FATE OF SIDEROFFS SCHOONER 399 



spring a leak, and she rapidly filled to the depth of six 

 feet. The island where she was lying is called Mala 

 Brekoffsky, and is said to be in lal. 70 35' N., and in 

 long. 82 36' E. From the mate, who wintered there, 

 I learned the following particulars. From November 

 22nd to January igth the sun never rose above the 

 horizon. On May i5th it ceased to set. On May 29th 

 the first geese appeared : the only birds seen during the 

 winter being willow-grouse and snowy owls. On June 

 1 5th the first rain fell ; on the i6th the first thunderstorm; 

 on the 1 8th the ice broke up, and was all gone in five 

 days. The river rose higher, they said, than it had been 

 known to rise for seventeen years, the whole of the island, 

 twenty versts long, being flooded. One house was 

 carried away, and the other two were saved by the men 

 standing on the roofs and staving off the floating ice with 

 poles. The water came within a foot of the top of the 

 roofs. The schooner was carried bodily away, and at 

 the date of our visit lay high and dry a couple of versts 

 lower down, with a large hole in her side, a more hope- 

 less wreck than the Thames. The latter vessel lay near 

 the mouth of a small but deep river, into which in the 

 opinion of Boiling and some others there was a fair 

 chance she might be floated the following year between 

 the rising of the water and the breaking up of the ice. 



In the evening we sailed through a very narrow 

 channel into the little creek where the fishing station was 

 established. In various places round the creek stood the 

 chooms of the Yuraks. Opposite each choom three or 

 four boats lay on the muddy beach, the fishing nets 

 hanging on rails and stages to dry. At the entrance to 

 a narrow channel like a river but which was really an 

 arm of the great river coming to an abrupt termination 

 about a verst inland, were the headquarters of SotnikofFs 



