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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



The Kolyma is the most easterly of the great rivers of northern Siberia, 

 and is here about three versts (two miles) [a verst is 0.621 mile] wide. It 

 heads in the Stanovoi Mountains and approaches the Alaskan Yukon in length, 

 drainage, and volume. 



The town site is situated near the lower end of a narrow, low island sur- 

 rounded by two arms of the Kolyma River and about 100 versts long. Near 

 the upper end of this island the Omolon empties into the Kolyma from the 

 right. Opposite Nizhni Kolymsk and but a few versts apart, the two Anyui 

 rivers — Big and Little — flow into the Kolyma, likewise from the right. 



These three rivers are the most important tributaries and head also in the 

 Stanovoi Mountains. But while the mountain passes beyond the sources of the 

 Kolyma and Omolon lead to tributaries of the Sea of Okhotsk, the headwaters 

 of the two Anyui connect with those of the Anadyr. 





Fig. 43. — Little Anyui River. First elevated silt bank, showing detail ; going 

 up-river, September. 1914. 



As there remained only a few weeks of open weather before the beginning 

 of winter, I concluded the nearest field for promising research would be the 

 two Anyui rivers. Accordingly 1 started upon my first exploring trip on 

 September 3 in the schooner's dory, accompanied by three members of the 

 party who intended to do some hunting and photographing. 



We entered the Little Anyui and explored this river for a distance of approxi- 

 mately 150 versts from the mouth upward. For about the first 100 versts the 

 ascent was quite easy and made by rowing. After that tracking had to be 

 resorted to almost exclusively, the current of the river increasing rapidly 

 almost at once. 



For the lower 100 versts the river fiows — after the manner of many sub- 

 Arctic rivers in Alaska and Canada — through a low tundra, covered with 

 dense willow thickets and puny larches, the east forelopers of the great 

 Siberian taiga that stretches from the Urals to the Pacific. The river course 

 forms enormous bends swinging alternately from the right to the left. The 



