distant settlement of Sredni-Kolymsk, near the Arctic Ocean, and was
therefore acquainted with the best way of reaching that remote post,
indeed he afterwards proved an invaluable addition to our party.

It seemed hard that fate should have selected this year of all others to
render the journey from Yakutsk to the north almost an impossibility. In
the first place reindeer were so scarce and weak that the 1800 odd miles
to Sredni-Kolymsk (which can generally be accomplished, under favourable
circumstances, in four or five weeks) might now take us three months to
cover. In this case failure of the journey and a summer in this dreary
settlement would be our fate; for from May until October, Sredni-Kolymsk
is isolated by marshy deserts and innumerable lakes, which can only be
crossed in a sled. Throughout the summer, therefore, you can neither
reach the place nor leave it.

A still more serious matter was an epidemic which had been raging
amongst the Yakutes of the far north, and a fear of which had driven the
Tchuktchis (or natives of the coast) into the interior of their country
and along the seaboard in an easterly direction until their nearest
settlement was now nearly six hundred miles distant from Sredni-Kolymsk,
at which place I had calculated upon finding these natives, and
utilising them as a means of procuring food and lodging and guidance
along their desolate coast. Now, however, over six hundred miles of ice
without a stick of shelter or mouthful of food stared me in the face. It
was also suggested that, if many of the Tchuktchis had perished from
the dread malady the remainder might have retreated in a body inland, in
which case death from starvation seemed an unpleasant but not unlikely
contingency. For beyond the aforesaid six hundred miles lay another
stretch of about 1600 miles more, before we could reach our destination:
Bering Straits.

Lastly, Sredni-Kolymsk had itself suffered from so serious a famine that
an expedition had lately been despatched from Yakutsk to the relief of
the sufferers. Provisions there would therefore be unprocurable. Also,
most of the dogs in the Kolyma district had perished from a scarcity of
fish the previous season, and as dogs were our sole means of transport
along the Arctic Coast, the reader will admit that, all things
considered, my expedition did not leave Yakutsk under the rosiest of
conditions!

Nevertheless I cannot hope to adequately repay the kindness shown by
ev