44 
saryts chew's travels. 
or bailiwick of Aldan. The buildings of this slobode consist of 
a church, and 20 farm-houses, belonging to Russian settlers As 
winter grain does not thrive here, the peasants only sow summer 
corn, which answers very well. A tschetwerick, or 360 pounds 
of barley, formerly cost only eight kopecks \ but the neglected 
state of agriculture at present, has more than trebled this price. 
The peasants, allured by the easy lives of the Jakuts, attend to 
the breeding of cattle, in preference to the culture of corn; and 
attach themselves daily more and more to their barbarous neigh-? 
bours, whose manners and even language they have adopted. 
Four versts from this slobode, is a village of ld jurts, inhabited 
by Russian peasants, who have laid aside their native language 
Entirely. Five versts from the slobode, we crossed the Amga, 
flowing from the mountains on the right side, which it had 
washed away, and converted into huge precipices. On the left, 
were spacious fields, interspersed with little woods, or almost 
imperceptible ascents. 
From the Amga, the road led by a little brook upwards, be? 
iwixt the mountains, on the plains of which wp proceeded 15 
versts to the river Notora, which, winding through a succession 
of fields, groves, marshes, and lakes, is finally lost in the AU 
dan. Descending by this river, to the distance of 28 versts, w^e 
turned off to the right, and proceeded by an insignificant chain 
of mountains, up to the source of the river Mukua, which falls 
through a number of lakes and marshes into the Aldan. Wp 
pursued the course of this river downwards, which rap betwixt 
mountains that gradually diminished as they approached the Al¬ 
dan, until they terminated in simple rising ground, The moun¬ 
tains were all covered with larches. 
On the 28th I reached the haven of Elssmaia, where magazines 
and twp barracks had been erected in the former expedition of 
commodore Behring, They stand on the left bank of the Aldan, 
opposite to the mouth of the river Maia, that flows into the 
former on the other side. 
The distance from Jakutsk to here, is reckoned to be 36Q 
versts. The northern latitude of this place, according to my 
observation, is 60° 17'? and the declination pf the compass, 2° 
westward. Agreeably to my instructions, j begun immediately 
to collect wood for pur canoes, and found a sufficient quantity 
of good materials on the banks of the Aldan. I preferred* 
however, the firs to the larches, on every ground. 
The water commenced to rise on the 1st of May, and w^as 
11 feet on the 9th, when the ice on the river Maia broke, and 
Occasioned also a fracture in that of the Aldan, towards the 
lower part. 
The swell increasing qn the 13th tp twelve feet, tfie wfioje 
