32 Chapter I. 



may venture to conclude from the experience of the 

 fcannctte Expedition, that we should thus be able to reach 

 a point north of the most northerly of the New Siberian 

 Islands. De Long notes in his journal that while the 

 expedition was drifting- in the ice north of Bennet Island 

 they saw all around them a dark ' water sky ' -that is to 

 say, a sky which gives a dark reflection of open water- 

 indicating such a sea as would be, at all events, to some 

 extent navigable by a strong ice-ship. Next, it must be 

 borne in mind that the whole Jcanucttc Expedition 

 travelled in boats, partly in open water, from Bennett 

 Island to the Siberian coast, where, as we know, the 

 majority ol them met with a lamentable end. 

 Nordenskiold advanced no farther northwards than 

 to the southernmost of the islands mentioned (at the 

 end of August) but here he found the water every- 

 where open. 



"It is, therefore, probable that we may be able to 

 push our way up past the New Siberian Islands, and 

 that accomplished we shall be right in the current which 

 carried the Jcannette. The thing will then be simply to 

 force our way northwards till we are set fast.^ 



" Next we must choose a fitting place and moor the 

 ship firmly between suitable ice-floes, and then let the 



' As subsequently stated in my lecture in London (Geographical 

 Society s Journal, p. 18), I purposed to go north along the west coast of 

 the New Siberian Islands, as I thought that the warm water coming from 

 the Lena would keep the sea open here. 



