culars as to his movements and dispositions. Three
vessels--the _Clara Bell, Palmetto_, and _Onward_--had been sent from
San Francisco to Gizhiga with a force of about sixty men, and large
assorted cargoes to the value of sixty thousand dollars. One of these,
the _Clara Bell_, loaded with brackets and insulators, had already
arrived; and the other two, with commissary stores, wire, instruments,
and men, were _en route_. A fourth vessel with thirty officers and
workmen, a small river-steamer, and a full supply of tools and
provisions, had also been sent to the mouth of the Anadyr River, where
it would be received by Lieutenant Bush. The corvette _Varag_ had been
detailed by the Russian Navy Department to assist in laying the cable
across Bering Strait; but as the cable, which was ordered in England,
had not arrived, there was nothing in particular for the _Varag_ to
do, and Colonel Bulkley had sent her with the Russian Commissioner to
Gizhiga. Owing to her great draught of water--twenty-two feet--she
could not safely come within less than fifteen or twenty miles of the
Okhotsk Sea coast, and could not, of course, give us much assistance;
but her very presence, with a special Russian Commissioner on board,
invested our enterprise with a sort of governmental authority and
sanction, which enabled us to deal more successfully with the local
authorities and people than would otherwise have been possible.

It had been Major Abaza's intention, as soon as one of the Company's
vessels should arrive, to go to the Russian city and province of
Yakutsk, on the Lena River, engage there five or six hundred native
labourers, purchase three hundred horses, and make arrangements for
their distribution along the whole route of the line. The peculiar
state of affairs, however, at the time the _Varag_ and the _Clara
Bell_ reached Gizhiga, made it almost impossible for him to leave.
Two vessels--the _Onward_ and the _Palmetto_--were yet to arrive with
large and valuable cargoes, whose distribution along the coast of the
Okhotsk Sea he wished to superintend in person. He decided, therefore,
to postpone his trip to Yakutsk until later in the fall, and to do
what he could in the meantime with the two vessels already at his
disposal. The _Clara Bell_, in addition to her cargo of brackets and
insulators, brought a foreman and three or four men as passengers,
and these Major Abaza determined to send under command of Lieutenant
Arnold to Yamsk, with