Sunday 9. 



2 6 A VOYAGE TO 



'779' ourfelves up in our furs, waited pat. .~ , for the morning. 

 j About three o'clock we were called on l iet out, our guides 

 being apprehenfivc, that if we waited longer, we might 

 be flopped by the thaw, and neither be able to proceed, nor 

 to return. After encountering many difficulties, which were 

 principally occafioned by the bad condition of the road, at 

 two in the afternoon, we got fafe to an ojlrog* called Nat- 

 checkin, fituated on the fide of a fmall flream, which falls 

 into the Bolchoircka, a little way below the town. The 

 diflance between Karatchin and Natcheekin is thirty-eight 

 werfls (or twenty-five miles) ; and had the hard frofl conti- 

 nued, we fhould not, by their account, have been more than 

 four hours in performing it ; but the fnow was fo foft, that 

 the dogs, almoft at every flep, funk up to their bellies; and. 

 I was indeed much furprifed at their being at all able to 

 overcome the difficulties of fo fatiguing a journey. 



Natcheekin is a very inconfiderable ojlrog, having only one 

 log-houfc, the refidence of the Tokn ; five balagans, and one 

 joint. We were received here with the fame formalities, 

 and in the fame hofpitable manner, as at Karatchin ; and in 

 the afternoon we went to vifit a remarkable hot fpring, 

 which is near this village. We faw, at fome diflance, the 

 fleam rifing from it, as from a boiling caldron ; and as wc 

 approached, perceived the air had a flrong fulphureous fmcll. 

 The main fpring forms a bafon of about three feet in dia- 

 meter -, befides which, there are a number of lefler fpiings, 

 of the fame degree of heat, in the adjacent ground ; fo that 

 the whole fpor, to the extent of near an acre, was fo not, 

 that wc could not fland two minutes in the fame place. The 

 water flowing from thefe fprings is collected in a fmall 

 bathing pond, and afterward forms a little rivulet ; which, 

 at the diflance of about an hundred and fifty yards, fails 

 into the river. The bath, they told us, had wrought great 



cures 



