100 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



ting on an infinite variety of forms, alternating sublime and 

 picturesque, bold and fantastic, with craggy rocks and jutting 

 headlands, bearing on their brows the verdure of pines, firs, 

 larches, and other evergreens and Alpine shrubs. 



All the way to Yakutsk the river was studded with islands 

 which added to the romantic appearance of the scenery. The 

 weather was growing cold, and heavy fogs hung about the 

 river till a late hour in the morning. They daily passed 

 small towns and villages, and went ashore for provisions as 

 occasion required. The following are extracts from Led- 

 yard's journal : 



" August 30th. We stopped at a village this morning to 

 procure a few stores. They killed for us a sheep, gave us 

 three quarts of milk, two loaves of bread, cakes with carrots 

 and radishes baked in them, onions, one dozen of fresh and 

 two dozen of salted fish, straw and bark to mend the cover- 

 ing of our boat, and all for the value of about fourteen pence 

 sterling. The poor creatures brought us the straw, to show 

 us how their grain was blasted by the cruel frost, although 

 it had been reaped before the 21st of August. 



" September 4th. Arrived at the town of Keringar at day- 

 light, and staid with the commandant till noon, and was 

 treated very hospitably. Some merchants sent us stores. It 

 is the custom here, if they hear of the arrival of a foreigner, 

 to load him with their little services. It is almost im- 

 possible to pass a town of any kind without being arrested 

 by them. They have the earnestness of hospitality ; they 

 crowd their tables with everything they have to eat and 

 drink, and, not content with that, they fill your wallets. I 

 wish I could think them as honest as they are hospitable. 

 The reason why the commandant did not show his wife was 

 because he was jealous of her. I have observed this to be a 

 prevailing passion here." 



On the 18th of September, Ledyard arrived at Yakutsk, 

 after a voyage of twenty-two days, during which he had 

 passed from a summer climate to one of vigorous cold. 

 When he left Irkutsk it was just in the midst of harvest 



