854 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



and that this was the river along which he and Noros 

 had come. I asked them if the Yakutsks made a fire 

 like that, and they said no ; that they only made small 

 fires. I then concluded that De Long and his party 

 had been here, but supposed they had turned, as Nin- 

 demann and Noros had, down to the westward, and 

 expected to find them somewhere to the westward. 

 Nindemann had described an old flat-boat that lay on 

 the bank of the river a short distance up this same 

 river. If we found the flat-boat that would show this 

 to be the river on which Ericksen's hut was located. I 

 then started up the river with the intention of going 

 as far as Ericksen's hut, getting the relics there known 

 to be in the hut, and to return to the point of land and 

 continue the search between the point where the fire 

 had been and Mat Vai. Nindemann started with his 

 dog team in advance, some four or five hundred yards, 

 and while running along sighted the flat-boat. I fol- 

 lowed after him, sitting on the sled, facing the bank. 

 The bank here was twenty-five or thirty feet high 

 above the bed of the river, and the snow filled in 

 with a natural slope to the height of the bank, and 

 passing probably forty or fifty feet out to the river ; 

 but the wind blew so fiercely in this section that very 

 little snow lies on the high lands or Tundras. The 

 snow was blown into the valleys, forming banks equal 

 in depth to the depth of the natural bank of the river. 

 It is the custom of the people here in making a search 

 to go facing the bank of the river, and when they see 

 anything to attract them, drop off the sled and ex- 

 amine it, or pick it up and go on. In this manner 

 about five hundred yards from the point where the fire 

 had been, I saw the points of four sticks standing up 

 out of the snow about eighteen inches, and lashed to- 



