Kitabı oku: «Some Reminiscences of old Victoria», sayfa 6

CHAPTER X.
A SIBERIAN MAMMOTH

Some four or five years ago I came across an American illustrated newspaper containing an account of the discovery of a perfect mammoth in Siberia, where it had been imbedded in a glacier for thousands of years. It was stated that an expedition had been sent from St. Petersburg by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, headed by Dr. Herz; also that later a telegram had been received stating the expedition had been successful in securing the animal complete, and that all the principal parts, including even part of the contents of the stomach, had been secured and were being brought on sledges overland for thousands of miles. I was intensely interested in the alleged discovery, and made many enquiries of various people to find out if there was anything in it more than sensation such as is often got from some of the American papers. The result of my enquiries was very disappointing; most of those I interviewed considered it a yarn. I let the matter rest for some time and then decided to write a friend in St. Petersburg for particulars. Mrs. Calthorpe (née Dunsmuir), wife of Captain Gough-Calthorpe, who was naval attaché to the British Legation at the time, responded in due course of time, sending me a photo (Since lost. – E. F.), reproduced herewith, of the animal as it appeared stuffed in the Imperial Museum, and the promise of a description, which Mr. Norman, secretary of the legation, had kindly promised to translate from the Russian for me. This has lately come to hand, and as Mr. Norman states, is rather disappointing – that is, as regards the size of the mammoth, it being a young one. The wonderful part of the story is that the stomach of the mammoth contained food as fresh as the day it was eaten thousands of years ago. The food seems to have been young shoots of a species of pine tree, with vegetable matter. The hair on its back was about 13 inches long, with a thick fur at the roots of the hair. I submit the translated account by Mr. Norman, with his letter to me, which I think will be interesting to the many friends of the two British Columbia ladies mentioned therein. I also give an account of the expedition as contained in the newspapers at the time of discovery, as follows:

Story of the Scientific Expedition.

"The discovery of the mammoth to which the cable despatch on this page refers, was reported during the summer, and has excited the widest interest in scientific circles.

"A very interesting account of the discovery by Dr. von Adelung, curator of the museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, has just appeared in the Globus, a leading German scientific paper, of Brunswick.

"From this account it appears that the mammoth was first reported by a Cossack named Jawlowsky. He found it in a glacier near the Beresowka River, a tributary of the Kolyma River, in far Northeastern Siberia. The nearest settlement is Sredne Kolymsk, three hundred versts (a verst is 3,500 yards) away.

"The situation of the body is a very extraordinary one. It lies in an enormous pocket of ice, between the mountains, near the river bank. The ice is evidently the relic of the great glacier that existed here in former ages. The upper ice in time flowed away, leaving only the lower part shut up in this pocket. The River Beresowka only thaws for a short time in summer. The surface of the earth in this region also thaws only at this season, and then only to a depth of two or three feet. Beneath that the soil is eternally frozen.

"A slight melting of the surface of the ice left a bright, smooth space, peering through which the Cossack Jawlowsky saw the ancient mammoth preserved, as we sometimes see a lobster in a cake of ice. The Cossack knew how interesting such relics were to civilized men and promptly reported this one.

"Through the agency of Mr. Horn, the Chief of Police of Kolymsk, the Cossack’s report was conveyed to the Governor of Yakutsk. He being interested in scientific matters, promptly communicated the report to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg.

"The greatest scientific undertaking of this kind ever made was then determined upon. This was nothing less than an expedition to bring back the complete body of the mammoth. It was promptly organized by the Imperial Academy, with the fullest assistance of the government and the Ministry of Finance. Dr. Otto Herz, curator of the Imperial Museum, was appointed leader of the expedition, with Dr. Pfitzenmayer as assistant.

"The expedition proceeded along the Trans-Siberian railroad as far as Irkutsk. From there to the place of the discovery is a journey by land and water of fully 3,000 miles. The scientists made part of this journey in boats down the Lena River to Jakutsk. They then started on an overland journey to Sredne Kolymsk. They took fifty horses for transport. A large part of the way lay through virgin forest. Then came the formation called the Taiga, a sort of Arctic moorland, which becomes swampy and dangerous in summer.

"The scientists had to live on salt fish, mare’s milk and stewed tree bark. Several lives were lost on the journey, but it is now known that the chief scientists reached their destination. They proceeded without delay to excavate the mammoth.

"The flesh is treated with arsenic and then sewn up in new cowhide, which shrinks, becomes air-tight and preserves the contents.

"Nothing more will probably be heard from the scientists during the present winter. Dr. Herz, according to the last report, was in doubt as to which of two ways he will take in returning. He may, during the coming summer, endeavor to take the mammoth’s remains overland to Markova, a little settlement on the Anadyr River, which runs into Behring Sea. There he would winter and go down the river at the opening of next summer, and catch the steamship that calls there once a year.

