ARRIVAL AT NISHNE KOLYMSK.

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through the ice which covered the small river: this brought us to the Kolyma, which, owing to its greater breadth and stronger current, was still free from ice. We rapidly descended its stream, and arrived the same day at Nishne Kolymsk.

I found there Sergeant Reschetnikow, who had returned from the Baranicha after having completed the buildings. He and his people had been frequently disturbed at their work by dangerous visits from white bears. I learned from him that large numbers of swans and geese resorted to that neighbourhood for breeding and moulting, and that part of the sea abounded with a species of fish resembling loaches (schmerlen), called golzy. The sailor whom I had left at the mouth of the lesser Tschukotschje returned soon afterward, and informed me that both that river and the eastern mouth of the Kolyma had been completely frozen over as early as the 21st of August. Violent storms and frequent falls of snow had prevented him from shooting more than sixty head of swans and geese. The fishery, however, had been very successful.

Winter was now rapidly approaching: on the 6th of September there was much floating ice, and on the 8th the Kolyma was fast frozen over. The inhabitants had not yet returned from their summer occupations, and their deserted houses were completely buried in snow, which had fallen almost without intermission. The only person who usually remains in the village during the summer is an old Cossack, who has charge of the town chancery. His solitude had been shared the present season by an old woman, who was too infirm to accompany her friends; and on my arrival the whole population consisted of these two persons, myself, and three men belonging to our expedition. The inhabitants, however, gradually returned, and with much labour opened paths to their houses and cleared out the snow, which had in may cases filled the Р

rooms, as the ice windows had melted during the summer, and the slight shutters had not been, in all cases, sufficiently strong to resist the storms of wind and keep out the drifting snow. The tidings brought by the new-comers were by no means cheering some complained of failure in hunting, others in fishing, and all looked forward to a winter of distress and scarcity. Amid this general anxiety I was gladdened by the arrival of the post from Jakuzk: long-looked-for letters carried me back in imagination to my far-distant friends and kindred, and afforded me inexpressible delight, checked, however, by the recollection that they had been six months in reaching me from St. Petersburgh.

On the 29th of September MM. Matiuschkin and Kyber returned from their journey up the greater and the lesser Aniuj, and a week later we rejoiced at the safe return of M. Kosmin from his coast expedition to the Indigirka. We were now all once more assembled, and, after spending the days in arranging our papers and journals, and entering our observations on the charts, we gathered round the social hearth, and whiled away the long evenings in recounting our several adventures.

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CHAPTER IX.

M. MATIUSCHKIN'S ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY ALONG THE LESSER AND THE GREATER ANIUJ RIVERS.

THE LESSER ANIUJ.

Departure from Nishne Kolymsk.-Mammoth Bones.-Arrival at Plotbischtsche.-Aboriginal Population of this District.Present Inhabitants.-Causes of the Scantiness of the Popula tion.-Jukahiri.-Migration of the Reindeer in Spring and Summer.-Departure from Plotbischtsche.-Argunowo.-Poginden.-Termination of the Journey.-The Rock Obrom. -Return to Plotbischtsche.-General Remarks on the Lesser Aniuj.

On the 20th of June, 1821, Dr. Kyber and myself embarked in a small boat, and with a fresh N.N.W. wind entered the great Aniuj, which empties itself by three arms into the Kolyma, opposite to the ostrog of Nishne Kolymsk. We were followed by the karbass in which our voyage was to be made our few packages were soon transferred, and we rowed quickly up the stream, which is here about a werst broad, and has scarcely any current. We reached in the night the mouths of two smaller wiski (streams having their origin in lakes), which are much resorted to for fishing by means of weirs and baskets, and are very productive, both in spring, when the fish are passing up to the lakes, and in summer, when they are returning to the sea, and many summerdwellings have been erected here in consequence. We were detained in engaging rowers and making such arrangements as were necessary till the 23d, when we resumed our voyage.

