 Overhunting during the 18th century depleted wildlife; decrease in fur trading spelled the town's end.In 1803, when Zashiversk lost its former economic significance as a marketplace, the uezd was abolished, and all government functions relocated to Verkhoyansk.Arctic explorer Ferdinand von Wrangel, who crossed Siberia in the summer of 1820 and reached Zashiversk in October, noted that although after the 1786 the settlement expanded to around thirty permanent houses (as opposed to earlier yurtas), after the merger of Verkhoyansk and Zashiversk uezds the latter "plunged into its former misery".