Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 32: May-August 1840
In the first week of September, the Kolyma is usually frozen over so as to allow horses and sledges to cross it in perfect safety 3 and a little nearer to the sea, one of its mouths, somewhat more shallow than the main stream, is frequently covered with strong ice as early as the 9oth of August; the frost continues without interruption till May, and when it ceases, several weeks of warm weather are requisite to loosen the icy crust of nine months' growth. It never breaks up before June, and frequently not till the middle of that month. During the three months of what the inhabitants dignify by the name of sum mer, the sun remains above the horizon for fifty-two days (from the 15th of May till the 6th of July); but its rays are so feeble, that they scarcely appear to dispense any heat, and it may, on an unclouded day, be contemplated by the naked eye, with as little inconvenience as an English full moon at harvest time. Though the sun, however, remains in this way over the horizon for several weeks, the usual division of the twenty-four hours into day and night is perfectly perceptible; in proportion as the chilly sun declines, the evening sets in, and all nature sinks to repose, to revive a few hours afterwards, when the sun ascends again. The few small birds that visit these northern latitudes hail the new day with their hoarse melody; the little yellow ?ower Opens its cup to the rising sun, and all that has life hastens to enjoy the benefieent in?uence of the enfeebled luminary. The inhabitants divide their year very gravel y into four seasons; but during their spring, as they call it, the ground remains covered with snow, their rivers with ice, and the thermometer often sinks to thirty degrees of frost during the night. In the same way, their autumn, which commences with the first of September, generally ushers in a frost su?iciently severe to cover the Kolyma with a solid crust of ice, and a cold of thirty-five degrees (forty-seven below Fahrenheit's zero) is no unusual occurrence during this season.
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