ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

*This image is copyright of its original author

01 - THE BOOK

'Tigers, Gold and Witch-Doctors' was published in 1928. It has 341 pages filled with information about a region that was unknown to many in the roaring twenties of the last century. The copy I bought came from the Lincoln Library in Nebraska. It's still in good shape and I read the book in a few days. Bassett Digby was an experienced traveller and a good writer with an eye for details.

02 - WHY THE BOOK WAS BOUGHT

The reason I bought the book is it promised a bit of insight in things that, if combined, represent something we now call 'culture'. If we want to understand the attitude towards wildlife in general and Amur tigers in particular in a region that, less than a century ago, had tigers from (just west of) Lake Baikal all the way to the Sea of Japan, we need to know a bit about the people inhabiting that region. 

Compared to the books written by Baikov, Arseniev and Velter, Digby's book can be seen as complementary in many ways. The writers mentioned also offered a bit of insight in the attitude towards wildlife in Siberia, but Digby is the only one who described the local tribes in detail. Same, but to a lesser extent, for the European Russians in Siberia (Poles, Cossacks and political prisoners included) as well as scientists (Germans and Russians) send to Siberia by the different tsars for exploration. 

The book has many unique photographes. Witch-doctors, caravans (horse-drawn carts going trough the forested mountain ranges and camels to cross the different deserts), individuals of local tribes (Tartar, Tungu, Orotchen, Buriat, Lamut, Udege, Gold, Tchukche and many others), border cities, wanderers (typical for rural Russia and Siberia in those days), the great Trans-Siberian railroad, Lake Baikal, prisoners (doing forced labor) and, last but not least, the many different types of country. The portraits of individuals in particular are very interesting. Every time I see photographes of Indians in eastern Russia, Canada, the US as well as Central and South-America, I'm struck by the similarities. 

03 - FROM ST. PETERSBURG TO IRKUTZK

European Russia is similar to eastern parts of Europe, but more forested. Towards the Urals, the land slowly rises. Western Siberia was and is largely bare prairie. South and north of the immense grassy plains, Siberia has large tracts of empty forests.

Digby wrote eastern Siberia was more striking than other parts. It took six days to reach Irkutzk near Lake Baikal. He wrote the city had recklessness in its blood:

" ... Hard-riding, hard-swearing, hard-drinking Cossacks, looting geographical secrets from nature and furs from intimidated Indians, were the cities founders. Then came the era of the men who got rich quick from gold strikes, and tea caravans from China, left great nuggets of gold about their desks as paperweights, had grand pianos fetched out by ten-horsed sledge from 3000-mile distant Moscow - and slept on the floor, rolled up in fine furs and camel-wool rugs, as they considered bedsteads effete foreign boudoir fittings. To their children came the great excitement of the building of the railway that linked the Baltic to the Pacific, and the poignant years of the war with Japan when their city was the big base behind the lines where men celebrated before passing on to Manchuria to die, or returned as maimed, halt, and blind, while hectic buying and selling, by the million, went on in the crude wall-logged houses and hotels ... " (pp. 19).   

04 - MAP

Digby often left Irkutzk to see the Bargusinsk peninsula, Lake Baikal and, north of the railway, Trans-Baikal. This part of Russia (the area near Irkutzk), for many miles, had prosperous villages.

Here´s a map for orientation. Lake Baikal in in the centre (top) and Irkutzk is located near the south-western tip of the Lake. This region, as you can see, can be considered as a junction of different types of landscapes and cultures. The shaded blackish parts are elevated areas or mountain ranges and green is forest. The map is from the sixties of the last century, when large parts of Manchuria still had large forests.  

*This image is copyright of its original author

05 - BROWN BEARS

Near Irkutzk, Digby saw a brown bear skin on a wall of a cabin near a chapel. It was huge. At first, the owner objected to a photograph, but later he changed his mind and dressed for the occasion. He told Digby the bear had been the exception to the rule, as there are not that many large bears in the Siberian forests. Most of them are small, even for their species. This is in line with what was written in other books (see also the post about Velter's book above). 

Digby wrote there didn't seem to be a lot of animosity towards brown bears in most of Siberia. Although he was warned not to invade the family circle, brown bears were " ... regarded as an amusing sort of person ... " (pp. 28). If you met a bear who didn't run at first sight, the thing to do was " ... to strip off your clothes and dance, stark naked, with verve and vim ... " (pp. 28).