"If this proves impracticable, he will have to wait until the winter of 1902–1903, and take the remains overland by sledges to Irkutsk. It would be impossible to make this tremendous journey in summer, through a roadless country, where there are thousands of square miles of swamps.

"Numerous relics of mammoths have been discovered in Siberia, including pieces of skin, and all the bones. On more than one occasion a complete animal has been found preserved in the ice, but a complete animal has never been secured in its entirety and brought back to civilization. That is exactly what the Imperial Academy of Sciences now proposes to do. According to the last report from Irkutsk, it is in a fair way to accomplish this.

"It is, perhaps, one of the most marvellous facts in the whole realm of nature that the body of a mammoth should be preserved exactly as it existed in life thousands and thousands of years ago, but there is every reason to believe that this happened in countless cases.

"The mammoth was a gigantic species of extinct elephant. It flourished in past geological ages, and also survived into the days of early man. When the Palæolithic or Old Stone man flourished on earth two hundred thousand years ago, the mammoth was as common as the horse to-day. In no part of the world were mammoths more abundant than in Northern Siberia. They must have roamed about there as freely as the buffalo did in North America fifty years ago.

"Though similar in structure to the modern elephant, the mammoth was very different in habits. He was a northern animal, and with this in view was provided with a very long, thick hair, reddish in color, like that of the camel. He had extraordinary teeth and stomach, so that he was able to masticate and digest, not only plants, leaves and so forth, but wood and the trunks of trees. His stomach has been found full of young fir trees. His teeth were built in layers and renewed themselves ceaselessly through life.

"Sometimes the mammoth would become mired in a soft spot of earth, and there sink in, die, become frozen and preserved forever. Another mammoth, while walking across a glacier, would fall into a crevasse, and there become frozen in a gigantic block of ice. That is what happened in the case of the animal recently discovered in Siberia. The soil is generally frozen to a depth of four hundred feet in Northern Siberia.

"There were many species of mammoths, some of them existing in earlier ages than others. One species was provided with four tusks, the upper ones turning up as in the present elephant, and the lower turning down, as in the walrus. These horns were of gigantic size, in some cases measuring twelve feet long. They were adapted principally to digging up and pulling down trees. The mastodon was a giant elephant of a still earlier period than the mammoth.

"In spite of their gigantic size and weapons, the mammoths were frequently killed by prehistoric men. These men must have been very brave and determined to kill these huge and terribly armed beasts, with stone and rude wood and bone spears.

"The very word ‘mammoth’ is of Siberian Tartar origin, being derived from the word ‘mammoth,’ the earth, on account of the beast being found frozen in the earth. Chinese records show that they, too, frequently discovered the frozen mammoths. The beast is probably the same as the ‘Behemoth’ of the Bible.

"The bones of the mammoth when first discovered in Europe were variously regarded as the remains of giant men and of elephants that had been brought to Europe by the ancient Romans. Even the majority of scientists held to this opinion until Sir Richard Owen, the great palæontologist, first proved that they were the remains of an extinct animal allied to, but of different species from, the elephant.

"One of the first mammoths described by modern scientists was found on the peninsula of Tamut, near the Lena River, in 1799. It was fully enclosed in a mass of clear ice. It was uncovered and rotted away in 1804."

Mr. Norman’s Letter.

The following is a copy of Mr. Norman’s letter:

"British Embassy, St. Petersburg,

"Dec. 24, 1904.

"Dear Sir, – Before leaving St. Petersburg, Mrs. Gough-Calthorpe, wife of our late naval attaché, asked me to send you some information about the stuffed mammoth which is in the Zoological Museum here, as you were interested in such things, and I promised to translate the passage in the catalogue which refers to the animal.

"The revolution which has been raging here for the last few months has given me so much to do I really have not had time to keep my promise sooner. However, I now send you the translation, which, I fear, tells disappointingly little about the mammoth, giving no measurements nor any description of his appearance. The earlier part, too, about the distribution of the elephant family, is doubtless also stale news to you.

"You have, I believe, already received a photograph of him from Mrs. Calthorpe, so you know what he looks like, but as I have seen him very often, I may add a few details as to his personal appearance from my own observation. He is smaller than I expected – a good deal smaller than an elephant, but then, it is true, he was young when he died, not full grown, I suppose. His tusks are magnificent. His hair is very thick, abundant and long and of a fashionable dark reddish-brown tint. Otherwise he is very like an elephant in general build, and I should say, so far as I can judge without being a specialist, in details also.

"I hope these few details may be of use to you. Should you want more about the mammoth, or require information about anything else in the museum here, I shall be very glad to do my best to satisfy you.

