VON WRANGELL. 71 



1820 to 1823 ; the latter taking the mouth of the 

 Kolyma for his starting-point, the former the river 

 lana. These undertakings were especially promoted 

 by the Emperor Alexander, and were conducted with 

 all the care and skill warranted by an advanced state 

 of science and philosophy. They failed but in one par- 

 ticular the discovery of the northern continent. How 

 diligently and perseveringly this was searched for, 

 is best proved by the narrative of perils endured, even 

 to the risk of life, in the arduous enterprise. Three 

 times was the frozen surface of the sea traversed with- 

 out leading to any definite result ; on the fourth jour- 

 ney, in March, 1823, Von Wrangell reached the latitude 

 of 70 51', longitude 175 27' west --one hundred and 

 five wersts in a direct line from the mainland. Sound- 

 ings gave a depth of twenty-two and a half fathoms ; the 

 ice here was thin and weak. More than once the party 

 had only been saved from breaking through by the speed 

 at which the dogs travelled over it. In the distance a 

 screen of dense blue vapor a certain indication of open 

 water was visible, on which the admiral remarks : 



" Notwithstanding this sure token of the impossibil- 

 ity of proceeding much further, we continued to go due 

 north for about nine wersts, when we arrived at the 

 edge of an immense break in the ice, extending east and 

 west further than the eye could reach, and which at the 

 narrowest part was more than a hundred and fifty fath- 

 oms across. * * * * We climbed one of the loftiest ice- 

 hills, where we obtained an extensive view towards the 

 north, and whence we beheld the wide, immeasurable 

 ocean spread before our gaze. It was a fearful and 

 magnificent, but to us a melancholy spectacle. Frag- 

 ments of ice of enormous size floated on the surface of 

 the agitated ocean, and were thrown by the waves with 

 awful violence against the edge of the ice-field on the 



