162 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



the vividness of the scene, an alarm of church bells would 

 suddenly clang out to intimate that help was wanted in the 

 vicinity. Perhaps shortly afterwards the flames would lie 

 seen playing up the steeple and peeping out of the apertures 

 and windows; then reaching the top, and presenting the 

 strange spectacle of a tower on fire, with the flames visible 

 only at the top, middle, and bottom. At last the whole 

 would fall with a crash, and the sky be lit up with sparks 

 and a lurid glare such as cannot be forgotten. 



"Meanwhile the inhabitants continued to flee by thou- 

 sands the swinging ferry near us crossed and recrossed 

 incessantly, bringing each time its sorrowful load, either 

 bearing away their valuables, or going back to fetch others. 

 Many of the people brought such of their goods as they 

 could save to the banks and islands of the two rivers, and 

 there took up their abode for the night in a condition com- 

 pared with which ours was comfortable. 



" We were supposed to sleep that night in the tarantass, 

 but I rose continually to watch the progress of the fire, 

 which towards morning abated, but only because it had 

 burnt all that came in its way. About eleven o'clock the 

 last houses standing on the opposite bank caught fire, and 

 thus, in about four-and-twenty hours, three-fourths of the 

 town were consumed." 



Danenhower's party arrived at Irkutsk, January 30th, and 

 were received in a most courteous manner, and told to 

 consider themselves the guests of the Russian government. 

 During their long stay they were lodged a portion of the 

 time in the house of the private secretary of General Ped- 

 ashenki, the vice-governor-general of the province, which 

 was finely located on the suburban side of the Angara, and 

 afforded a delightful view of the pretty city on the other side 

 of the fro/en river. The men had nearly recovered from the 

 effects of their hardship, excepting Lieutenant Danenhower, 

 whose eyes were in such a precarious condition that his 

 physician forbade his traveling in winter, Mr. Newcomb, 



