Tent Life in Siberia | Page 4

Strait, and which could
be easily repaired when injured by accident or storm. It promised also
to extend its line eventually down the Asiatic coast to Peking, and to
develop a large and profitable business with China. All these
considerations recommended it strongly to the favour of capitalists and
practical telegraph men, and it was finally adopted by the Western
Union Telegraph Company in 1863. It was foreseen, of course, that the
next Atlantic cable might succeed, and that such success would prove
very damaging, if not fatal, to the prospects of the proposed overland
line. Such an event, however, did not seem probable, and in view of all
the circumstances, the Company decided to assume the inevitable risk.
A contract was entered into with the Russian Government, providing
for the extension of the latter's line through Siberia to the mouth of the
Amur River, and granting to the Company certain extraordinary
privileges in Russian territory. Similar concessions were obtained in
1864 from the British Government; assistance was promised by the
United States Congress; and the Western Union Extension Company
was immediately organised, with a nominal capital of $10,000,000. The
stock was rapidly taken, principally by the stockholders of the original
Western Union Company, and an assessment of five per cent. was
immediately made to provide funds for the prosecution of the work.
Such was the faith at this time in the ultimate success of the enterprise
that in less than two months its stock sold for seventy-five dollars per
share, with only one assessment of five dollars paid in.
In August, 1864, Colonel Charles S. Bulkley, formerly Superintendent
of Military Telegraphs in the Department of the Gulf, was appointed
engineer-in-chief of the proposed line, and in December he sailed from
New York for San Francisco, to organise and fit out exploring parties,
and to begin active operations.
Led by a desire of identifying myself with so novel and important an
enterprise, as well as by a natural love of travel and adventure which I
had never before been able to gratify, I offered my services as an
explorer soon after the projection of the line. My application was
favourably considered, and on the 13th of December I sailed from New

York with the engineer-in-chief, for the proposed headquarters of the
Company at San Francisco. Colonel Bulkley, immediately after his
arrival, opened an office in Montgomery Street, and began organising
exploring parties to make a preliminary survey of the route of the line.
No sooner did it become noised about the city that men were wanted to
explore the unknown regions of British Columbia, Russian America,
and Siberia, than the Company's office was thronged with eager
applicants for positions, in any and every capacity.
Adventurous Micawbers, who had long been waiting for something of
this kind to turn up; broken-down miners, who hoped to retrieve their
fortunes in new gold-fields yet to be discovered in the north; and
returned soldiers thirsting for fresh excitement,--all hastened to offer
their services as pioneers in the great work. Trained and skilled
engineers were in active demand; but the supply of only ordinary men,
who made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in experience, was
unlimited.
Month after month passed slowly away in the selection, organisation,
and equipment of parties, until at last, in June, 1865, the Company's
vessels were reported ready for sea.
The plan of operations, so far as it had then been decided upon, was to
land one party in British Columbia, near the mouth of the Frazer River;
one in Russian-America, at Norton Sound; and one on the Asiatic side
of Bering Strait, at the mouth of the Anadyr (ah-nah'-dyr) River. These
parties, under the direction respectively of Messrs. Pope, Kennicott,
and Macrae, were directed to push back into the interior, following as
far as practicable the courses of the rivers near which they were landed;
to obtain all possible information with regard to the climate, soil,
timber, and inhabitants of the regions traversed; and to locate, in a
general way, a route for the proposed line.
The two American parties would have comparatively advantageous
bases of operations at Victoria and Fort St. Michael; but the Siberian
party, if left on the Asiatic coast at all, must be landed near Bering
Strait, on the edge of a barren, desolate region, nearly a thousand miles
from any known settlement. Thrown thus upon its own resources, in an

unknown country, and among nomadic tribes of hostile natives, without
any means of interior transportation except canoes, the safety and
success of this party were by no means assured. It was even asserted by
many friends of the enterprise, that to leave men in such a situation,
and under such circumstances, was to abandon them to almost certain
death; and the Russian consul at San Francisco