196 VITUS BERING. 



been made by the Siberian government officials, not- 

 withstanding the fact that an imperial ukase had 

 ordered these things. We have done all this. We 

 built transports, demanded laborers from Yakutsk, and 

 with great difficulty brought our provisions in these 

 transjDorts to Yudomskaya Krest, — yes, with super- 

 human efforts our command and these laborers — since 

 even upon my demand but very few were sent — also 

 brought the supplies at Yudomskaya Krest (12,000 

 poods of flour and rice) to Okhotsk. Moreover, at the 

 stopping place on the Maya, at the mouth of the 

 Yudoma, at the Cross, and on the Urak, we erected 

 magazines and dwellings for the forces, and also built 

 four winter-huts between Yudomskaya Krest and Urak 

 as places of refuge during the winter. Furthermore, 

 in accordance with our plans, we built, in 1736, at 

 the stopping place on the Urak, fifteen, and during 

 this year, 1737, sixty-five vessels on which to float 

 the provisions down the Urak. Of these, forty-two 

 are still at the place of construction, the remaining 

 thirty-seven having departed with provisions in 1735. 

 All of this has been done under my orders, not by 

 the government officials of Siberia. 



In Yakutsk, where I was at that time staying, we 

 built two vessels, the boat Irkutsk and the sloop 

 Yakutsk, and in 1735 sent them out on the expedi- 

 tions assigned to them. We took pains to provision 

 them well, and furthermore sent four barges to the 

 mouth of the Lena with additional provisions for 

 them. In 1736 the Yakutsk had the misfortune to 

 lose its chief, Lieut. Lassenius, and many of the 



