CHAPTER V 

 CAPE CHELYUSKIN 



Chelyuskin reaches the cape The Laptefs Deschnefs voyage through 

 Bering Strait Nordenskiold's voyages to the Yenesei The Siberian 

 tundra The voyage of the Vega Nordenskiold rounds C'ape Chelyuskin 

 Endeavour to reach the Siberian Islands Liakhoff's discovery The 

 Vega passes the Cape North of Captain Cook Frozen in within six miles 

 of Cape Serdze Kamen Completes the North-east Passage Nansen's 

 voyage The Fram Her drift in the ice Nansen and Johansen start 

 for the Pole They reach 86 13' G" Their journey to Frederick Jackson 

 Island The meeting with Jackson Sverdrup's voyage to Spitsbergen. 



I ^HE tundras and shores of Siberia abound with 

 -L obstacles to exploration, and yet a third of the 

 threshold of the Polar regions has been surveyed along 

 their line. No spot remains unvisited on the northern 

 margin of the Asiatic mainland, the northernmost 

 point of which is Cape Chelyuskin in 77 36 '8', so that 

 the Arctic Circle sweeps inland for 770 miles to the 

 south of it in other words the cape is practically half- 

 way between the Circle and the Pole. 



It was chiefly from the land that the northern coast- 

 line was surveyed by the Russians, whose Arctic work 

 has been immense and thorough, though not marked by 

 any striking discoveries. Cape Chelyuskin was first 

 reached, in May, 1742, by the explorer whose name it 

 bears, after a sledge journey from the Chatanga, he 

 being at the time second in command to Khariton 

 Laptef, whose first expedition in 1739 ended in the loss 



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