TRAVELERS FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST. 395 



General Tchernieff, and heard the startling news that the 

 Rodgers had been burned at her winter-harbor in St. Lawrence 

 Bay. The courier had accompanied Mr. Gilder from Nischni 

 (or Nijni) Kolymsk, on the Kolyma River, to Verhoyansk, 

 where they arrived March 28th ; and from this place Gilder, 

 hearing of the loss of the Jeannette, had started north, 

 March 29th, hoping to fall in with Melville's party. Sub- 

 sequently he returned south, and proceeded to Yakutsk. 



Continuing his journey to the delta, Mr. Jackson visited 

 Geemovialocke, and the bluff where Lieutenant DeLong 

 and his party perished, and also their tomb. He followed 

 the track of Nindermann and Noros to Bulun, and thence 

 proceeded to Verhoyansk, where he learned that Lieutenant 

 Berry and Ensign Hunt, of the Rodgers, had lately arrived 

 there and gone south on horseback ; they had brought news 

 of additional disaster the loss of Mr. Putnam, one of the 

 most talented officers of the Rodgers expedition, who had 

 been carried out to sea on floating ice. 



Mr. Jackson overtook Berry and Hunt below Verhoyansk, 

 and traveled with them to Kengurach, where they joined 

 Melville, as previously stated. 



After waiting a few days longer for the snow to melt, they 

 all started on together. On reaching Aldan River they 

 learned that Mr. Gilder had arrived there ten days before, 

 and had been caught on the northern shore of the river when 

 the ice broke up, and for seven days his party had to live (on 

 a narrow piece of land which is frequently covered with 

 water) on the flesh of one of their horses. He had for a 

 traveling companion at this time Constantine Buhokoff (who 

 was conveying papers from Melville to Yakutsk), and in 

 order to save his own dispatches and those from Melville, 

 the boxes containing them were placed in the trunk of a tree. 

 The water rose thirty feet in a few hours. 



The party consisting of Melville, Bartlett, Nindermann, 

 Berry, Hunt, Jackson, and Noros finally reached Yakutsk, 

 June 8th, in safety, losing, however, on their journey ten 

 reindeer and eight horses, which were left on the roadside 



