MELVILLE'S NOVEMBER SEARCH. 465 



caught in bad weather it would be bad not only for them 

 and their dogs, but for ine, already so feeble. 



We started out and visited a small hut twenty versts 

 north of Bulcour, where Noros and Nindermann had stayed. 

 I found evidence of their having been there where they 

 had eaten their boots and burned the sleds. We camped 

 on the snow that night. Next day we traveled as far as 

 the place that Noros and Nindermann had designated as the 

 two crosses. I searched the huts and saw evidences of 

 their having been there, and by midnight arrived at the hut 

 of Mot Vai, where we slept. In the morning, when getting 

 ready to start out, I found a strange waist-belt, which upon 

 examination I knew had been made on board the Jeannette. 

 I thought I had struck the first evidences of some of De 

 Long's party. Neither Noros nor Nindermann, in their 

 description of their journey, made any mention of Mot Vai, 

 and they had forgotten all about the place until they after- 

 ward visited the hut and recognized it as one of their halt- 

 ing places. 



Very much to my surprise, I was then told by the dog 

 drivers that they had no more provisions, either for dogs or 

 men and this was only the fifth day out. I then inquired 

 of them how far it was to the nearest village. They told 

 me North Bulun was about 120 versts distant, northwest. 

 I gave orders to the drivers to take me there, in order to 

 get a fresh supply of food. I stopped and slept at Khaskata, 

 and visited a number of huts on the way north. 



The next night, about midnight, I arrived at North 

 Bulun. On my arrival there I found a considerable village 

 of nearly 100 inhabitants. During the first half hour a 

 man came in to give me a paper. He made me understand 

 he had found it in a hut fifty versts to the eastward of 

 North Bulun. I read it and saw it was one of De Long's 

 records. Next morning natives brought me a gun and two 

 other records, the most important of which was very nearly 

 being lost, as a woman had carried it in her bosom until 

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