At day-break, on the 31st of August, we loaded our horses, refreshed by five days' rest, with our baggage, and a store of about 1000 fish, and resumed our journey. Steep hills obliged us to cross the Aniuj repeatedly, but this was not difficult, as, from the freezing of the smaller streams, the water was low.

On the 4th of September we came to some jurti, inhabited by five families, who cleared out a large balagan for our reception. Our Jakuti were delighted at meeting with auditors, to whom they could relate their travelling adventures with as many embellishments as they pleased; nor was our presence the slightest restraint to them in this respect. There was good pasture here, and M. Bereshnoi resolved to remain for a time to rest both himself and his horses. I determined to employ the short remainder of the season in surveying the Aniuj to Nishne Kolymsk, a distance of 500 wersts. I had a raft constructed of trunks of aspens, bound together by willow rods, navigated by two oars*, and on the 6th of September I began my voyage down the stream, accompanied by a young Jukahir, recommended to me as knowing the rocks, shallows, and rapids, by his father, with whom I left my gun and ammunition, for the hunting-season, in return for his son's services. Our vessel was awkward and very difficult to manage, especially when we came to falls: on the

These rafts are made of nine or ten stems of trees, of a light kind of wood (straight aspens or poplars) the ends of which are drawn together to a point. At the other end the stems are spread out in a fan-like manner, and small boards are pushed into the interstices: the whole is bound together by willow rods. Such a raft is very solid, and its form makes it move through the water tolerably fast.

9th we reached Mungol, on the 11th Plotbischtsche, and on the 12th Maloji Wetrennoje. I had visited all these places in the preceding summer, with Dr. Kyber, when the banks were lined by busy and successful hunters; now, birds were roosting in the deserted huts, and wolves were prowling round them. On the 12th we met with the family of Korkin, who had entertained me so hospitably when I was last here, and who had now only one meal in forty-eight hours. Our raft was much injured, and unfit to encounter the floating ice which we began to meet with. As we were trying to repair it, Korkin came most kindly to offer me the use of his boat, in which we departed on the 13th. We put up a sail, and, with a favouring wind, soon reached Molotkowo. Notwithstanding the rapidity of the current, there was already so much ice that we sometimes had to break through it with some difficulty; but the severe frosts were now so close at hand, that I feared we might be frozen up in the stream, at a distance from any inhabited place, and I therefore hired seven dogs, which I took in the boat, in order that in case of such an accident we might proceed along the ice. In the evening, just as we approached an island covered with larch-trees, our boat was caught between two large masses of ice, and crushed to pieces. We got safe to shore on the island, and succeeded in saving our things likewise. As we might be detained here some days, we built a hut of branches, and covered it, first with moss, and then with snow, over which we poured water, which froze immediately, so that we had a very comfortable and air-tight dwelling.

Our dogs were tethered outside to guard against a surprise by bears.

We waited here two days, till the ice was strong enough to bear us, and on the 18th we crossed to the right bank of the stream, close to which we drove slowly along, as our dogs were weak, and the ice still so thin, that it sometimes broke under us. On the 20th it became apparently quite solid, and on seeing smoke on the left bank, I attempted to cross, but in the middle of the stream the ice gave way, and I should have been drawn beneath it by the current, but for a pole which I carried with me, and which supported me, till the guide threw me the end of a very long thong, by means of which he drew me out. On the left bank we found a Lamutian family, whose rein-deer had been destroyed by wolves, and who were supporting themselves by fishing. They had been successful, and had collected a large store of dried and frozen fish, of which they let us have as much as we wanted for ourselves and dogs. In the night the "warm wind" set in, and weakened the ice so much that we were detained two days. On the 23rd we were enabled to proceed, and on the 24th I arrived at Nishne Kolymsk, after an absence of ninety-four days. My papers had been so thoroughly wetted, that I had great difficulty in deciphering them, so as to draw up from them the survey of the country through which we had travelled.

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CHAPTER XIV.

Fourth Journey on the Polar Sea. Survey of the Coast, as far as the Island of Koliutschin in 1823.

THE winter of 1822-23, was generally considered a very mild one at Nishne Kolymsk: the temperature was only once as low as-51° (on the 10th of January), and auroras were rare and not so brilliant as usual.

Whilst we were engaged in various preparations for our spring expedition over the ice, and in arranging our surveys and other papers, the monotony of our life was cheered by the arrival of M. Tarabukin, who had recently been nominated to the command of the Kolymsk district, and took a warm interest in the success of the expedition.

The fisheries on the Kolyma had been generally successful, and the sickness among the dogs having entirely ceased, their numbers had again augmented. These circumstances were highly favourable for obtaining the requisite means for our journey, and M. Tarabukin, always just and considerate towards the inhabitants, by his judicious exertions, guided by a long knowledge of the people and country, obtained for us in excellent time all the provisions which we were in want of. Knowing the great uncertainties

attending a sufficient supply of dogs, and the large proportion which would probably be found useless when collected, I applied to the dwellers on the banks of the Indigirka, the Chroma, and the Jana, whose dogs are usually well trained, as well as to the inhabitants of the Kolymsk district, and travelled myself to those rivers in November, remaining a few days at Ustjansk, where Lieutenant Anjou gave me every assistance in his power. Having obtained the promise of fifteen good teams of dogs, with provisions for them for two months, I returned to Nishne Kolymsk, which I reached at the close of the

year.

Our great journey could not be begun till late in February, but on the 30th of January 1823, M. Kosmin started with two sledges for the Bear Islands, to ascertain beyond doubt the true position of Krestowoi Island, and to assure himself of the existence or non-existence of the other island of the same name of which we had been told. He returned on the 17th of February, after a journey which the season had rendered severe, and gave me a very exact survey of the islands generally and of Krestowoi in particular. He had made a thorough examination of the space around for a considerable distance without discovering any island besides those which we had previously visited, and it may therefore certainly be concluded that no other island exists.

Not only our own people, but also most of the inhabitants of Nishne Kolymsk were in full activity in preparing for our last great journey, in which we hoped to complete the fulfilment of the duties intrusted to us by