Most of the fishing in the Angara takes place in spring and fall; in winter people make do with frozen or salted fish. It is almost a hallmark of Irkutsk that in the morning or evening you almost always see people in the street carrying a string of Arctic grayling in their hand. In spring, the fish are full of worms and lice, which I have extensively described in my Catalogus insectorum. In some places, like below the Voznesenski Monastery, this river is bottomless and never freezes. Elsewhere I will describe the kind of villages, landed estates, and farms—in this country called zaimki [small settlements in Siberia with just a few houses; translated as village when not used as part of a proper name; WH, Glossar]—as well as the zimovia or single huts found on the road on both sides of the Angara. The Irkut, the other river that flows into the Angara across from the city, is almost as wide as the Angara; in addition, it is very deep and rather muddy in some places. I shall describe its course, as well as its banks and the rivers flowing into it and the settlements built on it, in a special treatise [No proof such a document exists; WH, Anm. 85].
The Ushakovka, or Ida River, which originates close to Lake Baikal between mountains not far from the source of the Golousnaya, is no more than 70 to 105 feet wide and flows into the Angara, approximately fifty kilometers from its source, close to and below the town—that is, between the town and Monastery Village, which is located on a hill and contains a nuns’ convent. The Ushakovka is named after the man Ivashka Ushakov, who first built a mill on its bank. These days this mill belongs to the widow of Ivan Pivovarov and generates an annual income of five hundred rubles. The Ushakovka’s bottom is rocky, the gravel in it red and ferrous. Iron used to be smelted from bogs along this river. Nowadays this iron is left lying by the wayside since it is friable due to all the sand. Ten kilometers from the mill on a hill surrounded by boggy areas, Pivovarov’s widow has built an estate or zaimka, and about forty or fifty kilometers from town live promyshlenniks who hunt Siberian stags or iziubri [Cervus elaphus; WH, Anm. 94; common name is red deer], moose [Alces alces], and deer either by means of pits or with guns. About eighty years ago, this area was famous for hunting sable, but for many years now not a single one has been seen here. Many springs and small streams that flow into the Ushakovka are too insignificant to have names. The fish in this river are the Arctic grayling, the sharp-snouted lenok, lake minnows [mundi, Rhynchocypris percnurus], Eurasian dace, a species of roach [in text, sorogi], and burbot.
Fig. 1.3. Carrying home a string of grayling in Irkutsk (Arnold).
The nicest hayfields, belonging to the Demientievs, are found along this river. The woods are mostly young trees because, being so close to town, the trees are constantly being felled and transported to town for firewood. Many of the springs flowing into the Ushakovka never freeze, and that is where the water ouzels, or dippers, called vodianie vorob’i [most likely the Eurasian dipper, Cinclus cinclus; Springer, pers. comm., August 24, 2016], are found.
It is no mere flattery to say that this place, Irkutsk, has all the qualities of a well-positioned trade center and on top of that is endowed with many amenities that no European could imagine exist in Siberia. The air is healthy, the fall more pleasant than in all other areas of Russia or Siberia; the weather is constant, the river teeming with fish and navigable, except for a few shallow places that take a lot of effort to get around. The area is wonderfully scenic. Mountains rise above the Angara, if not on both sides, at least on one. Where the town is located, these mountains are about seven kilometers apart, gradually becoming a plain. One end of this valley is called Krest; the other is the Monastery Village, where the mountains gradually begin again, extending along the Angara. They are studded with the most beautiful forest of Dahurian larch [Larix dahurica Turcz. subsp. cajanderi (Mayr) Dylis; Jäger], Siberian spruce [Picea obovata Ledeb.; Jäger], Scots pine [Pinus sylvestris L.; Jäger], Japanese white birch [Betula platyphylla Sukaczev; Jäger], and a few Siberian pine [Pinus sibirica Du Tour; Jäger].
On this plain between both mountain ranges, the Ushakovka flows through forests and meadows, providing the most pleasurable strolls. Across from town, the left bank of the Angara is flat, with the most delightful meadows full of the most beautiful, colorful, and unusual flowers, which convince even the exiles that their lives are not utterly wretched.
You can see across this plain for about twenty kilometers. As the Voznesenski Monastery adds to the charm of Monastery Village, so this village and Zhilkina Village, in which the archbishop has built an uncommonly beautiful building, enhance the appearance of Irkutsk. Although the villages are about two kilometers apart, the people in town do not seem to perceive the space between them, judging them to be one and the same. Upriver from town, across the Angara, on the side of the Irkut, are pleasant forested hills that look like a rampart. Various estates and farms have been built there. A boat trip across the river to the monastery takes a little less than half an hour. The slobodas,6 located for eighteen to twenty kilometers across the mountains of the Angara in the nicest bottom lands, are endowed with the best soil, perfectly suitable for growing grain. You can buy the pud, thirty-six pounds [consistently converted] of rye flour firsthand from the farmer for six or eight kopeks, at the bazaar for ten or twelve, wheat flour for fifteen. As the rivers teem with fish—as I have related extensively in my separate “Description of Fish”7—the forests and meadows are full of the most enjoyable songbirds, as are the rivers with waterbirds. Whole sleds full of various species of ducks, geese, capercaillies [Tetrao urogallus], and black grouse, hazel grouse, and Daurian partridge [Tetrao tetrix, Tetrestes bonasia, and Perdix dauurica; Springer, pers. comm., August 24, 2016] are daily brought to town for sale by both Russians and Buryats, so that even a spoiled palate cannot complain of a lack of delicacies.
In town the Angara’s banks are full of boats, called doshcheniks, that transport goods from Russia here and to the Chinese border as well as returning from there across Lake Baikal to continue on down the Angara. At the bazaar as well as in the gostinii dvor,8 you can buy a lot of Russian and Chinese goods for reasonable prices. Every year more goods become available; some things can be bought at the same price or for little more than in Moscow—for example, German, Dutch, and English cloth, hats, linen, and sugar.
Notes
1. Zimov’e, R, literally winter hut, used by hunters and travelers primarily in winter; by the time of the expedition, used as way station; consistently translated except when part of a name.
2. Steller is right about the water-worn gravel having once been in the water; flooding or glaciation are possibilities. Robin Beebee, hydrologist, USGS, personal communication.
3. Krest, R, meaning cross. Traditionally, a cross was erected at the beginning of important routes for travelers to offer prayers; this is the route to Lake Baikal. WH, Anm. 34.
4. In text, Mündung or mouth; consistently replaced with source or outlet, where that is obviously meant.
5. A relatively small species of sturgeon from Eurasia, also native to rivers in Siberia as far east as the Yenisey,