860 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



and on the ice like an ocean bore, and carry away 

 everything. The nearest place of safety was the foot- 

 hills to northward of the mountains that form the 

 banks of the Lena River proper. About ten versts 

 (about seven miles) to the southward of Mat Vai there 

 was a little whale-back rock between three and four 

 hundred feet high. I selected a flat spot on the top of 

 that mountain, and started the hands at work to dig a 

 hole in the rock in which to set up a cross." 



Nindemann and Bartlett were set at work with a 

 number of the natives to break up the old flat-boat to 

 get timber to make a box ; and a spruce spar was 

 found which was hauled to Mat Vai, and used in the 

 construction of a cross. 



It was on the 23d of March that Mr. Melville had 

 found the first bodies, and on the 7th of April he had 

 completed his last offices. Every article carried about 

 the persons of the dead was carefully removed, to be 

 brought home, excepting a small bronze crucifix found 

 upon Mr. Collins, and left upon his breast. The bodies 

 were placed in the box, and the box securely covered 

 Then a pyramidal structure of timber and stone was 

 raised over the box. and the cross, with its inscription 

 cut deep into the wood, firmly fixed above the tomb. 

 Nindemann, meanwhile, had succeeded in finding the 

 hut where Ericksen had died, and brought away the 

 gun, record, and epitaph board which had been left 

 there. Nothing more could now be done for those who 

 had perished in this lonely spot, and it remained to 

 make search for the fate of the second cutter, under 

 command of Lieutenant Chipp. 



It will be remembered that the three boats had 

 parted in the gale of September 12th off the Siberian 

 coast. We have followed the fortunes of the first cut- 



