The accounts several fliers gave concerning the widespread cratering and destruction they had seen from the air in the impact area led to the organization of two separate ground-search parties, one at Khabarovsk, the other at Vladivostok. The Khabarovsk group, made up of four members of the Geological Society, flew to the village of Kharkovo, the inhabited point nearest the site of fall. After a rough and dangerous landing on the small, snow-covered airfield at Kharkovo, the geologists began their trek into the taiga on foot. Throughout the entire trip, the men, burdened with supplies and equipment, waded through waist-deep snow and camped in the open despite the arctic cold. At almost the same time, a geologist from Vladivostok set out from the railway line up the Ussuri valley to track down the fallen meteorite. His progress was even more difficult than that of the Khabarovsk party. In addition to following a much longer route, he did not have the invaluable information that the first party had got from the aviators. He had to make his way slowly from village to village, questioning eyewitnesses as he went and gradually determining the probable end-point of the meteorite fall. [Illustration: COURTESY OF E. L. KRINOV Splintered and broken trees at the site of the Ussuri fall.] The route followed by the Vladivostok geologist lay through the heart of the trackless snow-covered taiga. Fortunately, he had with him two hunters who were well acquainted with the rigors of travel through the taiga and knew how to live off the land. They slept in hunters’ huts or under overhanging trees, drank melted snow water, and ate fried quail. But they had not gone far when they found that their footwear was completely useless for a trek through the wet, snowy taiga, because their felt hiking boots quickly soaked up water and became very heavy. So they swathed their feet in warm dry grass over which they tied large pieces of untanned leather. After that, the walking was much easier. They were able to cover the ground so rapidly that they reached Kharkovo only a day after the Khabarovsk geologists had landed there at the small airfield. At Kharkovo, the three feasted on pork, milk, and honey. Then loading a few provisions on a borrowed horse, they started out to overtake the Khabarovsk party. They made such good time that the two groups were able to join forces and to enter the impact area as one expedition, on February 24, 1947. A scene of great desolation awaited them in the central region of the meteorite fall. Masses of crushed stone had been hurled hundreds of feet by the violent impact. Denuded, uprooted trees lay about—some cut in two as neatly as if by a saw. Large cedars had been splintered where they stood or had been torn up by the roots and thrown some scores of yards.