20 BERING'S FIRST EXPEDITION 



water, about 15 red and white fox skins, four walrus tusks — all of which 

 they disposed of to the crew for needles and such like articles. They 

 told us that their relatives go to the Kolyma on deer and not by boat, 

 that farther along the coast live some of their people, that they had 

 known the Russians for a long time, and that one of their number 

 had been at Anadyrsk Post to trade. The rest of their conversation did 

 not differ greatly from what was said by those who had been to see us 

 before. On September 2 we sailed into the mouth of the Kamchatka 

 River and passed the winter in the Lower Kamchatka Post. 



Having repaired the ship, which had been laid up, we left the mouth 

 of the Kamchatka River on June 5, 1729, and set an easterly course, 

 because the inhabitants of Kamchatka said that in clear weather land 

 could be seen across the sea. We made a careful search for it over a 

 distance of 200 versts but could not find it. We circumnavigated and 

 charted the southern part of Kamchatka, which up to this time had 

 not been surveyed, and then sailed to the mouth of the Bolshaya River 

 and from there to Okhostk Post. At the request of the authorities at 

 Yakutsk I left with the government officials in charge of the posts of 

 Lower Kamchatka and Bolsheretsk 800 poods of flour, dried meat, 

 salt, and groats. 



It was July 23 when we reached the mouth of the Okhota River, 

 where I handed over the ship and all that went with it to the officer 

 in command. We hired horses and went to Yudoma Cross, and from there 

 we proceeded by boats and rafts down the Aldan to the portage (belskoi 

 perepravy) and lower, where we again took horses and rode on to Yakutsk. 

 From Okhotsk to Yakutsk it took us from July 29 to August 29 and to 

 September 3.^^ On September 10 we went in two boats up the Lena and 

 proceeded until October i, when we were blocked by ice and therefore 

 spent a part of the autumn in the village of Peleduye.^^ By October 29 

 there was sufficient snow on the ground, and the banks of the Lena were 

 firm enough on account of the ice to permit us to go on. We followed 

 the [Upper] Tunguska and the Yenisei to Ilimsk and Yeniseisk, passing 

 Russian settlements on the \^ ay. From Yeniseisk to Tomsk we continued 

 along the river Chulym,^** meeting with more Russian settlements and 

 villages of newly converted Tatars. Between Tomsk and Chauska Post*' 

 we passed through other Russian settlements. From Chauska to Tara 

 we crossed the Barabinsk Steppe, from Tara to Tobolsk we followed the 

 river Irtish and met with Tatar villages. At Tobolsk we arrived January 

 10, 1730, and left there on the 25th of the same month for St. Petersburg, 

 going over the same country as on the outward journey to Tobolsk. On 

 March i we reached St. Petersburg. 



38 Not clear. Possibly August 29 represents the break in the journey at the portage. 



39 Peleduye is at the mouth of the river of the same name, a branch of the Lena. 



40 A tributary of the Ob (see Fig. 3), lined with villages of Chulym Tatars. 

 *• On the Chaus River, founded in 1713- It is 223 versts from Tomsk. 



