SUBTERRANEOUS DWELLINGS'. 
35 
not proceeded 30 versts before an indescribably thick mist im¬ 
peded our advance, and the ice perpetually accumulating, so as 
to heighten our danger every moment, we came to the unani¬ 
mous resolution of returning to the Kolyma, and directed our 
course round the rock of Baranow. This rock is formed by many 
contiguous mountains projecting with a cape into the sea, which 
describes a semicircle. On its summit there are many stone 
pillars, some resembling the rubbish of a ruined fortress, others 
bearing the appearance of remains of buildings falling to decay, 
and of the images of men. While lying at anchor, we could 
distinguish on one of the lower mountains a pillar of this de¬ 
scription, which seemed to represent two women in conversa¬ 
tion, and holding a child between them. These pillars are in 
fact nothing but solid stone, from which the external incrustation 
of whirl has fallen off. Besides a number of sturgeon and sea- 
calves, we saw a whale here, an incontrovertible proof, that 
the Frozen Ocean has some connection with another sea to the 
north or the east. 
In the afternoon of the 22d we waited at anchor for the 
Pallas, in a little nook of the shore on the north side of the rock, 
where two projecting cliffs sheltered us against the winds and 
floating masses of ice. 
The shore in the middle of this nook, which is steep and sandy, 
is enclosed on both sides by lofty mountains, from which issue- 
many springs of pure water. Although this little vale afforded 
nothing more remarkable than a weed, with some unusually 
beautiful blossoms, yet the prospect of vegetable nature, even 
in her humblest attire, was truly gratifying to us, after having 
witnessed nothing but dreary objects for such a length of time. 
At the brink of one spring, I discovered, at no great distance 
from each other, two subterraneous jurts in a ruinous state. On 
turning over the earth, they appeared to be round, and about three 
yards in circumference. In the interior we found the bones of 
reindeer and sea-calves, as also several earthen potsherds, and 
two stone knives with three edges, one of which was, crooked 
and sharp, the other two straight and blunt. One of these 
knives I gave to the captain, and the other to the doctor. The 
Kosaks of Kolymsk informed us, that the former inhabitants 
of this place, who must have been unquestionably Tschukschians, 
called themselves Schalags, and on the settlement of the Rus¬ 
sians here, moved farther to the west, and took up their resi¬ 
dence near the northern cape, from that time denominated Scha- 
lagian. 
Of the wood, which is driven in great quantities to this shore, 
we raised a cross, and specified on it the day and year of its 
erection. During the time of our lying at anchor here, the ice 
