Regional Geography
Peoples of the World-9
' Hunters and Fishers of the Siberian
Forest '
BOSWORTH GOLDMAN
This is the second of Mr. Bosworth Goldman's three talks on Siberia.
Last week you heard about the herds-men of the Siberian Steppes; today you are to hear about the hunters and fishers of the Siberian Forest.
These people are the Southern
Samoyed, and they live in a country ot dense forests and are dependent almost entirely on rivers for getting about. In summer, like squirrels, they must provide the winter's larder, but, instead of storing up nuts, they hunt in the forest and fish the rivers, and so collect the food for the barren, bitter months when everything is frozen.
They live in tents and houseboats and wear leather clothes. A square meal—much bigger than the one you are used to sitting down to-will last them for days. They have weird superstitions. But perhaps they are best known to us for the breed of dog that is their constant companion, for you must often have seen it. A handsome, white dog like a big Pomeranian.
Among the Northern Samoyed—Mr.
Goldman is to talk of them next week— the dog is white as you see it over here, but among the Southern Samoyed the dog that bears their name is brown and tawny, after the manner of so many animals that become white when they live in the snow. Nature's camouflage or protective scheme to make them inconspicuous.