234 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



the fair of Ostrownoje, for Ochotsk, or Kjachta. Jakutsk merchants were the 

 first who ventured in crazy ships across the Sea of Kamchatka, and discovered 

 the island of Kadjiak, eighty degrees of longitude from their home. 



On September 1 2 Wrangell left Jakutsk, where regular travelling ends, as 

 from thence to Kolymsk, and generally throughout Northern Siberia, there are 

 no beaten roads. The utmost that can be looked for are foot or horse tracks 

 leading through morasses or tangled forests, and over rocks and mountains. 

 Travellers proceed on horseback through the hilly country, and, on reaching 

 the plains, use sledges drawn either by reindeer or dogs. 



In this manner Wrangell crossed from the basin of the Lena to that of the 

 Yana, never experiencing a higher temperature than +2°, and frequently en- 

 during a cold of more than —12°, during the journey over the intervening 

 hills, and then turning eastward, traversed the Badarany, a completely unin- 

 habited desert, chiefly consisting of swamps. These Badarany never entirely 

 dry up, even after the longest summer-drought. At that time a solid crust is 

 formed, through which the horses frequently break, but they are preserved 

 from totally sinking in the mire by the perpetually frozen underground. Noth- 

 ing can be more dismal and dreary than the Badarany. As far as the eye 

 reaches, nothing is to be seen but a covering of dingy moss, relieved here and 

 there on some more elevated spots by wretched specimens of dwarf-larches. 

 The winter is the only season for traversing this treacherous waste, but woe to 

 the traveller should he be overtaken by a snow-storm, as for miles an 1 miles 

 there is no shelter to be found but that of some ruinous powarni, or post-station. 



At length, fifty-t\vo days after leaving Jakutsk, Wrangell arrived on No- 

 vember 2 at Nishne-Kolymsk, the appointed head-quarters of the expedition, 

 w^here he was welcomed with a cold of —40°, or '72° below the freezing-point 

 of water. 



Even in Siberia the climate of this jjlace is ill-reputed for its severity, which 

 is as much due to its unfavorable position as to its high latitude (68° N.). 

 The town stands on a low swampy island of the Kolyma, having on the west 

 the barren tundra, and on the north the Arctic Ocean, so that the almost con- 

 stant north-\vest winds have full scope for their violence, and cause frequent 

 snow-storms even in summer. 



The mean temperature of the whole year is only +14°. The river at Nishne- 

 Kolymsk freezes early in September, but lower down, where the current is less 

 rapid, loaded horses can sometimes cross on the ice as early as August 20, nor 

 does the ice ever melt before June. 



Although the sun remains fifty-two days above the horizon, the light, ob- 

 scured by almost perpetual mists, is accompanied with little heat, and the solar 

 disc, compressed by refraction into an elliptical form, may be looked at with 

 the naked eye without inconvenience. In spite of the constant light, the com- 

 mon order of the parts of the day is plainly discernible. When the sun sinks 

 down to the horizon, all nature is mute ; but when, after a few hours, it rises 

 in the skies, every thing awakens, the few little birds break out in feeble twit- 

 ter, and the shrivelled flowers venture to open their petals. 



Although winter and summer are in reality the only seasons, yet the inhab- 



