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me to the place, if I would only pay him a certain sum
of money down. His story, it is perhaps unnecessary to
say, varied every time. From reliable persons who had
lived for some time near the mouth of the Yana, I learnt
that the depôts which had been left on the New Siberian
Islands by Baron von Toll for Nansen, and which Andrée
also had received permission to use in case of need, were not
in a satisfactory condition. Trappers had visited the islands
and had reported that bears had broken open the cases and
consumed the contents. There were also other reports, but
all agreed in one point—namely, that little or no provisions
of any sort were likely to be obtainable at these depôts.
The city of Yakutsk is situated on the western bank of
the Lena. It is built on a flat, alluvial, ever-frozen soil,
forming a foundation as strong as any rock, which in
summer-time melts only to a depth of three or four feet.
Only a few houses of brick, however, are built on this
eternal ice. The “Mother of Yakutsk”—the
weather-beaten wooden fortress erected by the Kossacks in the year
1636—still remains. The town, which in 1897, according
to official reports, numbered 5825 inhabitants, consists—
besides the churches, the prison and a number of other
official buildings—mainly of small dilapidated houses, yurtas
and (in the outskirts of the town) earth-huts. In the broad
streets the melted soil shakes beneath one’s feet, here and
there the thin dry crust which covers it breaks through
under the pressure of the cart-wheels, and the horses sink
knee-deep into the half-frozen sludge. There are no
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