M. von Matiuschkin had accomplished his purpose of penetrating as far as the Tschuktschi. He arrived on the 24th of September, the latter part of his route having been a winter journey, as the Kolyma was frozen over on the 18th of September.

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CHAPTER XIII.

M. von Matiuschkin's Journey across the Eastern Tundra in the Summer of 1822.

I PARTED from M. von Wrangell at the village of Pantelejewka on the 1st of July, in company with our former travelling companion and friend, M. Bereshnoi, who was going to Tschaun Bay. His objects were to trade with the Tschuktschi, and to seek for Mammoth-bones; mine was to execute the charge intrusted to me by the commander of the expedition of examining and surveying the district over which we were to travel. It was agreed that we should go round by Ostrownoje, where we expected to find a Tschuktschi interpreter.

After crossing to the right bank of the Pantelejewka we loaded and mounted our horses, and began our journey by following for three wersts a narrow path along the mountain-side; we then turned to the East to avoid two rivers which were so swollen by the heavy rains, which had lately fallen, that we could not hope to be able to ford them: we rode till sunset over rocky hills clothed with wood, and marshy valleys intersected by streams, and crossed by twilight the Nuptschag, which rises in the White Rocks, and joins the Pantelejewka eight or ten wersts above the village which we had left.

The traces of the storm of the previous day were every where visible, and our way was frequently impeded by the uprooted trees which lay across our path. We pitched our tent at night, and the horses were allowed to graze.

On the 2nd of July the wood became gradually thinner as we approached the White Rocks, until there were only low bushes, with occasional stems of larch-trees which had been burnt. The morassy ground was overgrown with moss, and intersected in every direction by small brooks. There were here many marsh-birds, and it is the most northern station at which we saw them. As we advanced, both vegetable and animal life became more rare, except the immense swarms of mosquitoes, which continued to torment both ourselves and our poor horses, dreadfully. We hoped to escape them by halting for the night on a barren elevation, exposed on every side to the wind, but unfortunately it fell calm; it was in vain that we crept under horse-hair nets, or surrounded ourselves with thick and suffocating smoke from the smouldering heaps of moss and leaves; nothing availed, until the increasing cold of the night brought us a short respite; but as soon as the beams of the morning sun were felt, our tormentors renewed their attacks.

On the morning of the 3rd of July, we left the White Rocks, which gradually diminished in height towards the east, and took a southward course across a hilly country watered by several streams. At first we met only with bushes, but the woods soon became so thick that we had great difficulty in making our way through. We could not follow any one of

the rivers, because, though they all flow towards the Aniuj, they enter it a long way to the westward, which would have taken us quite out of our course. We availed ourselves, as far as possible, of the paths which the rein-deer had opened in their south-eastern migration.

Early on the morning of the 4th we saw, above the trees, the summits of the two mountains Krugi and Nugpol, which are near the Aniuj, and between which we were to pass to reach that stream. The forest, apparently hitherto untrodden by any human foot, became still denser and more difficult to traverse, from the tangled roots and branches of numbers of uprooted trees. We had frequently to open a path with hatchets, and sometimes could not advance more than half a werst in the course of an hour. The rein-deer tracks, which had hitherto befriended us, now ceased, and we had also many streams to cross; late in the evening we emerged from the wood on a treeless plain, extending from east and west, on which the Krugi mountain stands; we rode on to the east, and slept among some low woody hills surrounding the Nugpol mountain.

In one of the brooks which we crossed, we found a very fine mammoth's-tusk, which might weigh 2 pood (100 lbs.) and the value of which M. Bereshnoi said would fully compensate him for all his expenses and trouble hitherto. Unfortunately, on a closer examination, we found that the greater part of the tusk was so firmly fixed in the frozen bed of the stream that all our efforts to get it out failed, and not having with us any pointed iron.

crow-bars, the prize had to be left behind, to the great regret of the whole party.

After riding six wersts on the morning of the 5th, we arrived at the summer dwelling of a Jukahir family, at the foot of the Nugpol mountain, and on the bank of the Aniuj river. By their advice we were ferried by them across the river, as they assured us that we should find the forests on the north side absolutely impenetrable; and that in the entire absence of any assistance from men or boats, we should have found great difficulty in crossing the Poginden, which falls into the Aniuj further on.

We followed the left bank of the river, first through trees, and then over a marsh; which delayed us so much, that we could only accomplish twentyfive wersts in the course of the day. We passed the night at a small Tschuwanzian settlement, to which we crossed the river. We found these poor people suffering terribly from hunger; they had no fishingnets, and with lines and baskets had scarcely caught any thing for some time past. We gave them some of our provisions, and their gratitude knew no bounds. Next morning, as we continued our journey after re-crossing the river, they followed us for some distance along the opposite bank, with shouts and songs. We passed the rest of this day, (the 8th,) and the whole of the 9th of July, at a little settlement opposite to the Obrom mountain, partly on account of the slight illness of one of our company, and partly to allow our horses to rest.

On the 10th we descended the river to Ostrownoje, on a raft formed of stems of trees, our horses follow