my presence in the sifkova country was not for long but i used itin full measure. first, i sent a man in whom i had confidence andwhom i considered trustworthy to my friends in the town that i hadleft and received from them linen, boots, money and a small case offirst aid materials and essential medicines, and, what was mostimportant, a passport in another name, since i was dead for thebolsheviki. secondly, in these more or less favorable conditions ireflected upon the plan for my future actions. soon in sifkova thepeople heard that the bolshevik commissar would come for therequisition of cattle for the red army. it was dangerous to remainlonger. i waited only until the yenisei should lose its massivelock of ice, which kept it sealed long after the small rivulets hadopened and the trees had taken on their spring foliage. for onethousand roubles i engaged a fisherman who agreed to take me fifty-five miles up the river to an abandoned gold mine as soon as theriver, which had then only opened in places, should be entirelyclear of ice. at last one morning i heard a deafening roar like atremendous cannonade and ran out to find the river had lifted itsgreat bulk of ice and then given way to break it up. i rushed ondown to the bank, where i witnessed an awe-inspiring butmagnificent scene. the river had brought down the great volume ofice that had been dislodged in the south and was carrying itnorthward under the thick layer which still covered parts of thestream until finally its weight had broken the winter dam to thenorth and released the whole grand mass in one last rush for thearctic. the yenisei, "father yenisei," "hero yenisei," is one ofthe longest rivers in asia, deep and magnificent, especiallythrough the middle range of its course, where it is flanked andheld in canyon-like by great towering ranges. the huge stream hadbrought down whole miles of ice fields, breaking them up on therapids and on isolated rocks, twisting them with angry swirls,throwing up sections of the black winter roads, carrying down thetepees built for the use of passing caravans which in the winteralways go from minnusinsk to krasnoyarsk on the frozen river. fromtime to time the stream stopped in its flow, the roar began and thegreat fields of ice were squeezed and piled upward, sometimes ashigh as thirty feet, damming up the water behind, so that itrapidly rose and ran out over the low places, casting on the shoregreat masses of ice. then the power of the reinforced watersconquered the towering dam of ice and carried it downward with asound like breaking glass. at the bends in the river and round thegreat rocks developed terrifying chaos. huge blocks of ice jammedand jostled until some were thrown clear into the air, crashingagainst others already there, or were hurled against the curvingcliffs and banks, tearing out boulders, earth and trees high up thesides. all along the low embankments this giant of nature flungupward with a suddenness that leaves man but a pigmy in force agreat wall of ice fifteen to twenty feet high, which the peasantscall "zaberega" and through which they cannot get to the riverwithout cutting out a road. one incredible feat i saw the giantperform, when a block many feet thick and many yards square washurled through the air and dropped to crush saplings and littletrees more than a half hundred feet from the bank.
watching this glorious withdrawal of the ice, i was filled withterror and revolt at seeing the awful spoils which the yenisei boreaway in this annual retreat. these were the bodies of the executedcounter-revolutionaries--officers, soldiers and cossacks of theformer army of the superior governor of all anti-bolshevik russia,admiral kolchak. they were the results of the bloody work of the"cheka" at minnusinsk. hundreds of these bodies with heads andhands cut off, with mutilated faces and bodies half burned, withbroken skulls, floated and mingled with the blocks of ice, lookingfor their graves; or, turning in the furious whirlpools among thejagged blocks, they were ground and torn to pieces into shapelessmasses, which the river, nauseated with its task, vomited out uponthe islands and projecting sand bars. i passed the whole length ofthe middle yenisei and constantly came across these putrifying andterrifying reminders of the work of the bolsheviki. in one placeat a turn of the river i saw a great heap of horses, which had beencast up by the ice and current, in number not less than threehundred. a verst below there i was sickened beyond endurance bythe discovery of a grove of willows along the bank which had rakedfrom the polluted stream and held in their finger-like droopingbranches human bodies in all shapes and attitudes with a semblanceof naturalness which made an everlasting picture on my distraughtmind. of this pitiful gruesome company i counted seventy.
at last the mountain of ice passed by, followed by the muddyfreshets that carried down the trunks of fallen trees, logs andbodies, bodies, bodies. the fisherman and his son put me and myluggage into their dugout made from an aspen tree and poledupstream along the bank. poling in a swift current is very hardwork. at the sharp curves we were compelled to row, strugglingagainst the force of the stream and even in places hugging thecliffs and making headway only by clutching the rocks with ourhands and dragging along slowly. sometimes it took us a long whileto do five or six metres through these rapid holes. in two days wereached the goal of our journey. i spent several days in this goldmine, where the watchman and his family were living. as they wereshort of food, they had nothing to spare for me and consequently myrifle again served to nourish me, as well as contributing somethingto my hosts. one day there appeared here a trainedagriculturalist. i did not hide because during my winter in thewoods i had raised a heavy beard, so that probably my own mothercould not have recognized me. however, our guest was very shrewdand at once deciphered me. i did not fear him because i saw thathe was not a bolshevik and later had confirmation of this. wefound common acquaintances and a common viewpoint on currentevents. he lived close to the gold mine in a small village wherehe superintended public works. we determined to escape togetherfrom russia. for a long time i had puzzled over this matter andnow my plan was ready. knowing the position in siberia and itsgeography, i decided that the best way to safety was throughurianhai, the northern part of mongolia on the head waters of theyenisei, then through mongolia and out to the far east and thepacific. before the overthrow of the kolchak government i hadreceived a commission to investigate urianhai and western mongoliaand then, with great accuracy, i studied all the maps andliterature i could get on this question. to accomplish thisaudacious plan i had the great incentive of my own safety.
