ment; nor were these mere words of course, for a year or two after they still spoke of our agreeable and brilliant party as a bright spot in their remembrance. Next day we went to visit the remains of the two vessels of Captain Billings, which a flood had carried to some distance inland from the river. Though they had been exposed for nearly fifty years to the weather, the wood was still sound. On the 2d of February, the pilot Kosmin arrived with a large quantity of necessaries for the expedition, which he had brought from Jakuzk. He had taken advantage of the slowness of his journey to draw up an exact topographical description of the almost unknown country through which he passed. Besides more important matters, he brought us a welcome and long-untasted addition to our very scanty bill of fare, namely, forty pounds of frozen reindeer meat, and some milk and cream frozen, as is customary in Siberia, in round cakes, which keep good for a long time. We were now approaching 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 dispose of part of their wares to the inhabitants of the district, who assemble from a great distance. The richer traders now hasten their return from the banks of the Omolon, where they have passed 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 the latter, 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: 1 lb. Circassian leaf tobacco 1 lb. white sugar 1 lb. Chinese sugar-candy. 1 lb. of tea of an inferior quality 1 lb. of fine thread 1 piece of kitajka (Chinese cotton), 7 yards, or 1 piece of half-silk stuff, about 17 yards 1 arschin of coarse linen 1 figured cotton handkerchief 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 likewise examines and decides any differences there may be among the inhabitants; and thus his visit, by giving scope to their litigious disposition, 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 *The prices of sables vary greatly in different years. In 1821 a fine skin cost 40 roubles, and in the following year only 15 roubles. †The Russian arschin is twenty-eight inches. It included also a quantity of reindeer bones. It is customary here, in estimating such supplies, to reduce every sort of provision for dogs to an equivalent number of herrings, eight or ten of which are considered, when dried, a proper daily allowance for a sledge-dog. month the necessary number of drivers, sledges, and, above all, of dogs, 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. Matiuschkin for the same period to Ostrownoje, to gain some knowledge of the Tschuktschi who were accustomed to resort there to the fair, and to purchase from them* walrus skins and whalebone for our sledges. But that which I especially recommended to him was to endeavour to establish a friendly understanding with that suspicious people, and to tranquillize their minds as to the object of our visit to their shores, by informing them 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 stock 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 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. While waiting my arrival, the dogs were to be given good food and ample rest, to improve their condition to the utmost. A few days afterward, the Cossack who had been sent by the superintendent to Ostrownoje to give notice of the approach of the Tschuktschi, returned with information that a small party from Tschaun * 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 smoothly, nor are they so liable as wood to be injured by the salt which is left on it, in places where it has been overflowed by sea-water. DEPARTURE OF THE JAKUZK MERCHANTS. 97 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's Straits. The Jakuzk merchants accordingly 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. Matiuschkin.* Captain Cochrane intended to join the Tschuktschi caravan on their return to Tschukotskoj Noss and Behring's Straits, and to cross over from thence to the northwest coast of America; but when he became better acquainted with the character of this people, he gave up his plan and returned to Nishne Kolymsk. 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 seacoast from the Kolyma to Cape Schelagskoj is wholly uninhabited; on the one side the ocsional 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 consequently unvisited. The wide mossy plains and valleys inland are wandered over by those warlike Tschuktschi who have maintained their independence, and who bring with them immense herds of reindeer. Stran The distance to Ostrownoje is 250 wersts; and the usual price of a sledge for the journey from Kolymsk and back is about 100 roubles. I gers they regard with great suspicion, and melancholy examples have shown the dangers incurred by intruding upon their territory. Our sledge-drivers were not entirely free from the fear of these people generally entertained by the inhabitants of Kolymsk. The party consisted of M. 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 as soon as the provisions they carried should be disposed of. We left Nishne Kolymsk on the 19th of February, and on the 21st we reached Sucharnoje Island, at the mouth of the Kolyma, where the rest of our party were waiting for us. The next day was employed in arranging our loads, the different articles we had to carry being as follows: a conical tent of reindeer skin, with a light framework formed of six long, thin poles, two hatchets, an iron plate on which we could light a fire, a trivet, a soup-kettle, a tea-kettle, a pocket-lantern with a few wax candles, some changes of linen, a bearskin apiece to sleep on, and a double reindeer skin coverlet for every two persons. Our instruments were, two chronometers, a seconds' watch, a sextant and artificial horizon, a spirit thermometer, three azimuth compasses, one of which had a prism, two telescopes, a measuring-line, and a few other trifles. The provisions for five men for one month were, 100 lbs. of rye biscuit, 60 lbs. of meat, 10 lbs. of portable soup, 2 lbs. of tea, 4 lbs. of sugar-candy, 8 lbs. of grits, 3 lbs. of salt, 39 rations of spirits, 12 lbs. of tobacco, and 200 of the best smoked juchala, each equivalent to about five herrings. Our clothing consisted of a parka,* a large kuchlanka, leather boots lined with fur, a fur cap, and gloves of reindeer skin. We had each a gun and fifty cartridges, a pike, a large knife worn in the girdle, and the means of striking fire. For our dogs we The reindeer skin shirt described in page 68. |