Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter IV.
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Meanwhile, the severity of the winter increased, the
mercury congealed, and the snow was soon six feet
deep. This forced them to leave their sleds, and for
eight full weeks after November 4, these travelers
sought shelter every night in the snows of Siberia,
wrapped in all the furs they could possibly get hold of.
Their provisions were soon exhausted, famine soon
became a companion to cold, and matters even came
to such a pass that they were compelled to try to
maintain life by gnawing “straps, leathern bags, and
shoes.” They would surely have starved to death, had
they not accidentally happened to strike Bering’s route,
where they found dead horses and a few hundred-weights
of flour. December 21, Bering received from
Spangberg a message, relating that he had started for
Yudomskaya Krest with ninety-six sledges, and that he had
left the boats in charge of a mate and six guards.
Bering immediately dispatched ten sledges with
provisions for his relief, and on the succeeding day,
thirty-seven sledges with thirty-nine men. January 6, 1727,
Spangberg reached Okhotsk, and a few days later his
whole command had arrived, eighteen of whom were
now sick. Twice during the course of the winter,
Spangberg and Chaplin were obliged to repeat this journey
to rescue the materials at the Yudoma. Not until
midsummer, 1727, did the rear under the command of
Chirikoff arrive from Yakutsk.
And yet Bering was far from the place where his
work of discovery could begin. On June 8, the new
ship Fortuna was launched and equipped for the
prospective voyage. Moreover, the ship that had been
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