: Robert Merry's Museum Volumes I and II (1841) by Various Goodrich Samuel G Samuel Griswold Editor - Children's literature Periodicals

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AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1841.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by S. G. GOODRICH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

MERRY'S MUSEUM.

The Siberian Sable-Hunter.

In the northern part of Asia, there is a vast country called Siberia. It is nearly destitute of mountains, and consists of a great plain, stretching out to an immense extent, and being in many parts almost as level as the sea. In some places it is barren and bare, but in others it is covered with forests. Sometimes these are of pine, cedar, hemlock, and other evergreens, and grow so thickly as to make it difficult to pass between the trees.

Several great rivers cross this country, the chief of which are the Irtish and Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena. These are almost as large as our great rivers of America. They flow from south to north, and empty themselves into a wide sea called the Arctic Ocean.

Siberia is a cold and desolate region, where the summer is short, and where winter reigns about two thirds of the year. There are few towns or cities, especially in the north, and thus large portions of the country are both uncultivated and uninhabited. There are vast tracts given up to solitude, or visited only by wolves, bears, and other savage animals, or are occasionally crossed by wandering parties of Tartars, who are the chief inhabitants of the country, and who are almost as wild as our American Indians.

This great country, which is more extensive than the whole of Europe, and about three times as large as the entire territory of the United States, belongs to Russia. It is under the government of the emperor of that country, who, you know, reigns over a larger portion of the earth than any other ruler.

It would seem that it could be no great advantage to hold possession of such a cold and dreary land as Siberia; but yet it produces a good deal of gold, silver, and copper, and the southern portions, having a rich soil, yield vast quantities of grain. The Tartars are fond of rearing horses and cattle, and so abundant are these creatures in some places, that a horse sells for two dollars and a half, and an ox for a dollar and a quarter! Oatmeal is sold for five cents a bushel, and a man may live for ten dollars a year! But though articles seem so very cheap, it must be remembered that a man must labor for about four cents a day; so that, after all, he has to work pretty hard for a good living.

But what I have been saying relates to the southern part of Siberia, where the climate is milder and the soil rich; as you go northward, the cold increases, and vegetation diminishes. At last you come to a country where there are few people, and where, as I have said before, the whole region seems to be given up to savage animals. In the loneliness of the forests here, the wolf and bear roam at their pleasure, being the sovereigns of the country. Yet it is in these very regions that a great source of wealth is found--for here are various animals which yield fine and beautiful furs. The most celebrated and valuable are produced by a species of weasel, called the sable--one skin of which sometimes sells for a hundred and fifty dollars. Beside the sable, the black fox, whose skin sells for twenty to seventy-five dollars, martens of two or three kinds, and other animals, are found, which produce valuable furs; and it is to be considered that it is the very coldness of the country which renders the furs so excellent. Creatures living here have need of very warm shirts and jackets, and nature, like a kind mother, takes good care of her children. Considering that the animals of the north of Siberia live among regions of snow and frost, where summer comes only for a few weeks in the year, and winter holds almost perpetual sway, she gives the sable, and the marten, and the fox, and even the wolf and bear, such nice warm clothes, that kings and queens envy them, and hunters are sent two thousand miles to procure these luxuries.

Thus it is that Siberia, after all, yields a great deal of wealth, and the emperor of Russia therefore holds on to it with a greedy grasp. But it is not for its productions alone that he holds it; for the emperor has a large family--about fifty millions in Europe and Asia--and as he is a hard master, some of them are pretty often rebellious; and to punish them, he sends them to Siberia. This is a kind of prison,--though a large one,--where those are banished who have incurred the displeasure or dislike of his majesty. So numerous are these exiles, that Tobolsk, one of the largest towns, and lying in the western part of the country, is to a great extent peopled by them and their descendants. It is about some of these exiles that I am going to tell you a story.

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