The temperature of the water also altered but very slowly.

In the Aniuj, as well as in all the more rapid and rocky streams of this district, the formation of ice takes place in two different manners: a thin crust spreads itself along the banks and over the smaller bays where the current is least rapid, but the greater part is formed in the bed of the river in the hollows amongst the stones, where the weeds give it the appearance of a greenish mud. As soon as a piece of ice of this kind attains a certain size, it is detached from the ground, and raised to the surface, by the greater specific gravity of the water; these masses, containing a quantity of gravel and weeds, unite and consolidate, and in a few hours the river becomes passable in sledges instead of in boats.

On the 24th of September everything was ready for the continuance of our journey in sledges. The dogs were weak and tired from scanty food, and we could only drive slowly, so that we did not reach the Jakutian settlement of Potistennoje until the 28th. The above name, signifying fivecornered or five-walled, is taken from a large insulated rock, which by its five perpendicular sides of equal dimensions bears a great resemblance to a fivecornered tower. We obtained here fresh dogs, and drove the same day to a village called Baskowo, where we found a few Russian families, who had not yet returned to Nishne Kolymsk. From Brussanka to Baskowo, the banks of the stream are generally flat, with a few occasional sand-hills, which are continually undermined by the water. The whole district is a morass, interspersed with small lakes, with

P

occasional low bushes and stunted larch-trees; a few taller trees are sometimes seen in places where the ground is a little raised. The whole district is remarkably uninteresting and dreary; we travelled through it for five days, and on the 29th of September we were glad to see Nishne Kolymsk again, after an absence of seventy days. The nature of the country, and the lateness of the season, combined to render the latter half of our journey barren of interest.

It may be said of the inhabitants generally, that notwithstanding the influence of the Russians, they still preserve, in great measure, their original characteristics, both in their physical appearance, and in their disposition. Like most of the natives of the Polar circle, they are short in stature, but broadshouldered and muscular. Their hands and feet are very small, their heads are large in proportion to their bodies, the face is broad and flat, and the wide cheeks seem to press the mouth together and give it a roundish form. Their hair is black and coarse, and their small deep-seated eyes are dull and inanimate. Their whole outward form seems contracted by the severity of the climate, and the constant conflict with cold and hunger: and from the same causes, their moral and intellectual faculties appear as if but imperfectly developed.

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CHAPTER X.

Survey of the Coast of the Polar Sea from the Lesser Tschukotschje River to the mouth of the Indigirka, by the Pilot Kosmin, in 1821.

I was directed by the commander of the expedition, to commence my survey from the village of Maloje Tschukotschje, to which place he accompanied me, and where we expected to meet guides and horses. It was not until the 1st of July that a Jakut arrived, bringing only five horses, which had been collected from the different settlements above 150 wersts off. My preparations were soon completed; the two strongest horses were loaded with provisions and other necessaries, and the three remaining ones were assigned to myself and my two companions, who were the above-mentioned Jakut and a young Cossack acquainted with the district. By the advice of the latter we took two light canoes for crossing the rivers. We started on the 2nd of July at half-past eleven, with clouded weather and with a temperature of + 49°.

The river Tschukotschje rises in a lake of the same name, ten wersts from the sea, and which is eighteen wersts long, and from seven to eight wersts broad. This lake is connected by a small

arm with that of Bokowoje, of nearly the same size. About eight wersts from the eastern end of the Bokowoje lake, is that of Nerpïtschje, nearly fifteen wersts in length; from the western end of the latter lake flows the Ubiennaja, which joins the Kolyma near its mouth, while the Pochodskaja runs from the south-eastern end of the same lake, and empties itself also into the Kolyma higher up. These three rivers abound in fish, and are greatly regarded by the natives in consequence. The country in a W. N. W. direction from the mouth of the Tschukotschje is interspersed with lakes of various sizes, is flat, and scarcely raised above the level of the sea. We met with a large quantity of drift-wood, among which the horses stumbled and became frightened and unruly, one of the boats was broken to pieces, and the pack-horses got loose and shook off part of their loads. These circumstances made our days' march of only thirty-six wersts a very fatiguing one. We passed the night in a balagan, on the Ubiennaja, resorted to from Nishne Kolymsk for fishing. Its latitude is 69° 37', and its longitude 159° 27' by reckoning.

Early in the morning of the 3rd of July we had violent wind and a thick fog. Snow fell in the evening with a temperature of + 29°; it had been +35° in the morning. We followed the course of the Ubiennaja, which is N. 40° E. and slept 121 wersts off at its mouth, in a bay of the same name. The wind was so high, that we could not venture to cross the bay in small boats; we had therefore to follow its windings until we came to the mouth of the Kon'kowaja, where we slept. During the latter

part of this day's march, our horses had to wade up to their girths, as the violent N. E. winds had caused the sea to overflow the low coast for a considerable distance inland. Not far from the small elevation where we passed the night, we found some fragments of a shipwrecked vessel, in the construction of which iron nails had been used. We were now by reckoning in latitude 69° 46', and in longitude 159° 27'. In a N. 80° W. direction, and at a distance of about 13 wersts, we saw several Tungusian Jurti.

In the night of the 4th, the wind veered to the North, and brought with it thick masses of mist, which sometimes sunk, and sometimes rose again, but were never entirely dispersed, notwithstanding the violent gusts of wind. Though when morning broke the thermometer showed +35°, yet we suffered much from cold, being completely wet through, and the storm and the damp atmosphere making it impossible to kindle a fire with the drift-wood, which was thoroughly saturated with sea-water. In the morning we found the ground about us, our horses, and even our own clothes, covered with a thin white finely-crystallized crust of a salt flavour. I had subsequently several times occasion to observe, that during N. and N. W. winds, the ground becomes covered with crystals of salt. The horses appear to like them, and eat with avidity the dry hard grass when it is covered by them.

As the storm continued, and as the Kon'kowaja is here half a werst broad, we could not take our horses across it, and had to follow its course upwards for six wersts, when we came to a place where it