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25

A good house with an adjoining store for materials and supplies will be built at every point as well as a sufficient number of boats and canoes.  Later, several of these houses will be converted into telegraph stations.  Several horses and a small head of reindeer, guarded by Tunguzis engaged in our service, will be put at the disposition of every working party, with orders to keep always in the neighborhood of the depots.  A detailed description of the country between every one of the ten points selected is made, and will be delivered by me to the officers who will take command of the working parties, with particular directions in regard to construction of the line.

People here generally estimate the distance from Shijiga to Okhotsk from eighteen to nineteen hundred versts.  I believe that the length of the telegraph line will not exceed 1800 versts.  In one place, near Viliga river, I was forced considerably into the interior to avoid mountains of great elevation.  This point gave me an enormous trouble, as I found myself obliged to try four or five different and very dangerous paths by heavy snow-storms frequent at this place until I at last discovered the route we will follow.  Let me give you now a short resume of the work done at present except the exploration of the country.

Kennan's mission to Anadyrsk has been already