CHAPTER XXX. 



DE LONG'S FATE DISCOVERED THE GRAVE ON THE LENA. 



A FTER making the necessary preparations for a system- 

 -Ok- atic search for his missing comrades of botli boats, 

 Mr. Melville left Yakutsk, January 27th, and proceeded to 

 Verkhoyansk. He was accompanied by Bartlett and Nin- 

 dermann; Captain Guenbeck of the steamer Lena; Efim 

 Koploff the exile ; Peter Kolenkin, a Cossack sergeant ; 

 Constantine Buhokoff ; and a native Yakut and his wife as 

 porter and cook. 



At Verkhoyansk the ispravnik of the district joined 

 the party, which started north February llth, and reached 

 Bulun on the 17th. On the 22d, Melville started for By- 

 koff Cape to procure dog-teams for the search parties and a 

 supply of fish as food, and also to pay some small bills con- 

 tracted by the whale-boat party while sojourning there. 

 The snow was very deep, and the weather most of the time 

 was terribly stormy. Among those who joined him as dog- 

 drivers were Tomat Constantine and Wassili (or Bushielle) 

 Koolgiak. 



On the 25th the remainder of the search party, with pro- 

 vision trains, started for Mot Vai, the central rendezvous 

 for the search parties at the start, situated about 200 versts 

 north of Bulun. 



Mr. Melville rejoined his companions on the 9th of March, 

 at Cath Carta, and on the 12th wrote a letter from this 

 place to the Secretary of the Navy, in part as follows : 



" I arrived at Bykoff Cape on the 24th of February, and 

 was detained there until March 6th by continuous bad weath- 

 er the worst I have ever seen. The seven dog teams I 

 sent to carry the transport party returned after an absence 



(366) 



