BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION. 25 



Meanwhile, the severity of the winter increased, the 

 mercury congealed, and the snow was soon six feet 

 deep. This forced them to leave their sleds, and for 

 eight full weeks after November 4, these travelers 

 sought shelter every night in the snows of Siberia, 

 wrapped in all the furs they could possibly get hold of. 

 Their provisions were soon exhausted, famine soon 

 became a companion to cold, and matters even came 

 to such a pass that they were compelled to try to 

 maintain life by gnawing '^^ straps, leathern bags, and 

 shoes." They would surely have starved to death, had 

 they not accidentally happened to strike Bering's route, 

 where they found dead horses and a tew hundred-weights 

 of flour. December 21, Bering received from Spang- 

 berg a message, relating that he had started for Yud- 

 omskaya Krest with ninety-six sledges, and that he had 

 left the boats in charge of a mate and six guards. 

 Bering immediately dispatched ten sledges with pro- 

 visions for his relief, and on the succeeding day, thirty- 

 seven sledges with thirty-nine men. January 6, 1727, 

 Spangberg reached Okhotsk, and a few days later his 

 whole command had arrived, eighteen of whom were 

 now sick. Twice during the course of the winter, Spang- 

 berg and Chaplin were obliged to repeat this journey 

 to rescue the materials at the Yudoma. Not until 

 midsummer, 1727, did the rear under the command of 

 Chirikoft* arrive from Yakutsk. 



And yet Bering was far from the place where his 

 work of discovery could begin. On June 8, the new 

 ship Fortuna was launched and equipped for the 

 prospective voyage. Moreover, the ship that had been 



