198 VITUS BERIKG. 



sary, to be stationed along the route. The authorities 

 at Yakutsk did not comply until the present year, 

 1737, and then only after repeated demands on my 

 part. But if I had neglected to attend to these mat- 

 ters, and had hastened the departure to Okhotsk, the 

 voivode — in my absence — would have done nothing, 

 and it remains to be seen how the transportation to 

 Yudomskaya Krest will be attended to. * * * As 

 the difficulties with which we have had to contend are 

 very obvious, and although as a consequence the imme- 

 diaite starting out of the expedition is improbable, I 

 can, nevertheless, conscientiously say that I do not 

 see how I could have in a greater degree hastened the 

 work of the expedition, or how I could have intensi- 

 fied the zeal with which I have worked from the very 

 beginning. Through this report I therefore most hum- 

 bly seek at the hands of the Admiralty a considerate 

 judgment, and hope that it will show that matters 

 have not been delayed through my carelessness. 



It is on account of these obstacles, together with 

 the fact that there was much work to be done in 

 Okhotsk, that I have been unable to prepare, in a 

 short time, the ships necessary for the voyage. My 

 command has had to work at Spangberg's ships, which 

 are now ready. But also in Okhotsk, on the ''Oaf 

 (Koschka), where these vessels and packet-boats are 

 being built, everything was bare and desolate. There 

 was not a building there, — nowhere to stay. Trees 

 and grass do not grow there, and are not found in 

 the vicinity on account of the gravel. In spite of 

 the fact that the region is so barren, it is nevertheless 



