Sea and then straight across the peninsula, In most places he was the first white matt t** native nomadß had ever seen. They had enormous herds of 8000 to 10,000 reindeer near Klutschefski, the principal city of the peninsula. He visited, a volcano which is high, and. with its top of smaller peaks, which constantly emit srjfloke. From the summit he saw Bebring Sea. He was the first European to survey and a6oend the volcano, In April he reached Petropaulovski, where he had to wait two months before making any scientific studies. He left there in the schooner Laon, which brought him to San Francisco in forty days. He wiil sail at once for Russia.