About ten wersts higher up we passed the mouth of the River Bajukowa, which rises in some distant mountains just visible to the south. Soon after we

came to where the greater and the lesser, or dry Aniuj, unite; and, entering the latter, and having followed its windings for twenty wersts, we stopped for the night at a low, sandy island, where we were secure from the visits of the numerous bears which we saw on both sides of the river. The two next days, the 24th and 25th, we were favoured by the wind, and advanced rapidly. The boat being entirely open, we were completely wet through by the heavy rain which had fallen incessantly during the last three days, and were delighted to meet, at a place called Kildan, with a balagan, which had been erected for their use by the merchants who travel to Ostrownoje. We remained there the next day to make several little alterations and improvements in our boat, one of which was to put up a slender mast, to which a towline could be fastened, as the rapid current higher up would probably render such a mode of proceeding necessary. I employed myself meanwhile in arrangements respecting my journal, map, &c. To lay down precisely all the different windings and distances would be considered a useless application of time and labour, and I therefore contented myself with taking observations of latitude and angles of azimuth for determining the principal points.

The banks of the river thus far resembled those of the lower Kolyma in their dreary uniformity, but we now began to meet with better pastures. The right bank is much higher than the left. It consists of steep sandhills 30 or more fathoms high, held together only by frosts which the summer is too short to dissolve. Most of the hills were frozen as hard as a rock: nothing thaws but a thin outside layer, though, from being gradually undermined by the water, large masses of frozen sand frequently break off and fall into the stream. When this happens, mammoth bones in a more or less perfect state of preservation are generally found: we saw a few

FOSSILIZED WOOD.

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bones, and a scull, which looked to me like that of a rhinoceros.*

* Without entering in this place into any speculations concerning the manner in which these probably antediluvian remains came into their present situations, I would call attention to the remarkable fact that the teeth, tusks, and bones, which are called by the general name of mammoth bones, but which probably belong to several different species of animals, are not distributed equally over Siberia, but form immense local accumulations, which become both richer and are more extensive the farther one advances to the north. They are found in the greatest abundance in New Siberia and the Lachow Islands,* as mentioned by Reschetnikow and Sannikow. Many hundred

* Protodiakanow, the companion of Lachow, states that the soil of the first of these islands, which consists only of sand and ice, contains such a quantity of mammoth bones that they seem to form the principal material of the island; and that among these bones there are found the scull and horns of an animal resembling the buffalo.-Am. Ed.

† Sannikow, who visited the Island of Kotelnoi, near New-Siberia, in 1811, relates that he found on the hills in the interior of that island vast quantities of the sculls and other bones of horses, buffaloes, oxen, and sheep; and he concludes that the island must have once enjoyed a climate so mild that these animals lived there, in company, perhaps, with the mammoth, whose bones, also, everywhere abound. In farther support of this opinion, he adduces the fact that large trees, in a partially fossilized state, are frequently found here as well as in New-Siberia. A particular account of these remarkable vegetable remains in the latter island is given by Hedenström: "On the southern coast of New Siberia," he says, "are found the remarkable Wood Hills. They are 30 fathoms high, and consist of horizontal strata of sandstone, alternating with strata of bituminous beams or trunks of trees. On ascending these hills, fossilized charcoal is everywhere met with, covered apparently with ashes; but, on closer examination, this ash is also found to be a petrifaction, and so hard that it can scarcely be scraped off with a knife. On the summit another curiosity is found, namely, a long row of beams resembling the former, but fixed perpendicularly in the sandstone. The ends, which project from seven to ten inches, are for the most part broken. The whole has the appearance of a ruinous dike." Lieutenant Anjou likewise examined these Wood Hills: he says, "They form a steep declivity 20 fathoms high, extending about five wersts along the coast. In this bank, which is exposed to the sea, beams or trunks of trees are found, generally in a horizontal position, but with great irregularity, fifty or more of them together, the largest being about ten inches in diameter. The wood is not very hard, is friable, has a black colour, and a slight gloss. When laid on the fire it does not burn with a flame, but glimmers, and emits a resinous odour." These facts certainly show that at some distant period a great change must have taken place; but whether a change of climate, or, as is more probable, some great revolution of nature, transferring these animal and vegetable wrecks from a more southern region, must be matter of conjecture.-Am. Ed.