bank, neither of them knowing how to
swim, and both much exhausted by the cold, and the difficulty
of holding so long against a rapid current."

They continued for several days longer buffeting with the stream, and
exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. Their food depended on
the scanty supplies of wild fowl they could shoot, and their stock of
cooking utensils was reduced to a small tea-kettle and the lid of the
tin box saved by the Chinese.

Between two and three o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh day since
they had embarked on board their frail vessel, and nearly a month since
they had been deserted on the mountains by the treacherous Tongusees,
they found themselves in a fine wide channel, with a moderate current,
and on a beach not far below descried a man and two boys mending a
canoe. The effect the sight of human beings had upon them was deeply
interesting. Every soul shed tears of joy, and when the natives
approached to assist them in landing, they were unable for some minutes
to reply to their inquiries, and could only answer by hasty signs. The
elder person proved to be a Yakut who had seen Mr. Dobell before; as
soon as he recognised him, he sprung into the raft, clasped him in his
arms, and shed tears in abundance, exclaiming "thank God, thank God! you
are all saved!" He informed them that the Tongusees having returned and
confessed their treachery, an old chief living near Towisk had
despatched his son with a party in search of them, but that every one
there had given them up for lost, knowing how difficult it was to
procure food on those deserted plains and mountains in the spring of the
year. The miraculous escape of the party, after having been left in such
a wilderness, was indeed a matter of surprise to every one; and they had
particular reason to rejoice in having taken the route they did, as they
found on inquiry that had they pursued any other they must infallibly
have perished.

After remaining three days with the hospitable people whom they so
fortunately encountered, and recovering their baggage which had been
left on the mountain, by means of the party sent in search of them from
Towisk, they resumed their journey, and reached Ochotsk without further
accident, on the 4th of July.

Ochotsk, the capital of the Russian province of the same name, which
embraces the most easterly portion of that vast empire, is a town
composed of between two and three hundred houses, and ab