very devotional, and falling: on his' knees before us,
is. h-i ead several times, Hindoo style, till it touched
round, all the time muttering how faithful he intended sbe to us,.etc. 7 o'clock A.M., +24°Fahrenheit. ' Thfe next morning the thermometer indicated +220 Fahren:e it. We succeeded in making an earlier start than usual, aid had just enough swampy travel to make us wet and unco mfortable. After fording two small'streams we began the
ascent of a wooded ridge that separates the tributaries of Orell Lake and the Amoor from those streams emptying into Usalghin Bay, a place well known to whalers. This ridge was an old camping spot of Mikhaeloffs, and we passed a number of Tungusian tent-frames still standing; these were built the same as our own. This divide is considered very good "sable" ground. From the summit we had our first view of Usalghin Bay, distant about ten miles in a northwest direction. On the farther side a high mountain range reared its snowy peaks far into the heavens, backed by heavy black masses of threatening snow-cloud. From the foot of the . dge to the sea-shore extended an unbroken moss barren, or tundra, through which wound the Sololoucan River of the
'Tnngusians. We had to traverse this barren, facing a cold
northerly wind. Upon nearing the bay our course was changed to a more westerly one, leading across the Sololoucan and two other streams that empty into it. After travelin forty versts, the longest day's journey we had yet made Wt deer, just at dark, wet, cold, and worn out-both men d deer-we came to a forlorn little stream mournfully
iding its way through the barren waste, and camped, havg; |nothing but our light canvas tent to shelter us from the
ld wind that swept down upon us in squalls from the bay,
ring large flakes of snow before them. We had met
Im   an irreparable loss the previous night. Yakov stepped
our small Fahrenheit thermometer and broke it; but,
to the foresight of our friend Captain Belsoif at Nikwhad the large Reaumur left, which, though not
l  _ Bent, answered our purpose.
11 o'clock A.M. the next morning, after numerous turnmthe hardest kind of travel over the swampy barren,
ed at the banks of the Usalghin River at a point