83 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



ible, and the water was discharged with considerable 

 force. The wind, however, was from the eastward, and 

 they worked on up the river, grounding occasionally on 

 the shoals, for the channel was very tortuous. They 

 tried to effect a landing but found it impossible, since 

 the channel did not pass near the land, and the shoals 

 constantly interrupted the boat's course. It was quite 

 clear that they w r ere to the south of Barkin, which 

 point they had been ordered to make, but it seemed 

 unwise to put out again to sea with all the chances of 

 encountering another gale in their crippled condition, 

 and they kept on up the river. 



About seven o'clock in the evening they sighted a 

 hut on a bank about ten feet above the water, and 

 succeeded in making a landing near it. They hauled 

 the boat up, got their gear out, and built a fire in the 

 hut, which showed signs of having recently been occu- 

 pied. When they got out of the boat, they were, for 

 the most part, scarcely able to walk, so swollen and 

 cramped were their legs and feet. They had been in 

 the icy waters of the river, and the exposure had inten- 

 sified the frostiness in their limbs, so that the fire at 

 night caused terrible pain ; nobody slept, and in the 

 morning they were in a worse condition apparently 

 than they were the previous night. 



After shoving off in the morning and working up 

 the river all day long they made an excellent day's 

 work, finally coming to a branch of the river running 

 nearly north and south. This they took to be the Lena 

 proper, and after turning to the southward they camped 

 on a low point of land in the mud. They called this 

 the " Mud Camp." Three persons slept in a hut on 

 the high ground. 



On the 19th they took to the boat again, and, after 



