is customary in Siberia, in round cakes, which keep fresh for a long time.

We were now coming to the most animated period of the year at Nishne Kolymsk, namely, when the caravan from Jakuzk, consisting of about twenty merchants, each with from ten to forty horses loaded with goods, halt here for a few days, on their way to the great Tschuktschi fair, at Ostrownoje, and sell a part of their wares to the inhabitants of the district, who assemble from a great distance. The richer traders hasten their return from the banks of the Omolon, where they pass the month of January in obtaining from the wandering Tungusi a large quantity of furs, in exchange for a little tea, tobacco, and brandy. The Tungusi have a strong passion for brandy, and the traders too often avail themselves to the utmost of this weakness.

The prices this year were:

The prices of the principal articles brought by the

Jakuzk merchants were as follows:

*The prices of sables vary greatly in different years. In 1821 a fine

skin cost 40 roubles, and in the following year 15 roubles.

1lb. of fine thread

1 piece of Kitajka (Chinese cotton),

7 yards, or 9 arschins

1 piece of half-silk stuff, about 17

Roubles.

3

10

50

1

6

The superintendent of the district usually arrives soon after the beginning of the fair, for the purpose of embracing this favourable opportunity for collecting the crown dues; he also hears and decides causes, and his visit, by giving scope to the litigious disposition of the inhabitants, often brings dissension where cheerfulness and harmony before prevailed. Meanwhile we had succeeded in obtaining a large quantity of fish for ourselves and our dogs. The supply for the latter was estimated at 81,944 herrings.*

As the time for our departure approached, I found that it would be impossible to obtain for another month the number of drivers, sledges, and above all of dogs, which were necessary for our intended expedition. Under these circumstances, I decided on employing the intervening time in surveying the coast to the Eastward as far as our means would permit, with the few sledges which were ready, and on sending M. von Matiuschkin for the same period to Ostrownoje, to gain some knowledge of the

It included a quantity of rein-deer bones. For convenience in estimating supplies, every sort of provision for dogs is reduced in calculation to an equivalent number of herrings, eight or ten of which are considered when dried a proper daily allowance for a sledge-dog.

Tschuktschi who came to the fair, and to purchase from them walrus skins and whalebone for our sledges. But that which I especially recommended to his care, was to endeavour to establish a good understanding with that suspicious people, and to tranquillize their minds as to the object of our visit to their shores, by making them understand that we were in search of a navigable passage, by which ships would be able to bring them a larger and cheaper supply of tobacco and other articles. He also took with him a good supply of tobacco, beads, scissors, &c., &c., as presents to their chiefs.

On the 14th of February I despatched my three travelling sledges with the proper number of good dogs, under the care of three Cossacks, one of whom understood the Tschuktschi language, to an island at the mouth of the Eastern branch of the Kolyma, where our provisions were already deposited. Whilst awaiting my arrival, the dogs were to be given good food and rest, to improve their condition to the utmost.

A few days afterwards the Cossack who had been sent by the superintendent to Ostrownoje to give notice of the approach of the Tschuktschi, returned with the intelligence that a small party from Tschaun Bay had arrived on the 8th of February within 90 wersts of Ostrownoje, and that they were the forerunners of a much more numerous caravan from the neighbourhood of Behring Straits. The Jakuzk

*Thongs of Walrus skin are used here instead of iron fastenings, and are very durable; pieces of whalebone under the wooden runners make the sledge glide along the ice far more easily, nor are they so liable as wood to be injured by the salt which is left on the ice, in places where it has been overflowed by sea-water.

merchants soon took their departure in hired sledges; they were accompanied by the superintendent, and were followed on the 4th of March by Captain Cochrane and M. von Matiuschkin.* Captain Cochrane's plan was to join the Tschuktschi caravan on their return to Tschukotskoj Noss, and Behring Straits, and to cross over from thence to the northwest coast of America; but when he became better acquainted with the Tschuktschi, he gave up this scheme and returned to Nishne Kolymsk.

* The distance to Ostrownoje is 250 wersts: the usual price of a sledge for the journey from Kolymsk and back is about 100 roubles.

93

CHAPTER V.

First Ice Journey in Sledges over the Sea.-Departure from Nishne Kolymsk.-Sucharnoje Island.Baranow Rocks.-Flat Low Coast.-Great Baranow River.—Cold.-First traces of the Tschuktschi. -Meteor.-Cape Schelagskoj.-Kosmin Rock.Wollok.-Cape Matiuschkin.-Arautan Island.— Loss of Provisions.-Return to Nishne Kolymsk. THE sea-coast from the Kolyma to Cape Schelagskoj is wholly uninhabited; on the one side the occasional excursions of the Russians terminate at the Baranow Rocks; and on the other, the Tschuktschi do not. cross the larger Baranow River. The intervening eighty wersts of coast are unvisited. The wide mossy plains and valleys inland are wandered over by those warlike Tschuktschi who have preserved their independence, and who bring with them immense herds of rein-deer. Strangers are viewed with great suspicion, and melancholy examples have shown the dangers incurred by intruders. Our sledge-drivers were not entirely free from the deeply-rooted fear of these people, generally entertained by the inhabitants of Kolymsk. Our party consisted of Mr. Kosmin and myself, and the drivers of nine sledges. Only three of the latter were to accompany us the whole way; the other six were to return with their sledges whenever the provisions which they carried should be disposed of.