Some other things worth mentioning. Bears, according to locals, never attacked men sleeping near a fire-place. Humans returned the favour by hunting bears for their gall blathers: " ... A bear's gall, well dried, cost, in barter, only a cent's worth of Chinese Tobacco ... " (pp. 31). About bears and wolves: " ... As a rule, if you see a bear, it is an indication that wolves are not met with in the district ... " (pp. 29). Digby's experiences in the forested wolf country around Salaiyir in the south-west and in the Vitim forest, which teemed with game, confirmed this observation.

About bears and native races: " ... The bear plays an important part in the religious ceremonies of several of the native races, including all the Paleo-Siberians (Aleuts, Eskimos, Yenisei Ostiaks, Koriaks, Tchuktches, Ainus, Tchuvantzes, Kamchatdals, Yukaghirs, and Giliaks) and some of their Neo-Siberian neighbours (... pp. 31).

06 - THE BRODYAG (tramp)

" ... It is astonishing what you can get away with in a blizzard ... Each successive spring thaw brings to light the bodies of hundreds of murdered men, along the trails in Siberia. Women are seldom murdered. The brodyag, or tramp, apparently was heavily involved. Digby wrote " ... he usually kills because he needs a new pair of boots or a nice warm coat ... " (pp. 39). His favourite murder " ... is to split open the head of a sleeping man with his axe. Deftly done, it causes little or no disfigurement of the clothing ... " ( pp. 41).

In spite of all that, Digby wrote the average brodyag compared rather favourably to the American 'bad man' involved in hold-ups and robberies: " ... Far more often than not, he is quite devout, attends church whenever he can, and makes pilgrimages to monasteries and holy shrines ... ". But how about the murders? Well, the brodyag " ... can always obtain gifts of food, but people are so mean about providing one with clothes ... " (pp. 40).

So there you have it. Even devout men denied of clothes and boots are capable of anything. The stories Digby collected are quite staggering. One brodyag was stopped by a passing group of army officers who noticed blood dripping from his sack. When asked what was in it, the brodyag said it only contained his own things. They turned out to be two human legs. The answer to the unavoidable question was it was only his new pair of boots: " ... They were difficult to pull off him, so I reckoned I would take them along just as they were, and get them off later on ... " (pp. 41).

07 - LAKE BAIKAL AND THE BAIKAL SEAL

This great inland sea (Baikal means Abundant Water) was formed " ... by a cataclysmic explosion that ripped open the earth's crust along the line of the river Angara ... " (pp. 49). It is the deepest fresh-water hole in the world. Digby wrote it was impossible to follow the shore on foot on account of the many rushing streams cascading down from the mountains.

" ... The Baikal seal is a special species, practically identical with the seal of the Caspian Sea, and a near relative of the non-migratory ringed seal, a species that lives along the shores of the Arctic ocean ... " (pp. 52). Digby wrote a large part of Siberia, as a result of volcanic disturbances, was flooded hundreds of thousands of years ago. The arctic seals, as well as many other species, went south. When the water receded, the seals found themselves isolated.

In Digby's day, the seals were hunted. The leather was used to make boots, whereas the oil was bought was the Chinese and the Manchurians.

08 - THE SIBERIAN WILD BOAR

Digby wrote the forests around Baikal teemed with life. Baikal also was and is a junction: " ... The insects along the west shore are chiefly east European species, and those along the east shore chiefly Far Eastern ... (pp. 72).

Many hunted near Baikal, especially with bow and arrow. Fur animals were most often targeted. The Siberian wild boar wasn't hunted, because he was consiedered the 'bad hombre' of the wild boar world: " ... He is not yet accustomed to the sight of human beings - and he does not intend to be. John Bell of Antermony discovered that, too, for he declared in his diary, with engaging frankness, 'The hunting of these animals being a dangerous kind of sport, we carefully avoided their haunts. There is even a town called Kubansk or Wild boarville, as we would say. Its founders knew how to run, an Irkutzk doctor assured me, 'otherwise there would have been no Kubansk today' ... " (pp. 73-74).

There apparently were (are?) no rabbits in Siberia (...) and hares, although extensively hunted, are not eaten. The lynx, like the wild boar (but to a lesser extent), wasn't well liked in Siberia. But the worst wild beast by far was the terrible mosquito. Again in first place.

09 - TRAINS ON THE ICE

In winter, Baikal is covered with ice. Very often the ice was so thick that the Russians, and more than once at that, built complete railroads on it (...). Every now and then, things went wrong. There probably are quite a number of trains at the bottom of Baikal.

This habit, according to Digby, was also seen in Manchuria (Kirin Province): " ... the track was laid over the ice of the Sungari river, which was thick enough to support a locomotive and a train of twenty laden freight cars ... " (pp. 92). Reply