consultation among themselves, they agreed to make the attempt with
eight unloaded horses, leaving all our baggage and heavy equipage
at Lesnoi. This the Major at first would not listen to; but after
thinking the situation over he decided to divide our small force
into two parties--one to go around the mountains by water with the
whale-boat and heavy baggage, and one over them with twenty unloaded
horses. The road over the mountains was supposed to lie near the
seacoast, so that the land party would be most of the time within
signalling distance of the whale-boat, and in case either party
met with any accident or found its progress stopped by unforeseen
obstacles the other could come to its assistance. Near the middle of
the mountainous tract, just west of the principal ridge, there was
said to be a small river called the Samanka (sa-mahn'-kah), and the
mouth of this river was agreed upon as a rendezvous for the two
parties in case they lost sight of each other during storms or foggy
weather. The Major decided to go with Dodd in the whale-boat, and gave
me command of the land party, consisting of our best Cossack, Viushin,
six Kamchadals, and twenty light horses. Flags were made, a code of
signals was agreed upon, the heavy baggage was transferred to the
whale-boat and a large sealskin canoe, and early on the morning of
October 4th I bade the Major and Dodd good-bye at the beach, and they
pushed off. We started up our train of horses as the boats disappeared
around a projecting bluff, and cantered away briskly across the
valley toward a gap in the mountains, through which we entered the
"wilderness." The road for the first ten or fifteen versts was very
good; but I was surprised to find that, instead of leading us along
the seashore, it went directly back into the mountains away from the
sea, and I began to fear that our arrangements for cooperation would
be of little avail. Thinking that the whale-boat would not probably
get far the first day under oars and without wind, we encamped early
in a narrow valley between two parallel ranges of mountains. I tried,
by climbing a low mountain back of our tent, to get a sight of the
sea; but we were at least fifteen versts from the coast, and the view
was limited by an intervening range of rugged peaks, many of which
reach the altitude of perpetual snow. It was rather lonely to camp
that night without seeing Dodd's cheerful face by the fireside, and
I missed more than I thought