"The Calthorpes are much regretted by all of us here, as they were greatly beloved by us. Curiously enough, the wife of Calthorpe’s successor, Captain Victor Stanley, also comes from British Columbia.

"Yours very truly,

"H. Norman.

"Secretary to His Majesty’s Embassy.

"I send this by King’s messenger as far as London, which will still further delay it, but the posts are now very irregular and unsafe in Russia owing to the revolutionary strikes. H. N."

Translation from Catalogue.

"During the tertiary period elephants were very numerous and were distributed over Europe, Asia as far as the Arctic Ocean, North America and Africa. By the remains excavated, many species of extinct elephants are now distinguished, among which one, known under the name of Mammoth (Elephas Primigenius), existed in immense numbers in Europe and in Siberia as far as its most northern limits. In Siberia the frozen bodies of these animals have frequently been found well preserved, with the skin and flesh. On account of the remoteness of the places where these bodies have been found, not all the expeditions sent to exhume them have had a successful issue. In this connection the most successful of all was that organized by the Academy of Sciences in 1901 to the River Berezovka, in the Yakutsk district, which consisted of Messrs. O. F. Herz and E. W. Pfitzenmayer. Thanks to this expedition an excellent specimen of the mammoth was received by the Academy of Sciences, – rather young, with skin, parts of the internal organs, some food and almost the whole skeleton. Unfortunately some of the soft parts of the body, such as the trunk, were not found. The remains of this mammoth made it possible not only to set up the skeleton, but to stuff the animal, which is placed in the position in which it died, suddenly, in all probability, and in which it was found in a frozen condition."

This story can hardly be called a "reminiscence" of Victoria, but I thought that it might be interesting to many who, like myself, have a liking for old and ancient things, as this mammoth most assuredly was. Also there may be an interest taken in the letter from Mr. Norman, the secretary to H.M. Embassy, speaking as it does of one who formerly was a resident and native-born of British Columbia. – E. F.

CHAPTER XI.
MRS. EDWIN DONALD, HON. WYMOND HAMLEY, HON. G. A. WALKEM

Mrs. Edwin Donald.

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." – Timothy 4:7, 8. Never was there one to whom these words could be applied with greater truth than to the subject of this sketch. A faithful servant of her Lord, she was always ready to say a good word for Him, and took advantage of any and all opportunities to bring back to Him some friend whom she thought had become careless, thoughtless, or indifferent in His service.

I am sure my old friend admonished me many a time during our forty-six years of close friendship, but always in the most kindly manner, that could not help impressing me, knowing it was well meant, and knowing also that she considered it her duty to say what she did.

It was in February, 1859, as a boy of twelve, just arrived from San Francisco, that I first met her. She and her husband had lately arrived from Wisconsin, U.S., where they had been living some years, and, having a sister here already, she had been induced to come to her. Her sister, herself and their husbands had all come from Cornwall. The elder sister and her husband (Trounce) had emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land, as Tasmania was then called; the Trounces later on went to San Francisco, and from there came to Victoria, in the same steamer as my father, in 1858.

The Trounces and Donalds lived in tents on Douglas Street in 1858, and when our family arrived in 1859 they had just moved into what was then considered a very handsome house. It now stands on Kane Street, between Douglas and Blanchard.

Like Dorcas of Joppa, "she was full of good works and alms deeds." The two sisters, with their husbands, were Wesleyan Methodists, and Mrs. Donald, although eighty-eight years of age, attended church twice on Sunday, and always walked both ways, to the Metropolitan Church on Pandora Street. This she did to the end, having gone twice the last Sunday. She did not believe in Sunday cars, and would not use them, although they would have been such a help to her; but no, she thought it wrong, so took the course she thought was right. My wife and I called on her about ten days before her death, and on asking her how she was she replied, "I am as well as can be expected, for I am an old woman, you know." She was as cheerful as usual. She never complained; everything was for the best, she thought.

And so it was in her case, for she was near her end, "having fought a good fight and finished her course." She died literally in harness, for an hour or so before she breathed her last, she was working for the church, propped up in bed sewing. Towards the end, being conscious, she said, "I think my Lord wants me," and so passed away to a better life. She was attended at her death by an affectionate niece, Miss Carrie Thomas; her other relatives being Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Morall.

Hon. Wymond Hamley.

The late collector of customs, under whom I was privileged to serve from 1882 to 1900, was appointed by Sir Edward B. Lytton as collector of customs of New Westminster, and arrived by sailing vessel in 1859.

After the union of the mainland and island in 1867, the collector, with his staff, came down to Victoria and established the customs house on Government Street in a wooden structure near the post-office of that day, and it was a very unpretentious affair.

