138 National Geographic Magazine. 
back where but little in the way of subsistence was obtainable | 
from land or water. The Cross of Yudoma might only be reached 
with great difficulty, but if successful the expense would be less 
than if the material had been carried on the backs of horses. I 
myself with a few people crossed from Yakutsk to Okhotsk with 
pack horses, as is the general custom. The load or pack taken is 
only about five puds to one horse, less than by the telega | ordi- 
nary,cart|, the deep mire and high mountains to be traversed not 
permitting more, though my supplies amounted to 1600 puds. 
At the post called Okhotsk is a Russian village of only ten houses, 
and Lieut. Chirikoff was left to winter at Yakutsk with orders to 
come overland to the Okhotsk post in the spring. 
In the last days of December, 1726, a message asking for assist- 
ance was received from Lieut. Spanberg, who had been dispatched 
_ by the river, saying that the boats had failed to get within 450 _ 
versts of Yudoma Cross and were frozen in on the Gorbeh River, 
where he was transporting by sledges a cargo of outfit indispen- 
sable to our party. I sent at once, from among those who were 
wintering with me at the post of Okhotsk, a party with dogs and 
supplies and brought in the Lieutenant to the post on the first 
day of January, 1727, but without any of the outfit, he having 
left the Gorbeh river November 4th, 1726. His command had 
been obliged by hunger to eat the flesh of their horses and even 
the rawhide harness, the skin of their fur clothing and the 
untanned uppers of their shoes. Their cargo was all left at four 
different places along the route, which lay through uninhabited 
country. The only addition to their means which they had been 
able to secure, was some of our own flour, to the amount of 150 
puds, which on my overland journey I had been obliged to leave 
near Yudoma Cross on account of the death of some of my pack- 
horses. 
Along the rivers Aldan and Maia live Yakuts of the same stock 
as those of the Lena and Yudoma rivers. But near and around 
the post of Okhotsk wander the seaside Tunguses and some 
Lamuts with their herds and many reindeer, who travel about 
winter and summer where their deer can find pasturage ; and 
some pedestrian Tunguses who live near the sea and rivers and 
are professional fishermen as among the Yakuts. 
February 1, ninety men with some dogs and sledges were col- 
lected and sent under Lieut. Spanberg to bring in the outfit left 
behind by the Yudoma river, and by the Ist of April about half 
