Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter IV.
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overland expeditions, consisting of 800 horses, were sent in
various directions. Bering himself started out on
August 16, with 200 horses, and after a journey of
forty-five days, reached Okhotsk. The journey was a
very difficult one. The horses sought in vain for food
under the deep snow. Scores of them were overcome
by hunger and exhaustion. The severe cold caused the
forces much suffering and hardship, nor did they find
but few comforts when they reached Okhotsk in the
latter part of October. The town consisted of only
eleven huts, with ten Russian families, who supported
themselves by fishing. Here, too, many of the horses
died for lack of food, and a herd of heifers sent there
by Shestakoff was lost from the same cause. Only
one survived the winter. It was now necessary to build
huts for the winter. The whole of November was spent
in felling trees, and not until December 2, could
Bering take shelter under a roof of his own. On the
other hand, the ship for the expedition was on the
stocks, and in spite of all troubles and privations,
Bering found time to push forward vigorously its
construction.
Spangberg, however, fared worst of all. Winter took
him by surprise two hundred and seventy-five miles
from Yudomskaya Krest, the nearest inhabited place,
in an entirely barren and swampy region where he could
not obtain the slightest assistance. His boats and the
bulk of their provisions had to be left at the confluence
of the Yorbovaya and the Yudoma, while he and his
men, with what provisions they could take with them
on the hand-sleds, started out for Okhotsk on foot.
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