RECAPITULATION. 37 T 



In the instructions which Mr. Melville as commander of 

 the whale-boat party received from Lieutenant DeLong 

 before leaving Bennett Island for the coast of Siberia, he 

 was ordered, in case of separation from his superior officers, 

 to ascend the Lena without delay to a Russian settlement. 

 In attempting to carry out this order, Melville and his men, 

 after entering a branch of the Lena River, were glad to place 

 themselves in charge of natives, who undertook to pilot them 

 to Bulun, the nearest Russian village. On the way thither 

 the formation of new ice in the river compelled them to halt 

 at a Tunguse village. It was the transition period between 

 navigation and sledding, and the natives said they would 

 have to remain there fifteen days till the river was sufficiently 

 frozen. 



At this time the physical condition of the men was such 

 that Danenhower was not sorry they were 'obliged to halt, 

 and Melville, Bartlett, Leach, and Lauderback had to be 

 assisted to and from the boat. All felt the effects of exposure 

 or frost-bites, and symptoms of scurvy appeared. Lieuten- 

 ant Danenhower says in his narrative, that on the third 

 morning after their arrival at this village all hands except 

 Jack Cole, the Indian, and himself, were in a very bad condi- 

 tion. Melville was so disabled while in this settlement that 

 for some time he gave the charge of everything to Danen- 

 hower. 



On the 16th of October an exile named Kusmah Eremoff 

 started for Bulun, and he told Melville he would be back in 

 five days. He was a capable and energetic man, and Danen- 

 hower says he acted boldly and well. But he did not get 

 back to Geemovialocke till the evening O f October 29th, when 

 he brought Nindermann's letter, which was the first intima- 

 tion Melville had of DeLong' s distress. Up to this time he had 

 had no reason for supposing that his comrades were not at 

 least as well off as his own party ; and if he had known 

 on arriving that they were in trouble, " it would," says Lieu- 

 tenant Danenhower, " have been impossible to make a search 