His staff of that time, and who were with him at New Westminster, was composed of Mr. Macrae, who in 1872 was pensioned on account of defective eyesight, and is now living in Ireland, chief clerk; Charles S. Finlaison (afterwards chief clerk), George Frye, C. S. Wylde and Richard Hunter. All of these, except Mr. Macrae, are dead. Mr. Hamley was the last of three brothers, and all of us have heard of the youngest, Sir Edward, the hero of Tel el Kebir, who, with his eldest brother, were generals in the British army. Sir Edward was a noted tactician, and it was through this he became the hero of Tel el Kebir. He was prominent in the Imperial Parliament also as a speaker. The elder brother I heard little of from him, but I know he was very proud of his younger brother.

The late collector was in early life in the British civil service, and subsequently joined the navy, and served on the China station. I shall always have a kindly feeling for my late chief, as he was a good friend to me, and felt kindly disposed to me, by the many conversations we had together. He was a just man in all his dealings with the public, and treated all alike without fear or favor, and his decisions were, as a rule, always upheld at Ottawa. There also could not have been a more popular man with his staff.

So one by one the good old stock of the early pioneers passes away, and their places will be hard to fill, so I say "Requiescat in pace."

Hon. G. A. Walkem.

As a friend of over forty years, I should like to add a few lines to what has been said of the late Mr. Walkem. Some forty-two years ago I was going up Yates Street, past Wells Fargo’s bank and express, which then occupied the brick building on the south side just above the American Hotel and next Pierson’s tinware store. It was steamer day, and Yates Street was full of life, as it always was when the San Francisco steamer had just arrived with passengers, freight, mails and express.

The latter was the more important in those days. The chief business was done with San Francisco, and the most of the letters came by express, costing twenty-five cents each, from San Francisco. As I said before, I was passing Wells Fargo’s. The large front office was open to the street and was full of business men and others. The staff of the express consisted of Colonel Pendergast, Major Gillingham (who introduced quail from California), and a colored man named Miller, as messenger.

What attracted my attention was "George Anthony Walkem," called in a loud voice. I stopped and squeezed inside, where there was a scene that never will be enacted again in this city, I think, in the way of business. Major Gillingham was unlocking express bags and cutting open bundles of letters, which he handed to Colonel Pendergast, who was mounted on a chair and calling out the addresses on the letters. If the addressee was there he called out "Here," and the letter was handed across the room to where he stood, or if not there, was taken by a friend. After all the letters had been called, the audience trooped out and went to their offices to peruse their correspondence.

"George Anthony Walkem" on this occasion was not there and did not answer to his name, but the letter was put in the letter-rack to be delivered by Miller, the messenger. This occasion is vivid in my memory, as if of yesterday, and is the first time I remember Mr. Walkem.

It was a couple of years after that I met him at a dance, and we became friends, and met at many home dances and parties. He was a young lawyer and fond of the society of young people, although older than they were. In those days dancing was one of our chief amusements, classes being formed under the direction of some lady. They were very enjoyable, being kept select. The ladies having the two principal classes were Mrs. Digby Palmer and Mrs. J. H. Carmichael. I belonged to each, and met Mr. Walkem often. The principal thing I wished to speak of with respect to my friend was his gift of animal drawing, he being no mean follower of Sir Edwin Landseer.

This I found out as a great surprise one day while visiting him at his rooms over Hibben & Co.’s store. The walls were plastered, and white, and all over were covered with animals and portraits of noted characters of the day done with a crayon pencil. These portraits were of such men as Judge Begbie, the Governor, an admiral of the station, or some noted politician.

But what took my fancy most of all were his lions, male and female and cubs, and in all positions. It was a sight well worth seeing, and would so be considered to-day.

Long after Mr. Walkem left these rooms these walls were left intact, and many schemes were devised to remove the pictures with the walls. A prominent man, I think Admiral Farquhar, asked my brother if it were possible to cut the plaster off the studding in blocks and so preserve these beautiful pictures. I am sorry to say it proved to be impossible.

To-day there are reproductions of these pictures in the judge’s residence. They were framed in gilt by us, and it is only a year or so since I saw them in Sommer’s being reframed. I recognized them immediately.

He was pleased to compliment me some time ago on one of my sketches of early Victoria, a subject we compared notes on frequently, when I suggested that he give to his friends some of his early experiences in Cariboo, which he recited to me, telling of those days when he started off from Victoria a young man, with a good profession, lots of energy, a fund of good humor, and not a very heavy purse. He had his experiences, and valuable experiences they were, and in Cariboo he entered into politics, and for years represented that constituency in the Local House. He was a good friend, and I shall miss his visits to my office, when he came in to chat for a few minutes, always to wind up with a "reminiscence." Well, as I said before, I shall miss him and shall remember him with the most kindly feelings.