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to locate the telegraph route over six thousand versts of the worst country in the world, we had consequently no time to lose. Shijiga being the only place, where means for transportation to  Anadyrsk could be found  I sent there Kennan and Dodd with orders to be ready (after a few days rest which became indispensable after our wild life of the last three months) to start to the Anadyr and ascertain about McCrae's party.

I undertook myself the exploration of the country between Shijiga, Okhotsk and Ajaro, where  I expected to meet Mahood and Bush, but before reaching Shijiga I wanted to examine one half of the country between this place and Anadyrsk.

River Aklan divides in two the distance between the mentioned places and I wanted to get to a point on the river about eighty versts north of Kamennoi. Half by persuasion and half by force I succeeded to obtain a couple of sleighs and was thus enabled to explore the three larger rivers flowing into Penjinsk Gulf, to find on their banks timber of good quality, and to decide in what direction we can build the telegraph line on a distance of 400 versts.

In Shijiga I found Kennan and Dodd preparing for their travel to the northward, and the Ispravnik, an old acquaintance of my family, seeming rejoiced of my arrival and ready to