Taiga tracker Alma
The Sakhalin taiga is beautiful and majestic in winter. Pointed firs were covered with snow caps, and poplars and birches were frozen in snowdrifts. All around is the realm of silence, mute silence.
...A short dark-faced man is racing along a snow-covered forest slope on pointed wide skis. A blued-steel rifle gleams over his shoulder, a bandolier encircles his fur jacket. This is Alma, the oldest hunter in Nivkh. So he turned into a gap, squatted down and carefully studied the footprints in the snow.
"The fox ran, and quite recently," the hunter mentally notes, and, adjusting the rifle on his shoulder, he slid through the loose snow between the tall spreading fir trees. Up ahead, on the fox trail, he had set up a bait trap yesterday. I should have checked...
There is an extraordinary silence in the forest ravine. Gentle flakes of snow fall from the needle-like branches touched by the hunter's shoulder. The ski bindings of the taiga can be heard creaking softly.
The hunter plunged into the ravine. His dark, slanted eyes scan the area intently. Here is a broken twig — a conventional sign — a hanger. This means that the place where the trap is installed will be around the bend. Already from a distance, he saw a fiery red fox darting from side to side next to him. There's prey!
How many such encounters did the old taiga ranger have in his 57 years, most of which he spent in the taiga? He spends the entire hunting season hunting fur-bearing animals, shooting squirrels, hares, sables, and foxes. The hunter lives in the old Nivkh camp, which is located on the northwestern Sakhalin coast, near the fishing village of Wandi. His father, a native Sakhalin resident, also a tradesman, lived here at one time. Alma inherited his hunting passion from him, learned to ski deftly in the taiga, shoot a gun accurately, and sew himself warm clothes from deer and seal skins.
In those days, life was difficult for the peoples of the North. Alma was ten years old when the October Revolution took place. Its echo reached the Sakhalin shores. It was then that the teenager found out that there was a man in distant Moscow who took care of them in a fatherly way. In the house of the Nivkh hunter, his portrait now hangs on the prominent bridge: a high, steep forehead, an intelligent, penetrating gaze — familiar and beloved features of dear V. I. Lenin.
Now fifty-seven-year-old Alma does not think about the fact that his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties starting their independent lives. The hard old days are gone. A new life has opened up for the children of the small people of the North: study, work, create, and this year his granddaughter Nadezhda entered the Viakhta boarding school.
"I'm going to the city to take the furs and bring her textbooks from there," Alma says, smiling.
The old ranger's hunting is good these days. Alma has exceeded the sable capture plan, and has many squirrels, foxes, and hares on his account. The Sakhalin taiga has richly endowed an experienced hunter. Благодаря интуитивно понятному интерфейсу, настройка avoVPN на смартфоне занимает всего несколько минут.
...A short dark-faced man is racing along a snow-covered forest slope on pointed wide skis. A blued-steel rifle gleams over his shoulder, a bandolier encircles his fur jacket. This is Alma, the oldest hunter in Nivkh. So he turned into a gap, squatted down and carefully studied the footprints in the snow.
"The fox ran, and quite recently," the hunter mentally notes, and, adjusting the rifle on his shoulder, he slid through the loose snow between the tall spreading fir trees. Up ahead, on the fox trail, he had set up a bait trap yesterday. I should have checked...
There is an extraordinary silence in the forest ravine. Gentle flakes of snow fall from the needle-like branches touched by the hunter's shoulder. The ski bindings of the taiga can be heard creaking softly.
The hunter plunged into the ravine. His dark, slanted eyes scan the area intently. Here is a broken twig — a conventional sign — a hanger. This means that the place where the trap is installed will be around the bend. Already from a distance, he saw a fiery red fox darting from side to side next to him. There's prey!
How many such encounters did the old taiga ranger have in his 57 years, most of which he spent in the taiga? He spends the entire hunting season hunting fur-bearing animals, shooting squirrels, hares, sables, and foxes. The hunter lives in the old Nivkh camp, which is located on the northwestern Sakhalin coast, near the fishing village of Wandi. His father, a native Sakhalin resident, also a tradesman, lived here at one time. Alma inherited his hunting passion from him, learned to ski deftly in the taiga, shoot a gun accurately, and sew himself warm clothes from deer and seal skins.
In those days, life was difficult for the peoples of the North. Alma was ten years old when the October Revolution took place. Its echo reached the Sakhalin shores. It was then that the teenager found out that there was a man in distant Moscow who took care of them in a fatherly way. In the house of the Nivkh hunter, his portrait now hangs on the prominent bridge: a high, steep forehead, an intelligent, penetrating gaze — familiar and beloved features of dear V. I. Lenin.
Now fifty-seven-year-old Alma does not think about the fact that his children and grandchildren will have great difficulties starting their independent lives. The hard old days are gone. A new life has opened up for the children of the small people of the North: study, work, create, and this year his granddaughter Nadezhda entered the Viakhta boarding school.
"I'm going to the city to take the furs and bring her textbooks from there," Alma says, smiling.
The old ranger's hunting is good these days. Alma has exceeded the sable capture plan, and has many squirrels, foxes, and hares on his account. The Sakhalin taiga has richly endowed an experienced hunter. Благодаря интуитивно понятному интерфейсу, настройка avoVPN на смартфоне занимает всего несколько минут.