THE FIRST SEARCH. 841 



reindeer meat showed very clearly that none of Captain 

 De Long's party had come this way. The journey was 

 one of extreme severity, and when they reached North 

 Bulun, at midnight of the 11th, Mr. Melville was .so 

 badly frozen that he had to be carried from the sled to 

 a hut. Here the natives began to swarm about him, 

 and now for the first time he began to collect evidence 

 of the party. One man brought him a paper, which 

 proved to be one of the records left by Captain De 

 Long on his march, and told him there were other 

 papers and a gun to be had. These were produced the 

 next day, which was a very stormy one. 



Upon examining the natives Mr. Melville was able 

 to locate the direction and distance of the huts where 

 the records had been found, and he at once made prep- 

 arations to push his search. His team of clogs was 

 worn out, and he secured a fresh team, and directed 

 ten days' provisions to be packed on the sleds. The 

 natives were reluctant to obey his instructions, and 

 when he had entered the hut again to make ready for 

 his journey, they managed to unload a portion and re- 

 turn it to their storehouse. Mr. Melville's feet were in 

 such a condition that he could not wear moccasins, and 

 the women in the hut provided him with deerskin muf- 

 flers for his feet. He set off, however, on the 13th, to 

 make Balloch, the hut where the first record had been 

 found, and distant from North Bulun about thirty-three 

 miles. 



He reached the place in the evening and slept there 

 that night, but found no further record or evidence of 

 occupation. This was the place where Captain De 

 Long and his party had slept the night of September 

 21st. By reference to the chart which he had, it will 

 be seen that no such place as North Bulun was marked 



