188 cook's voyage to may, 



sledges were secured), and wrapping ourselves up in 

 our furs, waited patiently for the morning. About 

 three o'clock we were called on to set out, our guides 

 being apprehensive, that if we waited longer, we 

 might be stopped by the thaw, and neither be able to 

 proceed, nor to return. After encountering many 

 difficulties, which were principally occasioned by the 

 bad condition of the road, at two in the afternoon, 

 we got safe to an ostrog, called Natcheekin, situated 

 on the side of a small stream, which falls into the 

 Bolchoireka, a little way below the town. The dis- 

 tance between Karatchin and Natcheekin is thirty- 

 eight wersts (or twenty-five miles) ; and had the hard 

 frost continued, we should not, by their account, 

 have been more than four hours in performing it ,- 

 but the snow was so soft, that the dogs, almost at 

 every step, sunk up to their bellies ; and I was indeed 

 much surprised at their being at all able to overcome 

 the difficulties of so fatiguing a journey.. 



Natcheekin is a very inconsiderable ostrog, having, 

 only one log-house, the residence of the Town ; five 

 balagans, and one jourt. We were received here 

 with the same formalities, and in the same hospitable 

 manner, as at Karatchin ; and in the afternoon we 

 went to visit a remarkable hot spring* which is near 

 this village. We saw* at some distance, the steam 

 rising from it, as from a boiling caldron ; and as we 

 approached, perceived the air had a strong sulphu- 

 reous smell. The main spring forms a bason of 

 about three feet in diameter ; besides which, there 

 are a number of lesser springs, of the same degree of 

 heat, in the adjacent ground , so that the whole spot,, 

 to the extent of near an acre, was so hot, that we 

 could not stand two minutes in the same place. The 

 water flowing from these springs is collected in a 

 small bathing pond, and afterward forms a little 

 rivulet ; which, at the distance of about an hundred 

 and fifty yards, falls into the river. The bath, they 

 told us, had wrought great cures in several disorders. 



