SINGtJLAB FLOATING ISLAND. 
45 
the Aldan was released from its confinement. The ice drifted 
with extraordinary impetuosity, and in immense quantities, for 
three days ; and in this universal agitation of ice and water, we 
perceived a floating island, about 70 fathoms in circumference, 
bearing with it a quantity of little birch shrubs, larch under¬ 
wood, and cut wood; a considerable number of little birds, 
hopping from tree to tree, increased the singularity of the scene. 
As this island passed very near our shore, we could distinguish 
very clearly that it consisted of turf, and probably of a fen torn 
away by the water, which, in its present congealed state, had no 
effect in dissolving it. 
The rise of the water continued till the 17 th, aqd concealed 
every thing for an immense distance from the eye, that was not 
above 38 feet in height. For seventy versts up the Aldan, by 
the way to Udskoi, the inundation was dreadful in the ex¬ 
treme, as we learned from a man who had been to Udskoi, for 
Captain Fomin. He assured us, that some places, (JO feet high. 
Were buried under water. 
The Jakuts, and all in that road, were material sufferers by 
this deluge; more than three hundred pack-horses, with a num¬ 
ber of other things, being lost in the water. Captain Fomin, 
of the navy, who was just come from Petersburg with a special 
commission, experienced the loss of all his provisions. 
Pn the fall of the water, we caught pike and sturgeon of dif¬ 
ferent kinds with nets; perch and plotwen (Cyprinus idus) with 
fhe rod. The latter is a very scaly fish, weighing a pound at 
the utmost. Its head and fins are very large; its cirri close by 
its eyes, which have a broad rim round them; its whole body is 
Covered with thick scales; its back round and dark green, but 
the sides and belly silver-coloured. Its pectoral, dorsal, and 
anal fins are dark; its lateral ones purple. It has an extraordi¬ 
nary quantity of spine, is fo\md in pure sweet w aters, and is very 
prolific and cheap. 
On the 28th of May, the canoes being finished, Mr. Fomin 
proceeded up the Maia with two of them. A week after. 
Captain Behring came with his people to me, and taking the rest 
of the canoes, went up the river, in order to convey to Ju- 
domskoi-Krest the baggage wdiich had been left the preceding 
year on the bank of the Judoma. Having consigned the crew, 
hitherto under my orders, to Mr. Behring, I returned to Ja- 
kutsk, in order to observe the state of the roads. I found them 
totally ruined by the rain and floods; and all the bridges 
which had been erected over the smaller rivers carried away. 
I arrived on the 12th of June at Jakutsk, three days later 
than our commander. I informed him of the state of the roads, 
$nd pointed out to hi*p the repairs which I conceived necessary. 
