this expedition was the finding of tokens of the long lost and almost mythical Loshkin. On the 4th of July the explorers embarked in a small boat, and came to the mouth of a little river, where they found the remains of a fallen cross, on which was clearly deciphered a date, and the commencement of an inscription headed Ssawa Fofanoff. As Loshkin was surnamed Ssawa, they knew that the cross had been erected by him, and the date, which was according to the Greek calendar, fixed the period of his exploration, which had hitherto been a mystery, as the year 1742 of the Christian era.
Pachtussoff having returned with the boat, and the ship being at length freed from the ice, the whole party embarked on the 11th of July, after having occupied a winter hut for two hundred and ninety-seven days. Another touching episode happened at this period. On a desolate island they came upon some human bones, which, although gnawed by wild beasts, were easily recognized as the remains of the skeletons of a woman and two children. These were supposed to be the family of a Samoyed who were known to have passed over ten years before, and who had never since been heard of. As no traces of the bones of the man were found, it was conjectured that he had perished while hunting, and that in consequence his wife and children had died of hunger. Having passed through the straits dividing the two great islands, Pachtussoff was assailed at their western mouth by a furious tempest, which obliged him again to drift for the shores of Siberia, where his ship went ashore on the 31st of September.
