the barest sufficiency of provisions and
some Ringnes's ale. While this was being done, last lines were added
in feverish eagerness to the letters home. Then came a last hand-clasp;
Christofersen and Trontheim got into the boat, and had soon disappeared
in the fog. With them went our last post; our last link with home
was broken. We were alone in the mist on the sea. It was not likely
that any message from us would reach the world before we ourselves
brought the news of our success or defeat. How much anxiety were
those at home to suffer between now and then! It is true we might
possibly be able to send letters home from the mouth of the Olenek,
where, according to the agreement with Baron Toll, we were to call in
for another supply of dogs; but I did not consider this probable. It
was far on in the summer, and I had an instinctive feeling that the
state of the ice was not so favorable as I could have wished it to be.

TRONTHEIM'S NARRATIVE

Alexander Ivanovitch Trontheim has himself given an account, in the
Tobolsk official newspaper, of his long and difficult journey with
our dogs. The account was written by A. Kryloff from Trontheim's
story. The following is a short resume:

After having made the contract with Baron Toll, Trontheim was on
January 28th (January 16th by Russian reckoning) already at Berezoff,
where there was then a Yassak-meeting, [22] and consequently a
great assembly of Ostiaks and Samoyedes. Trontheim made use of this
opportunity and bought 33 (this ought probably to be 40) choice sledge
dogs. These he conveyed to the little country town of Muzhi, where
he made preparations for the "very long journey," passing the time in
this way till April 16th. By this date he had prepared 300 pud (about
9600 lbs.) of dog provender, consisting chiefly of dried fish. For
300 roubles he engaged a Syriane, named Terentieff, with a reindeer
herd of 450, to convey him, his dogs, and baggage to Yugor Strait. For
three months these two with their caravan--reindeer, drivers, dogs,
women, and children--travelled through the barren tracts of northern
Siberia. At first their route lay through the Ural Mountains. "It was
more a sort of nomadic life than a journey. They did not go straight on
towards their destination, but wandered over wide tracts of country,
stopping wherever it was suitable for the reindeer, and where they
found lichen. From the little town of Muzhi the expedition passed
up the Voikara River to its