THE FINAL SEARCH. 859 



for a spell, and just before night set in we found the 

 head of one man and the feet of another underneath 

 the snow-bank. The natives being frightened jumped 

 out of the hole quickly. I told them to dig a little 

 longer, that the books might be there ; and after dig- 

 ging for a spell they threw out a box of books, and 

 exposed the shoulders of a third person. It was about 

 twenty versts (about thirteen miles) across the bay to 

 Mat Vai, where our camp was. We stuck a stick of 

 timber in the hole where we were digging, gathered 

 up some traps we found, and returned to Mat Vai." 



The next day, having sent for Bartlett, Mr. Melville 

 ordered the two men, with the entire force of natives, 

 back to the spot where they had discovered the bodies, 

 with instructions to bring to Mat Vai at night all that 

 they should uncover. He himself remained in the hut 

 with the interpreter, to prepare at once dispatches and 

 letters for his own government and the Russian. Two 

 days were thus occupied, and at the close of that time 

 there seemed to be nothing further to be recovered 

 save the body of Alexey ; and Captain De Long's record 

 that they had buried him in the river explained the 

 failure to find him. Mr. Melville offered a reward to 

 the natives if they should discover Alexey's body, but 

 desisted from further search. 



It then became necessary to find a place for burial. 

 " The whole of the territory," says Mr. Melville, " to 

 the northward of where I was, and the headland where 

 De Long and Ambler had died, was sometimes covered 

 with ten or fifteen feet of water. The whole of that 

 portion of the Delta is covered at some seasons of the 

 year with ice and snow, and is carried away by the 

 floods that come down the river. When the snows melt 

 up the river the floods come down the river, rush over 



