h reindeer) in a north-easterly
direction to the tiny political settlement of Sredni-Kolymsk, where we
discard our deer (for there is no more moss) and take to dog-sleds. A
journey of nearly two months, travelling almost due east, brings us to
East Cape Bering Straits, the north-easternmost point of Asia, and
practically half way from Paris to our destination.

From here the journey is fairly easy, for the beaten tracks of Alaska
now entail no great hardships. Remote Eskimo settlements like that at
Cape Prince of Wales are naturally as primitive as those on the Siberian
side, but once Nome City is reached, the traveller may proceed (in
summer) to New York solely by the aid of steam.

I shall not weary the reader with details of my preparations. Suffice it
to say that, although the minutest care and attention were lavished on
the organisation of our food-supply, lack of transport in the Far North
compelled me to abandon most of our provisions and trust to luck for our
larder, which was therefore frequently very meagrely stocked. Indeed,
more than once we were within measurable distance of starvation, but
this was the more unavoidable in so far as, even at Moscow, I was
compelled to abandon several cases of provisions on account of a
telegram received from the Governor-General of Siberia. The message
informed me that reindeer were scarce, dogs yet more so, and that,
unless the expedition travelled _very_ light, it could not possibly hope
to reach even the shores of the Arctic Ocean, to say nothing of Bering
Straits. Nevertheless, even at the outset of the journey I was blamed,
and that by totally inexperienced persons, for abandoning stores so
early in the day; a certain British merchant in Moscow expressing
surprise that I should have "made such an egregious error" as to leave
any provisions behind. I fancy most explorers have met this type of
individual--the self-complacent Briton, who, being located for business
or other purposes in a foreign or colonial city, never leaves it, and
yet poses as an authority on the entire country, however vast, in which
he temporarily resides. I can recall one of these immovable fixtures in
India, who had never stirred from Bombay save in a P. and O. liner, but
who was good enough to advise me how to travel through Central
Baluchistan, a country which I had recently explored with some success!
The Moscow wiseacre was perhaps unaware that during hard seasons in
Arctic Siberia the outfit