16 BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION 



in any of the material, which he left in four different places along the 

 uninhabited trail. They had been on the road ever since November 4 

 and during that time had suffered greatly from hunger, having been com- 

 pelled to eat the dead horses that had dropped by the wayside, the 

 harness, their leather clothing, and boots. Fortunately they found at 

 Yudoma Cross the 150 poods of flour which we had left behind when some 

 of our horses gave out. 



Along the Aldan and Maya live the same kind of Yakuts as those on 

 the Lena; but on the Yudoma, that part which is near Okhotsk Post, 

 are the wandering coast Tungus, or Lamuts, as they call themselves. 

 They have many deer, on the backs of which they ride summer and 

 winter and which, as well as the wild deer, supply them with their food and 

 clothing. Here, too, are to be seen the pedestrian Tungus who live 

 near the sea and along the banks of the streams and depend on fish 

 for their sustenance. They have the same religion as the Yakuts. 



About the first part of February I gathered 90 men and several dog 

 teams and gave them to Lieutenant Spanberg with orders to bring in 

 whatever was left on the Yudoma. He himself returned during the 

 first days of April, but some of his men did not come in until the middle 

 of the month. Even then they failed to bring in everything, and it was 

 necessary to send another party of 27 men to Yudoma Cross, which stayed 

 away until May but brought in all the material on pack horses. In these 

 regions people never go in winter from Yakutsk to Okhotsk or other far- 

 off places on horseback; they go on foot, dragging behind them sleds — the 

 kind we used between the Gorbea and Okhotsk — with such things as are 

 needed, each sled carrying from 10 to 15 poods. A trip like this takes 

 from eight to ten weeks. The snow here is sometimes seven feet deep, and 

 in places even deeper, and people who travel in winter dig their way 

 through the snow to the ground and there pass the night. 



On June 30, Lieutenant Spanberg sailed for the mouth of the Bolshaya 

 River on his newly built ship 29 which was loaded with all the materials. 

 He had orders to discharge the cargo, send one of the petty officers with 

 carpenters to Kamchatka to prepare ship timber, and return himself to 

 Okhotsk. 



Lieutenant Chirikov came from Yakutsk July 3, bringing with him 

 in accordance with my instruction 2,300 poods of flour. We loaded 

 the flour on Spanberg's ship, which had returned, and on an old boat, 30 

 which had come in from the Bolshaya River, and sailed with my com- 

 pany for Bolsheretsk Post on August 21. The supplies that were 

 still in the boats on the Gorbea I sent back to Yakutsk in charge of the 

 pilot and the men who had been detailed to watch over them, with orders 

 to get a receipt for them and then hasten back with some part of the 



29 The Fortune. 



30 The Lodiya. 



