never used. It is strange, that in a country where the cold is so intense, where one would suppose every means of warmth would be resorted to, every article of food is taken cold. They usually conclude their meals with a lump of snow; and I have often seen them, in a temperature of -36°, or even more, catch up from time to time handfuls of fresh snow, and eat it with great apparent relish.

On the 23d of April we left Ir-Kaipij, and continued our route towards the west. On the 24th we came to the place from which M. Matiuschkin had commenced his journey over the ice, to make a last attempt to discover the northern land. We found here a large wooden cross erected by him, with a short notice to the effect that he had everywhere met with wide open places, and that, after several attempts to advance farther, the breaking up of the ice in every direction had forced him to return, without having been more than sixteen wersts from the coast.

We slept on the 25th at Schalaurow's hut, near the Werkon River, seven wersts N. 80° E. from Cape Kekurnoi. This building, which had been erected sixty years ago, was still in tolerable preservation. All the side timbers were standing the roof only had fallen in. We examined the mingled earth and snow which filled the interior of the hut, and found some human bones, and a kind of pouch for partridges, made of wood, which was overgrown with moss. The kamakai at Cape Schelagskoj afterward told me, that when he was a boy of ten years old, several corpses had been found here, and that five individuals of this unfortunate company had attempted to make the journey on foot to the Kolyma district.

Early in the morning of the 1st of May we reached Cape Schelagskoj, and roused up the kamakai, who was still asleep, in hopes of obtaining some provisions from him. Unfortunately, his hunting and

EXHAUSTED CONDITION OF THE DOGS. 285

fishing had been unsuccessful, and he could spare us scarcely anything. He handed me a letter which M. Matiuschkin had left for me, containing some farther details of his proceedings during his last unsuccessful attempt on the ice.

Our dogs were very much exhausted by their long journey, and their feet were so injured by the sharp ice, which had now lost its covering of snow, that their track was marked with blood, and some of them were so lame that we were obliged to carry them in the sledges. Our stock of provisions both for them and for ourselves was quite consumed, and an attempt we made to meet the Tschuktschi who usually visit Aion or Sabadei Island with their herds of reindeer had failed, so that there was nothing to be done but to follow the practice of the country, which is, when dogs are in very bad condition, to drive them on, without stopping, till they reach a place where they can have good food, and the rest they require. We did so, and with much difficulty succeeded in reaching the balagan at the mouth of the Baranicha, where we found sufficient provisions to permit of allowing our poor dogs two days' rest. We had had a light breeze, with a temperature of +24°, but on the 3d the thermometer suddenly fell to -8°; the cloudless sky, however, made amends for the severity of the cold, by enabling us on that and the following days to add some good meridian altitudes to our previous observations for latitude.

We resumed our route on the 5th of May. As we approached Nishne Kolymsk, the signs of spring became more perceptible, the banks of the river were clear of snow, and, although the ice was still strong enough to bear us, it was covered with water formed by the melting of the snow, or that brought down by the more rapid mountain streams, which were now open. There was very great difficulty in drawing the sledges, and, but for the strong smooth whalebone runners which we had purchased at Koliutschin, it would have been impossible.

At length, on the 10th of May, we reached Nishne Kolymsk, after an absence of seventy-eight days, during which time we had travelled 2300 wersts. M. Matiuschkin had arrived six days before. During his homeward journey he had completed the survey of Tschaun Bay, without meeting with the Tschuktschi anywhere except at Cape Schelagskoj, where the kamakai gave him a friendly reception, but could not spare him any provisions.

Our return to Nishne Kolymsk closed the series of attempts made by us to discover a northern land, which, though not seen by us, may nevertheless exist, and be attainable under a combination of very favourable circumstances, the principal of which would be a long, cold, and stormless winter, and a late spring. If another attempt should be made, it would be advisable to leave the coast about Cape Jakan, which all the native accounts concur in representing as the nearest point to the supposed northern region. We had now completed the execution of our instructions, and were free to leave Nishne Kolymsk, and to commence our homeward journey as soon as it should be practicable. MM. Matiuschkin and Kyber took their departure early in July. They ascended the Kolyma, went from thence to Werchne Kolymsk, and up the Omekon to Irkuzk, where they spent the summer in researches relating to natural history. I was detained at Nishne Kolymsk until the 1st of August, when I received orders to await the arrival of a functionary at Jakuzk, who was commissioned to examine all my accounts with the inhabitants of the Kolymsk district, and all the payments I had made them. Unfortunately, this person did not arrive for a long time; and, though I occupied myself during the interval in arranging my journals, surveys, and maps, yet I own I felt this delay in the highest degree irksome, and a greater trial of patience than all our toils and difficulties hitherto.

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At length he came, the simple accounts were soon gone over, and, all being settled, I left Nishne Kolymsk with M. Kosmin, after a stay of three entire years. We soon reached Sredne Kolymsk, where we hired horses to take us to Jakuzk from our old acquaintance M. Bereshnoi.

E

CHAPTER XIII.

Return from Sredne Kolymsk to St. Petersburgh.

It was on the 19th of November that we left Sredne Kolymsk. Instead of taking the postroad through Saschiwersk and Tabalog, we followed the northern route, which is travelled by the trading caravans across the heaths inhabited by the Jakuti, along the Selenächa River. Although by this means we traversed the country in quite a new direction, the uniformity which prevails throughout northeastern Siberia is such, that a detailed description of our return to Jakuzk would be little more than a repetition of what has been already said: I will therefore confine myself to the mention of a few particulars, which had not before fallen under my notice.

The preference given by the trading caravans to the route along the Selenächa, is on account of the excellent food afforded to their horses by a species of equisetum, which grows abundantly on the sandy banks of that river, and is not met with along the postroad. In summer this plant is bitter and distasteful to the horses; but the first frosts, without altering its green colour, give it a sweetish flavour: it is then much liked by them, and they soon become strong and fat from feeding on it. This useful plant,

which is hardly an inch in height, is known in the' country by the name of tschiboga. Although it requires frost to render it palatable, it is sometimes injured by a long continuance of extreme cold, which renders its hollow tubes so brittle, that the hoofs of the horses, in scraping away the snow, destroy them. We always endeavoured to pass the night on the best spots for pasture, though they were not always the best in other respects. On the 9th of December, for instance, with a temperature of -42°, we slept on an exposed plain where we had no shelter from the north wind, around a fire kindled in the open air. I had a good opportunity of remarking in the Jakuti who accompanied us the degree to which men can harden themselves by long habit against cold and exposure in the severest winter journey. These people do not use any kind of tent or covering, nor any of the larger fur garments, without which we could not venture into the open air when the cold had attained a certain intensity.

A Jakut, when travelling, wears only his usual in-door clothing, and at night spreads a horsecloth on the snow, which, with a saddle for his pillow, forms the whole of his bedding; his only covering being the fur jacket which he has worn during the day, and which he pulls off and puts over his back and shoulders, while the front of his body has scarcely anything to protect it, and is turned to the blazing fire. When he has lain for some time in this way, and feels so warm that he is near perspiring, he stops up his nose and ears with little bits of fur, and covers his face so as to leave only an exceedingly small aperture for breathing, and this is all that he requires in the most intense cold to keep from freeizng during sleep. Even in Siberia the Jakuti are called iron men; and I do not believe that there are any other people in the world who can endure cold and hunger as they do. I have seen them frequently in the most intense cold of