450 
WHAT WE KNEW OF THE OKOTSK. 
marshes ; that they wore so tame while thus away from 
the “haunts of man” that a good stick M’ould do more 
service among them than a double-barrelled shot-gun; 
and that upon the eastern coast of Siberia (its western 
boundary) there existed a large and flourishing city, 
whose streets were lit by gas, whose stately mansions 
were filled by hospitable Kussians, and whose name was 
Ayan. A report was also spread that a Russian count 
there awaited the arrival of the “Ringgold Expedition,” 
loaded with charts and instructions from the emperor at 
St. Petersburg, the former being an imperial present of 
all previous surveys of Russian officers in those waters, 
(designed to assist us in our work,) wdiile the latter made 
it the especial duty of the said Russian nobleman to leave 
no stone unturned to render the stay of the Americans 
as fleasani as possible. I need scarcely say that much of 
all this subsocpiently proved to be disagreeably tinctured 
with romance; but there was also in it a very fair amount 
of truth. We certainly got the charts, and, if not treated 
well by a nobleman, were at least nobly treated by two 
men, in the persons of the accomplished governor and 
his Falstaff-like second in command, — “old Frybark,” as 
Hartman soon came to pronounce his name. But more 
of him anon. 
It was toward the close of the evening of the 31st of 
August, 1855, that we stood boldly in for the port of 
Ayan, under all sail and steam; for, though coal was 
scarce, we could well afford to burn it now, as we were 
running for a city “whose streets were lit with gas” and 
where coal at any rate must be abundant. Besides, we 
had a four or five knot ebb-tide setting out against us, 
